Sixties radical David Horowitz is scheduled to speak at a free lecture next week that will expand students’ knowledge of the ’60s, a history professor says.

Horowitz, former Ramparts magazine writer and editor, now keeps a conservative eye on everything from free speech to welfare from his Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles, Calif. The center’s monthly magazine, Heterodoxy, takes a stab at what Horowitz describes as political correctness and other follies.

His visit is sponsored by the Department of History, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Young American Foundation.

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Jonathan Bean, a professor of History, said that Horowitz will offer a perspective not too many students will be familiar with.

He’ll provide a different perspective of the ’60s, Bean said. He will provide this younger generation with the knowledge that there was a dark side to the ’60s.

Bean said that Horowitz is going to tell an interesting life story about how he was born to communist parents. He was also a supporter of the Black Panther Party until he heard that members of the Black Panther Party allegedly killed his best friend.

In the 1970s, Horowitz and former Ramparts partner Peter Collier began writing about America’s dynasties, such as the Kennedys, the Rockefellers, the Roosevelts and the Fords.

In 1989, Horowitz teamed up with Collier to write Destructive Generation:Second Thoughts about the Sixties.

Horowitz, who last year published his autobiography, Radical Son, is a frequent talk radio guest and has appeared on such television programs as Nightline, Today and Crossfire.

He has published such articles as When civil rights’ means civil wrongs, The Cochran-ization of American Justice.

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Andy Volpert, a graduate student in history and former chairman of the College Republicans, said most SIUC professors have kept the same radical views since they were students in the ’60s.

Our campus is unique in the fact that our campus is full of tenure professors that had radical views in the ’60s, Volpert said. They still believe the same thing.

Volpert said that Horowitz’s talk will be unique in that his views have changed over the years.

He was a ’60s radical who switched his views, Volpert said. You are going to hear about the other side of the ’60s and the truth about the Black Panthers.

Bean said the school is keeping its tradition of bringing ’60s radicals to the campus.

In the past several years we have had former ’60s radicals, Bean said. This not the first time we have had someone like him on this campus.

FACTOID:Horowitz’s lecture begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the University Museum Auditorium.