The Personal Account of an American Revolutionary and Member ofthe Weather Underground

Mattie Greenwood U.S. in the 20th Century World February, 10"'2006 Mr. Brandt

OH GRE 2006 1^u St-Andrew's EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

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} 8804 Postoak Road • Potomac, MD 20854 • Phone 301-983-5200 • Fax 301-983-4710 • www.saes.org Table of Contents

Interviewer/ Interviewee release form

Statement of Purpose pg 1

Biography pg 2

Historical Context pg 4

Interview Transcription pg 16

Interview Analysis Pg 51

Time Index Log , Pg 57

Works Consulted pg 58 Greenwood 1

Statement of Purpose

The purpose this Oral History project is to provide a better understanding ofa titne period in American History. My interview with Laura Whitehorn, former member ofthe Weather Underground, tells the unique experience ofa revolutionary in the sixties and seventies. It also provides information about the Weather Underground from the perspective of one of its members as well as shares the life experiences that shape the views of a revolutionary. Greenwood 2

Biography

Laura Whitehorn was born on March 13"', 1945 in Brooklyn, NY. Her parents were Jewish socialists and were involved in several causes, such as supporting cancer research and being active in the Democratic Party. Whitehorn grew up being very close with her older sister. When Whitehorn was young, her family moved to the New York

City suburb of New Rochelle and attended New Rochelle High School. In 1968,

Whitehorn graduated from Radeliff University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Soon after graduating, Whitehorn married her college boyfriend, Don, and the couple moved to Chicago in August 1968. Throughout the year, Laura attended

colleetive. As a member ofthe Weathermen, Laura spent some time underground and participated in the Chicago Days of Rage on October 6", 1969. When she came above ground in 1971, she helped organize the takeover of a building al Harvard as a protest of the Vietnam War and to demand that Harvard build a women's center. After the Greenwood 3

Weathermen broke apart in the mid-seventies, Whitehorn joined a group called iMay 19''.

As a member of May 19"', Whitehorn went underground and helped with several actions to help the black liberation movement. In 1983, Whitehoni helped plan a bombing on the

United Slate's Capttol in protest of America's invasion of Grenada. In 1985 Laura was arrested and convicted of conspiracy in the Capitol bombing. She was sentenced to twenty years in prison.

While in prison, Laura became interested in AIDS and how to help those with the disease. She now lives in New York City and is the science editor for the magazine Cos.

She continues to be active in AIDS prevention as well as protesting the war in Iraq and working the parole cases of her revolutionary friends, who are still in jail. Greenwood 4 Historical Context The Personal Account of an American Revolutionaiy and Member of The Weather Underground

"There should be more riots and more violence. Young people in the west have

been lied to, sold out, and betrayed. Best thing they can do is take the place apart

before they are destroyed in a nuclear war" says author William S. Burroughs

(Sargeant 6).

This statement reflects the feelings ofa large nuniber of young people in the

Uniled States in the 1960s. In the decade of the 1960s was a time of chaos, change, and talk of revolution. The United States was in turmoil with the controversial war in

Vielnam and black people advocating and sometimes rioting for equal rights. College students led the protest movement againsl the American government they felt was unjust and corrupt. Out ofthe organizations formed for equal rights and peace, some radical students broke apart to form their own more radical groups. These new movements supported violence as a means of overthrowing the government. The most well known of these groups was the Weather Underground, which supported the black liberation movement as well as using violent methods to destroy the United Slates govennnent and end the war in Vietnani. Their view was that the only way to etid the wrongdoings ofthe

American govermiient was to confront the establislnnent by using violent tactics. In order to understand the life ofa revolutionary and former member ofthe Weather

Underground, it is important lo know aboul the history ofthe sixties and the peace movement.

In contrast to the 1960's, the 1950's are thought of as a period of social conformity and a growing fear of communism. After World War II, the United States Greenwood 5 entered a period of prosperity and economic growth. The real gross national product

(GNP) rose 50 percent, output per man-hour increased more than 35 percent, and the average income of Americans grew more than 25 percenl (Dougan, Lipsman 22). Most

Americans were content and had hojies for a good ftiture. Another factor holding the

American people together was a common fear of communism. Communist Soviet Union had become a world power and spread ils government to the countries of Eastern Europe.

Other counlries around the world were begimiing to fall to eomniunism, including China in 1949. Americans began to see communist countries as their enemy and feared that growing communism could tlneaten the American way of life.

In 1945 the Cold War belween the United States and the Soviet Union began when the United States impleinenled a policy to contain eomniunism (Dougan, Lipsman

10). The United States govermnent feared communist expansion and vowed to help other countries fight against it. The govermiient increased fiinding for the military and the

United States got involved in a race with the Soviet Union to increase the supply of nuclear weapons.

In the United States the pressure to confortn grew as people were investigated for possibly being communists. From the years of about 1950 to 1954, Senator Joseph

United States' government with little or no evidence to support his claims. McCarthy also investigated anyone else he suspected of being a communist or having ties with the

Soviet Union. This increased the atmosphere of fear and suspicion in The United States. Greenwood 6

Even in this atmosphere of fear and repression some groups were speaking out and protesting governmenl policies. The civil rights movement began with black

Americans beginning to seek equal rights. Their first goal was to work through the court system to desegregate schools. The National Association for the Advancement of

Colored People (NAACP) led the attack and brought their case to the Supreme Court. On

May 17, 1954, in the case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that that the doctrine of "separate but equal" had no place in the public school system

(Dougan, Lipsman 30). In addition to fighting for their rights tluough the Supreme

Court, African Americans began the new strategy of "nonviolent dueet action" which included sit-ins and boycotts.

In addition lo the civil rights movement, a nuniber of organizations seeking peace began to take action. Organizations like the United World Federalists and the Federation of American Scientists tried to promote disai'mament and a negotiated end to the Cold

War. The Committee for Non-Violent Activism (CNVA) and The Committee for a Safe

Nuclear Policy (SANE) were formed, "lo take action against the arms race" and support nuclear test ban treaties. These two groups "constituted the twin engines of an accelerating peace movement" (DeBenedetti 31).

1960s. Blacks in the United States were deprived of their basic civil rights and had little chance of being successful. Tired ofthe unequal treatment they were receiving, Civil rights groups such as, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress on Racial Equality and the Sttident Non Violent Coordinating Committee, Greenwood 7 practiced tactics of "non violent direct action", which included sit-ins and peaceful protest marches. Their main goal was to end discrimination in jobs and housing. Many times, the peaceful demonstrations of blacks were met with violence from the police. Martin

Luther King Jr., who was one ofthe principal leaders ofthe civil rights movement, taught his followers not to retaliate to the violence and to go to jail peaceftilly if they were arrested, even if they were not breaking the law. An example ofthe growing number of supporters ofthe black movement was the March for Jobs and Freedom, August 28,

1963, on the National Mall. Over 100,000 people showed up at the march lo support the passing ofthe Civil Righls Bill. (Dougan, Lipsman p 40)

Meanwhile in the 1960s the United States involvement in the Vietnani War escalated and protests against it grew. The Vietnam War was a civil war between communisl Noith Vielnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and the "free" South

Vietnani. Fear of yet another country falling to communism motivated the United States' government to send troops to support the South Vietnamese army. Many leaders believed in the domino theory, which stated that if a country was taken over by communism, then the suiTounding countries would be extremely likely to fall next. The

United States' government believed that if Vietnam were to fall to communism, then

(Willoughby 11).

Towards the begimiing ofthe United States' involvement in Vietnam, the war had a high approval rating from the general public, but as time went on, a growing number of people became disillusioned and protested as the United Slates' war effort increased. To Greenwood 8 many, the war seemed to be not winnable as the number of American casualties grew and a draft was instated by the governnient. At the beginning of 1968, "only 39 percent of

Americans in a Gallup Poll approved of President Johnson's handling ofthe conflict, and a growing and more demonstrative minority, particularly on college campuses, sought to get all U.S. forces withdrawn from the stalemate and brought honie"(Witcover 1).

Leading the protest against the war were mostly white, financially well off college students who were members ofthe baby boom generation born after World War

II. Watching television daily and reading news reports ofthe horrors ofthe war, the students opposed U.S. involvement and feared being drafted to fight. On college campuses all across the county, students held protest marches and young men burned draft cards. Some fled to Canada to avoid the draft while others served time in prison for draft evasion.

The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the spring of 1960, was a primary leader in the campus protest movement. In 1962, the

Students for a Democratic Society outlined its policies and beliefs in the Port Huron

Statement, written principally by the activist Tom Hayden. The statement called for "an association of blacks, students, faculty, peace groups, liberals, radicals, activists and

new lever of participatory democracy in America" (Sargeant 48). The SDS started out concentrating on social reform and striving to help blacks gain equality. They mainly worked in northern urban areas to create eomniunity action programs to improve the living conditions of African Americans. Greenwood 9

In the mid 1960s, the SDS began to expand its focus to include organizing protests against the continuing war in Vietnam. On April 17th, 1965, the SDS organized the first major student demonstration against the Vietnam War which took place in

Washington D.C (Dougan, Lipsman 72). This protest was in response to President

Lynden Johnson's escalation ofthe war in Asia. As the SDS grew, it began to suppori other peace groups such as the National Coordinating Committee to End the War in

Vietnam and Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy (SANE). The group pushed for people to resist the draft by such methods as burning draft cards or protests outside the local draft boards. As members ofthe "New Left", the SDS believed that the war in

Vietnam was just another symptom ofthe wrongdoings ofthe governnient. As stated by

SDS president, Paul Potter, al the April 17th rally in Wasliington, "What kind of system is it that disenfranchises people in the South, leaves millions upon millions of people throughout the country impoverished and excluded from the mainstream and promise of

American society... and still persists in calling itself free and finding hself fit lo police the world?" (Dougan, Lipsman 72). As the nuniber of college protests increased, so did the SDS's membership. By 1968, the SDS had 100,000 members in 500 chapters

(DeBenedetti 230).

passive resistance. In 1968, however, a group calling themselves the "action faction" took control ofthe Columbia University SDS. In April and May of 1968, black and white students shut down Columbia Universily in a two inonth protest. The protesters were fighting Columbia's real estate expansion into the black community of Harlem as Greenwood 10 well as the university's association with the Central Intelligence Agency and the Institute for Defense Analysis, which conducted weapon and riot control research (Sargeant 49).

During this Columbia riot, rather than maintaining the passive tradition, some ofthe students fought back and resisted atTcst. Over 700 people were arrested and more than

100 were injured. Hand to hand combat broke out in some areas between the students and the policemen. The shut down of Columbia University ushered in a new, more radical syslem of protesting. As Mark Rudd, the leader ofthe Columbia University's

SDS stated "We are out for social and political revolution, nothing less" (Dougan,

Lipsman 106).

With these different opinions on whether or not to use violence in protests, a split in the SDS was inevitable. From June 18th to the 22nd of 1969, the SDS held ils annual convention in Chicago, Illinois. The SDS was made up of two groups, the communist.

Progressive Labor (PES) and the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM2). Tluough manipulation and intimidation, the RYM2 group took over the convention and began calling themselves The Weathermen after a line in one of Bob Dylan's songs "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". Under the leadership of Jeff

Jones, Mark Rudd and Bill Ayeis, The Weathermen effectively ended the SDS (Sargeant cf^^

With the escalating war in Vietnani, continued racism at home and increasing police violence, the Weathermen had given up hope of peaceftilly reforming the

American establishment. When it seemed that peaceful protests were no longer helpful,

Mark Rudd commented "Organizing is jusl another word for going slow"(Sargeant 48). Greenwood 11

To the Weathermen, racism, imperialism and capitalism in the United States were tied together and could be changed only by revolution of tiie oppressed (Sargeant 49). For that reason, the Weathermen wanted to be allies with black activist groups, such as the

Black Panthers. They agreed with the Black Panther's tactic of guerilla style fighting to overtlu'ow the United Slates government. Change could only come about if the establisliment faced continual, low-grade violence at home. Even though mosl ofthe

Weathermen leaders came from a privileged background, they believed much of their support would come from the underprivileged youth. The Weathermen's first aet was to call group members to the city of Chicago in October of 1969 to support the trials of

Bobby Scale, a Black Panther leader, and seven others in jail for rioting against the

Vietnam War (Sargeant 51).

The vandalism and fighting that occurred from October 6th lo the 8th, 1969 came to be known as The Days of Rage. The goal ofthe militant, left wing group was lo "shut down the city of Chicago" and "Bring the war home" (Sargeant 52). Over the next couple days the Weathermen practiced fighting in hopes of having street fights with the

Chicago Police Department. After practicing these fighting teclmiques, on the evening of

October 8th, 300 protesters assembled in Lincoln Park dressed in helmets, goggles, steel

*„„j u„„. n .- _.,4 ,„..„:.,.^,,,;,i> .T.,.,,, . i,.i„ ,),,\.,, .„.,T ,.t,.- '^••' crowd ran tlu'ough the streets of Chicago battling with the police and breaking the windows of cars, houses and stores. In this violent protest, six Weathermen were shot

(Sargeant 52). Greenwood 12

After the Days of Rage in Chicago, the Weathermen became subject to investigation by the FBI. The Counter Intelligence program (COIN'fELPRO), a department ofthe FBI against the New Left, a growing social activist and radical group made up of mostly college students, considered the Weathermen a major thi'eat to the internal security ofthe Uniled States. The surveillance, harassment and arrests ofthe

Weathermen increased as they became better known. J. Edgar Hoover, head ofthe FBI, thought the Weathermen organization might be under the control of foreign communist leaders. After police killed two Black Panther leaders, Mark Clark and Fred Hampton while raiding their aparlmenl, the Weathermen made the decision to use more violent tactics against the police department, which included firebombing Chicago Police cars

(Sargeant 54).

Angered aboul the killings of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, the Weathermen called together a War Council from December 27th to 30th, 1969, in Flint, Michigan.

During a nieeting, leader Mark Rudd called for the Weathermen "to take part in bombings of police stations and banks and to kill police lo fiirther the revolution"

(Sargeant 54). Under the motto "Dare to Struggle Dare to Win", the Weathermen declared war against the United States government (Ayers 218). After this declaration

Underground.

After making the decision to go underground, the Weathermen's initial goal was lo use bombs and fire arms to blow up public places and kill people as a form of protest.

On March 6th, 1970, three Weathermen were killed in an explosion while making bombs Greenwood 13 in a Greenwich Village townhouse. These bombs were meant to be set off at a U.S military commissioned officers' dance al Fort Dix. Upon searching debris ofthe townhouse, firemen discovered at least sixty sticks of dynamite, thirty blasting caps, timing devices and a large number of pipes filled with dynamite. Assistant Chief

Inspector Albert Seedman stated that, "The people in the Iiouse were obviously putting together the component parts ofa bomb and they did soinething wrong" (Sargeant 56).

The deaths of their colleagues caused the Weathermen to re-think their violent tactics of killing as a means of protest. Tn a statement released on December 25 , 1970, to the New

York Times, Weatherman leader Bernardine Dolini stated the townliouse incident

"forever destroyed our belief that aitned struggle is the only real revolutionary struggle"

(Charlton 18). The shock of having tlu'ee members ofthe organization die in the explosion led to the Weathermen's decision to blow buildings up at night when no people were present or to give warning to evacuate in advance (Gilbert 19).

After the incident in Greenwich Village, between the years of 1970 and 1975 the

Weather Underground accomplished a series of bombings free of human casualties.

These attacks were set on the U.S. Capitol, The Pentagon, police and prison buildings, the Haymarket statue and several other targets. Afler the bombing ofthe capitol on

Underground saying "We have attacked the Capitol because it is, along with the White

House and the Pentagon, the worldwide symbol ofthe Govennnent which is now attacking Indochina" (Hunter 1). Greenwood 14

In the mid 1970s, after the end ofthe Viet Nam War and when the revolution did not come about, the Weather Underground began to fall apai1. Many of its members turned themselves in, but few served time in prison for their actions in the Weather

Underground. Il was found that the evidence gathered against them by the FBI's

CIONTELPRO program was obtained illegally and, therefore, inadmissible in court.

Some Weather Underground members moved on to other armed revolutionary groups and were later arrested and held in prison for long periods of lime. Many former

Weathermen have entered society again and are able to live normal lives. Some regret the violent actions they took while members ofthe Weather Underground, while others, such as Bill Ayers, take a different stance stating to the New York Times "I don't regret setfing off bombs. I believe we didn'l do enough"(Smith 1).

When looking back on the aclivities ofthe Weather Underground, most historians seem to conclude that the group's members were idealistic but misguided. Certainly the group did not achieve its goal to starl a revolution which would lead to a fair more just society. By declaring armed revolution to be its goal, the Weather Underground distanced itself from other peace groups who could have been allies. Their tactics scared ordinary Americans and were used by the government to attempt to turn the public

0^,1 ;«of fUrt —**: • TT^—.— »i.

Other anti- war groups focused public attention on the war and its many casualties. As fonner SDS leader Tom Hayden stated "The Weather Underground may not have brought about reform and they certainly didn't bring about the good society or the blessed conununity. But they did add, just as they thought they would, to the burden ofthe Greenv/ood 15 establishment going on with the Vietnam War. Il became clearer and clearer that if you went on with the Vietnam War, you were creating more and more ofthis chaos at home"

(Witcover 485).

The decade ofthe 1960s and the early 1970s was a time of turbulence in the

United States and abroad. Activists were fighting for civil rights and growing numbers were protesting the increasingly unpopular Vielnam War. Growing frustrated with peaceful protests, some more radical groups decided that fighting to overthrow the government was the only way to end an unjust sociely. The Weather Underground became one ofthe best known revolutionary groups, 'fhis group carried out "more than

20 bombings against government and corporate violence without killing anyone" (Gilbert

17). The Weather Underground's legacy is mixed. Certainly they never came close to starting a revolution and their actions alienated both ordinary citizens and other peace groups. Still, the Weather Underground did create chaos and focused attention on the

Vietnam War and what they perceived as injustices in this country. Greenwood 16 Interview Transcription Interviewee/ Narrator: Laura Whitehorn Interviewer: Mattie Greenwood Location: New York Cily Date; January 7"', 2006

Mattie Greenwood: This is Mattie Greenwood interviewing Laura Whitehorn for the

American Century Oral History Project. The interview took place at the Milburn Hotel in

New York City. Could you tell me a little bit about your family and where you grew up?

Laura Whitehorn: Well, I was born in 1945 and raised in New York City... WWII had just ended a few days, months, whatever before. Franklin Roosevelt died the day before I was born and that was the turning point. It was ushering in a new era. My family was a very typical Jewish family. My father was a lawyer. My mother had been a social worker who had studied hislory. They both went to college, which wasn't completely unusual for the time, and they were progressive. They were Roosevelt Democrats. They were for the New Deal, social security. My father's family had been socialists, actual members ofthe Socialist Party, nol communists. My parents played a little bit with the

Communist Party but never joined. They had some friends who did and who got

than me who was my best friend and mentor, and you know taught me to read and, of course, we tore the heads off each others dolls (laughs), but we were still very close. My parents were activists, but nol in the sense that I tumed out to be. I don't know if they ever went to a demonstration. They might have in their college days but certainly in my Greenwood 17 lifetime, they certainly never did. They were opposed to the war in Vietnani but they weren't active in it. When I say they were activists, I mean they were active in the

Democratic Party. My Father was active in the cancer sociely. They believed in causes.

I was taught that to be a Jew means to take responsibility for other people. I went to New

Rochelle Fligh School. We moved to the suburbs for the usual reasons.. .more room, better schools, because my parents were firm believers in the public schools. In those days private schools were highly unusual. Middle class people didn't go to private schools. My parents believed in public schools, so they moved to a place where the public schools were good. And New Rochelle was a very integrated town. Well, nol the neighborhoods, but the high school was integrated and that was important to them.

MG: Looking back on your childhood, what do you think influenced your decision to become a political activist and a revolutionary?

LW: That's a very good question and I've been asked that a lot. I can answer that, because I was born up to believe that if one person is in prison, we all are. As long as one person is starving, we all are. Are you Jewish?

MG:No

LW: Jews have a Seder at some point and a Passover. Some people have il every year. Greenwood 18

Some people rarely have it. Do you know what a Seder is? It marks Passover when the

Jewish people left Egypt and escaped slavery. We had one and at that Seder, my father made it into a talk about segregation and about voting rights and about black people having the righl to vote. And I took that stuff very seriously and it appealed to someone like me. When I was a kid I haled anything unfair. If it was done to me or someone else, hjusl galled me. And that's when I.... Ijust hated unfairness and when I saw the difference between how black kids had to live and how we lived, what their schools looked like and what ours did, It made me just so deeply upset in the core ofmy stomach.

So racism bugged me the most, more than anything. I mean I was brought up in a family that if you were a woman, you were supposed to grow up to have kids and get married, but we were also supposed to go to college and have careers so we had choices. So it wasn't woman's oppression exactly, it was more jusl some sense of unfairness. I worked on registration drives supporting voting rights basically, because in New York black people could vote. We raised money for the south. We were educating people. Going lo picket lines al Wootworth's when Martin Luther King was boycotting Woolworth's, all of that. And I was very frustrated, because I could not see a way that it was going to change. And then in the late 60s and I was also involved in the anti- war movement.

A^;^^ .^^tu:-.^^ —:— J *- J -,. -i . .(»• was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And then I got married to an old friend of mine, and we moved to Chicago and got there right at the height ofthe protest movement ofthe

War in Vietnam and the black protests ofthe assassination of Martin Luther King, so there was a lot of social turmoil. For the first time 1 had the inclination that there could Greenwood 19 be a way to change the society, so that there would be no racism and that's when I quote on quote became a revolutionary, which was a fairly sudden decision even though it was a long time in the making. It was mostly because I began to believe that there could actually be a national liberation of black people in this country and to have a democratic revolution.... So h was kind of an intellectual process but really came from the gut, because if someone had said to me, do you really think this can happen, let's see I think I would've been like um ah no (laughs) certainly not

MG: So when and where did you go to college?

LW: I wenl to Harvard, well Radeliff first because in those days Radeliff and Flarvard were two separate schools, but by the time I graduated Radeliff had been swallowed up into Harvard. And I did that because I was an overachiever and 1 liked getting straight

A*s and getting Lambda Beta Kappa. Each of these things would be a challenge and it was partly to make my parents proud and il was partly just to do something that people said I couldn't do. So in college I was very busy. I worked very hard. I mean I still went out with the guy that I married. We went lo parties, we went to museums, and music and

„iii.:.-j__f.. ^ft ,Ti-i . 1 11 1 » •• * -f *,,, 1. Tr'i-' of started to do more political work than school work. And that was because the war was escalating in Vielnam. If you've been looking at what the governmenl has been doing in

Iraq the difference in Vietnam is that there was a valid democratic society that they were cnishing so it was even more awful. Greenwood 20

MG: When you were in college did you join the SDS?

LW: No, I never joined SDS. Actually at Harvard I almost joined some big part of SDS, the progressive movement party, but they just amioyed me, because they would hand out these leaflets. They would catch you weary eyed on your way to class and they would stick this legal sized piece of paper, typed all the way to the margins in your hands. You know back in those days diey had mimeograph machines. I doubt you know what those are and it was on both sides ofthe paper, every inch was covered with this rhetoric. And

Ijust thought these people have no idea how to talk to anyone so then I went to a nieeting and i tried to raise that because they were against the war. But they were so obnoxious, so

I jusl couldn't do that. I joined somelhing called Tocxiii as in a word for alarm. It means alarm. Tocxin was run by Todd Gitlin who has made his career now as being a critic of the sixties. I didn't like him then and I don't like his politics now, and I sort of stuck around that for a while, but I didn't really like any ofthe organizations and I wasn*t seriously . It wasn't until I moved to Chicago that the faction Weatherman had broken apart from SDS. Then I joined Weathermen, so I was never actually in SDS.

IV,*^^ . r\ il. - n ' - -ti- -^.,. ,,. 1. _ .1 r-r- .^

LW: Well it was a really strange process. I had married Don, who is still a friend of Greenwood 21 mine, and we had moved to Chicago. He was a lawyer, and he was on a fellowship which was to do what is called poverty law which meant and he met some other white lawyers who were progressive. Some ofthe eases that they started taking were family members of Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were just sort of created in

Chicago. Because they couldn't take those cases in the job that they had, they quit their jobs and started something called the Peoples Law Office, which still exists to this day and does a lot ofthe police brutality cases and stuff like that. The Panthers came and helped them set up the office and did study groups with the lawyers and their wives or girlfriends or whatever. So I was in a study group with Fred Hampton who was the chairman ofthe Illinois Panthers. He was later assassinated by the government. And he was this amazing organizer. He had the ability to know from just a discussion what each person was like and what to say to them. He was the first lo say to me you're not a liberal. These lawyers are liberal, so in other words they're progressive but don't think the system should fundamentally change. But everything you say is aboul how racism, classism, sexism all these things are not just byproducts. They are ftindamenlal parts of the system, so the conclusion you are going to draw is revolution. I mean in those days it seemed possible. So he started me thinking that way and then the SDS had a conference

•• "'• ' • :' •' •--"•' -V''-- ••--'-- --•-•'•-" -•-^-' - i-..i-.-., i M.v.ui you should've seen these papers. They were this thick (shows how thick they were). They were inches thick and they were boring, bul Don, as a lawyer in Peoples Law, got called to represent Bemadine Dorn, so he came home with all these papers in the house. I started going tlii'ough them and the only one that made sense to me was the Weathennan Greenwood 22 paper, "You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows". It absolulely just grabbed my imagination, because it said black people are an oppressed nation within the United States and just like every other oppressed people around the world have they can have a revolution, and it can be violent or it can be nonviolent. It's nol clear what it's going to be, but it has lo be a struggle for political power, and I went, sort of thought ding ding ding. So I started looking for these people, and I went to

Panther rallies. There were different groups that had split off from SDS. There was

Weatherman, and then there was another group that was close but different. I started demonstrating at different tilings for different ones and the Weathermen were the ones that I liked the best. Within the space ofa few months in the summer of'69, it took me a whole year to get to this point you know. In '68 in August we moved to Chicago and in

'69, I'd say April or May, I started going to demonstrations wilh them and by August I left Don and moved into a collective house which was nothing Id ever recommend.

(Laughs) Mattresses on the floor....I think I say this in the Weather Underground movie, and h's one ofthe things I quote. We used to eat noodles every night, plain noodles with butter on them, so I mean we had no money. No one was working. We were all full time revolutionaries, and that was kind ofa weird period, because weren't really organized. I

things or running through high schools and sluff Il's an okay thing to do. I have nolhing against street actions as part of working wilh people and actually organizing them, but you know it was a erazy lime in this country, so il's hard to look back and say this is what we should have done. Greenwood 23

MG: Were you at the Chicago Days of Rage?

LW: Yesss (laughs) I was! What a stupid thing that was. I actually joined the collective in August, and the flrst thing we did was go to a Weatherman convention. A

Weatherman convention in Cleveland and from there we decided, you know we were all into women's liberation, bul we had no idea what it meant. So we decided to do a women's action and we all went to Pittsburg. There was a strike of black construction workers who were not being permitted to join the union and so we went to suppori the strike and how we were going to do that I don't know. When we got there we realized that really what we should do is actions at high schools to encourage people to come to the Days of Rage, which was going to be a huge anti-war demonstration in Chicago. So we ran though a high school saying "jail break", and we all gol arrested and to make a long slory short, we were stuck in Pittsburg for a while, 'fhen when we gol back to

Chicago, it was like two nights before the Days of Rage, and I'll never forget the night we got back. We were so set. We wenl out postering and spray painting about the Days of Rage, wliich was what we called an organizing strategy. I had a cat named Jaggers, not after Mick Jagger, but Jagger in Great Expectations. He was a lawyer or soinething

the spray painting, the apartment where about twelve of us lived had been broken into by the police. As we walked in, I saw my cat was so traumatized he went running out the back and that was the last I saw of him, his little tail waving. We saw him under the El a few months later, but we were nol sure Greenwood 24 it was him. They had just trashed our whole house, the goon squad, the Chicago cops, and that's part of why I became a revolutionary. I should take a slep back. Before I moved lo Chicago, I had grown up in New York and gone to school, not in Boston, but

Cambridge, which was really different from Boston in some ways. I was young and I did not have a lot of black friends. I had a few, but I wasn't that aware of how racist Boston was at that point. 1 had never heard of people cursing black people or using pejoratives to describe them. I mean people just didn't do that in New Rochelle, New York. I mean there was racism, but il was very gentle. When I moved to Chicago, it was like a

Southern cily. A lot ofthe people in Chicago had migrated from the south, black people in parlicular and then there were the self- described hillbillies in Chicago and there was the white police force. In those days, there were not a lot of black cops in the sixties. I saw such naked racism and such violence, how someone was attacked by the police on the street that we lived on. I was looking out my window one day in Hyde Park, and there was this young black man walking down the street, not bothering anyone. This is the University of Chicago area, which used lo be a black neighborhood. Then the university came there so it is surrounded by the black community. This kid is walking down the street and he must have been like 17, 16 and all ofa sudden a cop car comes

—, u:.,« T^i : ---i 'X'l -^i <-;-, ftr;-*[i',;; ih-' -v!;-..-!.-iV; T'iv. .... !l-..- T.. I floor just looking at this, and they start asking for ID so I go running out ofmy apaitment. I get down there and a little crowd is gathering, but people are standing back.

So I go right up, you know, I'm like why are you arresting him? I saw the whole tiling. Greenwood 25

He didn't do anything! This cop grabs me by the arm and throws me to the side and says, who do you think you are? Are you a lawyer or something? And 1 said no, bul my husband is, like what is that going to do (laughs). He said we're going to arrest you too.

You know. I shut up (laughs). Sluff like that, I saw that all the lime and that level. It was just like South Africa, whicii used to be in apartheid. So that really also made me realize that white supremacy and power was not going to give anything up without a fight. So all of that wenl into why I thought the Days of Rage was a good idea at the time, because

I thought, well if you do something really militant, it sort of shows people the nature of this society. Thai's what we thought we were going to do so anyway. Now you've got the Days of Rage. One ofthe people who was supposed to lead our, we had affinity groups which were sort of like 5 people who were supposed to stick together and watch out for each other in any kind of protest so that people don't get dragged off by the police or something. Right as it started, one ofthe people in the leadership ofthe Weathermen comes to me and says, well you're going to have to lead this affinity group, because one ofthe people who was supposed to got scared and ran away or something. I didn't have any idea what I was doing! The whole action was insane. We go running through the streets and someone breaks a window ofa bank and all ofa sudden there were sirens

short legs and some ofthe men in our collective were like six feet tall, so I got left behind, I'm running along and there's a cop. I take my litlle pole, we had these little poles that we picked up somewhere it was ... wood, and I started trying to get him to let go of someone he was grabbing. He turned around and pulled my Greenwood 26 helmet off and took his night stick and whacked me so hard I passed out and when I work up I was in a paddy wagon. So I had a concussion, a mild concussion and was in jail for the rest ofthe Days of Rage. I didn't see the rest, which was probably good (laughs). So it was very disappointing. We were supposed to attract all these people, but we didn't and who won. You know it's probably not the best way to attract people by saying, come be violent and get beat up by the cops it's not exactly....

MG: Was it scary?

LW: It's so funny when I think back on those days. When we first moved to Chicago, we got there the night ofthe Democratic convention, the real war where people got beat over the heads by the cops. We went over there the next day, and it was vei-y scary because there were lots and lols of national guardsmen with fixed bayonets pointing at us.

I kept saying in my mind, what's the worst that can happen to you, because I was a really fearftil kid. I didn't like to ride a bicycle, I didn't like ice skafing, roller skating, because

I was afraid of falling down. I just went thi'ough my childhood terrified of being hurt and so we go to this demonstration. I was scared. I was looking at these cops and guardsmen

you? You know you'll pass out if it's too painftil. I looked at my friends that I'm with and I looked at my husband and thought whal would 1 do if I saw him knocked to the ground? That I wouldn't be able to bear, so my conclusion from that was that I iiad to leave him (laughs), because I couldn't have that kind of attacliment. That made me Greenwood 27

scared, but not enough. Ifi had been more scared, I think I would have had a different

approach to the whole question of organized violence. I found it exciting. I learned how

to fight. Because I'm so little, I was able to walk right up to cops who had someone else

and was ready to arrest them and kick the cop in the knee and get them to let go ofthe

person, so everyone wanted to be in my affinity group, because no one would ever got

airested in my affinity group. They would all get freed. Except for a while Ijust loved it.

It's sort of like when women take karate for the first time and learn that they can defend

themselves, so I guess I was more excited by it, than I was scared. I think the best you

can do is be afraid, but decide what you need to do, not based on your own fear. But if

you're not feeling fear, you can make v^rong decisions very easily.

MG: So as a member ofthe Weathermen, you went underground?

LW: Yeah, we thought we were going to make a revolution. We thought we were going

to be able to be able to be part of...I mean there were black people going underground,

Puerto Rican groups underground, nol that many in this country, but in Puerto Rico and

some in New York. I was asked to go underground by someone who said we were

\ L,.:IJ: ~ -- "i/^-,, 1,,. .... j^ ; p 1^ •' '' • "' •; ;„, •• - -' --c

then. It was that things were al such a high point of militancy in general. In the year

1970, there were 3000 bombings in this countiy, small bombings like banks. My

girlfriend is a journalist and when she was covering my case, my legal case years later,

she went back and did a lot of research and she got FBI statistics. There were 3000 Greenwood 28 bombings on college campuses. I mean some of those include mafia bombings and stuff like that, but mostly it was pohtical in those days. Bank of America, now il's my bank

(laughs). There's this famous picture from San Francisco or San Diego or somelhing of

Bank of America trashed because of its name, an anti- war demonstration had marched past it and just broke windows and tluew red paint on it. People did that a lot in those days. There is a recmiting station in Times Square where we always have anti- war demonstrations now. In the sixties it was firebombed. People broke the windows. It had to be boarded up. I wasn't in New York then, but I remember hearing about it. So it was a very differenl time and people had a real feeling that they were fighting for their rights.

Native Americans, this was a few years before.... There were groups of Native

Americans who were refusing to allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to remove them to resen'ations, so we thought we were going to fit into that.

MG: What was it like being underground, how did you get money?

LW: Well in Weatherman, it was different than when I went underground years later, because Weatherman was a big organization. It was probably like 300 people. Hmm

scholarships or something or some money and we got along on very little. We got contributions from people. While underground, il was such a short time that's why I can't really remember, because I was really only underground at that point for two months until the townhouse happened, Greenwood 29

MG: oh yea

LW: And so in that time I probably lived on very little money. We ate oatmeal, 3 times a day... I don't think we stole any money. I know we didn't. So we were just preparing ourselves for the ftiture. Mostly what we did was we did was try and create identities you know by finding, going through old newspapers and finding when a baby had died too close to birth to get a social security number... and we'd create something, get a birth certificate in that name and just sort of create an identity that way. So we didn't need very much money. Then later when I was underground, we had people who gave us money, and we also did some bank robberies but we were really, we really didn't want lo hurt anyone, and you can't really do a good bank robbery if you're not willing lo defend yourself I'm not recommending that anyone do bank robberies. We were modeling ourselves on Latin American revolutionary groups, different situation you know where they have a dictatorship, and people are trying to overthi'ow the dictatorship and there's such class stan'ation. There's the rich and then there's the poor and that's it. So banks in those situations play a different role than what they do in this country. And we worked and I was able to get a job whh a fake ID, no phone number, fake address. I got a job

were white, so they assumed when they saw a white person they wanted to hire me. So they were willing to. You know I looked trustworthy... those fools (laughs).

MG: Did you get away with bank robberies? Greenwood 30

LW: Um did we? Sort of, not exactly. Two people in our group got convicted no... yeah they gol convicted. It was aclually for money that was being taken from a supermarket and put in a truck.... I can't remember what exactly happened to them and a couple little things. That's it.

MG: When you were underground were you able to talk to your family?

LW: Well my parents had been, as I said, they were from a progressive era. When I was in Weathermen, I did the cruelesl thing to them that 1 could do. And I didn't understand what I was doing. They knew I had gone underground. They figured it out because I had seen them and then they hadn't heard from me, and then the townhouse blew up. It never occuned to me. I was so dumb that I didn't realize that they thought that I might be that woman who was unidentified, before they knew it was Diana. There are certain things I regret and one of them was putting my parents through that worry. They contacted my ex-husband who was in Chicago at that point, and he was able lo go through channels to get a message to me. Then I did meet with them. He met them someplace. They went lo

Pittsburg or Philadelphia or something and I was there. We met in a hotel. You know it

_i_i. _..-i- _.,j .,,..,j;..,

MG: As a Weatherman what sort of things did you do to support the revolution? Greenwood 31

LW: Well let's see. For the short period of time I was underground, but we didn't do very much at that point, and then the townhouse happened and everything was re­ evaluated. So then people like me who had still a lot of friends above ground and had no charges on us for anything, because I had done my time for the Days of Rage, went back above ground. What we did was partly try to raise money in support for the people underground. Partly we jusl started doing our own what we called mass work.

In the spring of 1970 I guess, I moved back to Boston, because I knew a lot of people there. I went to school there, and there was the women's movement there. The women's liberation movement was just beginning and I hooked up with some other women who were mostly lesbians but not all. That was the period also when I came oul as a lesbian.

We started working on... the first thing we did was the lo"' month anniversary of .

This was '70 I think. We decided to have an event at Charles St. Church in downtown

Boston. You know singing and food and speakers against the war and tlu'ough the course ofthe meeting, people would say, oh if only we had a women's center. I said why don't we have a women's center? There's a huge women's movement in this city, They said, we can't find the righl place, and it's expensive and we've tried. And I said, why don'l we take soinething over, and they looked at me like I was nuts and said, oh we couldn't

that we could take over where we wouldn't get arrested right away, a building at Flarvard that was used as part of design school, bul was basically empty most ofthe time. I mean there were work areas, but nothing like classrooms. I talked to tluee other woinen who supported the idea and the four of us, but mostly I think I did most of it, went to every Greenwood 32 women's group we could find in Boston and Cambridge and talked lo them about the fact that on National Women's Day where every year there was a demonstration, we were going to take over a building for a women's center, Bul the primary demand would be that an institution in Harvard would start doing more research. It would be non- violent, but it was illegal, and we had all these debates about armed struggle and about non­ violence and what was direct action and all this stuff. I must have done this like every night for tlii'ee monlhs, and we actually organized a lot of people to support it and took this over. I think its in Out. They show it.

MG: Yeah

LW: We took over this building and held if for eleven days and it was incredibly exciting, and there was a feeling of power for women. So I did that and I worked on starting a women's school, which was an attempt to have more things that we had never particularly learned. In those days, schools were really different. I mean I didn't go to a women's college. We never had a women's class at Harvard and women, you know we had our hand up, and there was a man with his hand up, he got called on. It was

in my graduating class that had the same exact records and had the same scores basically.

My counselor then told me that only one of us would get into Harvard Graduate School.

They would only take one woman. It was unbelievable! So this woman's school was a real attempt to turn that around and to teach women's history and black histoiy so we did Greenwood 33 that a lot. I got involved in work against racism. In Boston there was a court order that black kids were to be bussed to schools that were segregated, so you know to stop the segregation in public schools. It brought oul the most intense racism in white people in

Boston, and even little kids, school children would have rocks thrown at them getting off the school bus. So we would go where the school busses let off and try to protect the kids. We did a lot of stuff like that. Then I would go meet with people from the Weather

Underground who were underground. I mean we had meetings where we would talk about strategy and politics and what lo do. And sometimes I would go and do an action with them. Il was like my reward (laughs). But we had a lot of polilical disagreements and there were a lot of arguments.

MG: When you were with the Weathermen did you work with the Black Panthers at all?

LW: Before I went underground, so yeah. I knew Fred, so we would go to rallies. We would go to demonstrations. The scariest thing I think I ever did, there were two Ihings that terrified me in those days. One thing was that the Panthers got word that their offices were going to be raided by the cops. This happened all the lime. I mean a lot ofil was

would go and sit in the offices with them and that was terrifying, because there were all these guns. I was terrified of guns and you know they were the police, so that was scary.

The other one was that there was this, this happened earlier. There was a young man named Manuel Roberts. He was at a party. He was Puerto Rican. He was at a party Greenwood 34 which was on the west side and there was noise at the party, so the police came. You know he must have parlied with tiieni, but he was unarmed, 18, just gotten married, and they killed him. So the Puerto Rican community and the Young Lords, which was sort of the Puerto Rican Black Panthers in Chicago, had a march down Division Street. Have you ever been lo Chicago?

MG: Once, a few years ago.

LW: I mean one ofthe things that if you're interested in the sixfies I really recommend is that you watch The Eyes on the Prize. It was a series that was on PBS, twenty years ago or something. I guess it was about the black civil rights struggle so there's one segment aboul Chicago that's really amazing. It does show kind ofthe war that was going on between the black community, the Puerto Rican community and the cops. So we had a demonstration that marched down Division street to I can't remember where... and also a kid had been killed in a city swimming pool where the fence was broken down or something. There were a couple of Ihings we were marching aboul and all along the street there were cops on the rooftops with their rifles on us and I was so scared, because

T l.« +u^4. r„.. .1-:^. -1. M 11 '1 ,. '»„..^ "n _ T ..J,. ! -l- - " " 1 - -•----.-. -i.-j would think twice before killing a white kid, ahhough at Kent State they did il, but you know look at all the trouble they got for that as opposed to places in the south where they killed black students at the same time and nobody knew about it. So I knew that being in that inarch meant that I had left my white skin privilege at the door and could be shot Greenwood 35 very easily, and it was really scary. Actually those days were a turning point, because I knew that I was afraid, and 1 knew that this was going to mean a change in the protection that I was offered by society by my race and class. I decided that that was worth it to me and I felt that il was and that if we won or if we won anything that it was worth it, because it would end up with the kind of sociely that we live in... so I'm not sure ifi answered the question, those were some ofthe things that we worked on,

MG: Whal were the worst things about being part ofthe Weathermen and the best things?

LW: Oh, the worst thing I think was that and I think this is true of every political organization in those days, was that because we had this notion that was not crazy that we were pai't ofa world revolution. We tried to model ourselves on revolutionary texts that we had studied from other countries, so we engaged in criticism, self criticism in a way that I know people who were criticized in our sessions who still to this day are hurt when they think about the things that were said to them. It wasn't that anyone said you're fat, you're ugly, you're stupid. No one said things like that. It was like your politics are

gray area, no in between. There was no sense of process and so that was really bad.

What was also bad was seeing someone be criticized and seeing people be ... to each other and not intervening and not saying I'm not going to be a part ofthis. That was really bad. And the best thing I think is the sense of being part of history. I literally Greenwood 36 diought about it that way. I thought this is different. This is not aboul me succeeding,

getting a good job, being smart, getting into Beta Kapjia. This is forget all that status stuff. This is about trying to be part of history. And I have this passion for sort ofthe anonymity ofil. You know 1 hated that competition so much that I was brought up with and at Harvard it was the worst. I associated that so clearly with all the Ihings that I thought were wrong with the society. There was something utterly liberating about being in a situation where we were going to supposedly do away with that kind of competition and instead be part ofa mass phenomenon so that was.,..

MG: Whal was it like being a woman in the Weather Underground?

LW: Interesting! (Laughs), It was very sexist siluation in a lot of ways. The politics were pretty sexist in the sense that women's liberation was looked upon as something not directly affecting the war in Vietnam or racism (end of tape). The leaders were men except for Bernadine. But this didn't really affect me because I don't know I just said no.

I didn't have a problem saying no. And so I guess maybe because I was a couple years older than a lot of people and so for me personally it was a period of liberation, because I

lirtc n f-i t ...< ^f »1 r. „*:.-- i.1. ,-. r 1- - J - - 1. - guy but being married, it was a social construct so once I was married I was no longer an individual. I was someone's wife and so breaking that up was very liberating for me. So personally the sexism didn't affect me as badly as it affected olher members. It was bad for some people. The way it affected me later was once I was a lesbian and was Greenwood 37 recognized as sort ofa minor leader in the Boston's women's movement after the take over ofthe building, you know people loved that. The Weather Underground wanted to promote me as a spokes person for their politics so I became, they sort of used me as a token, because they were accused of being sexist that they thought if there was a lesbian that would identify publicly with their politics, so that was a problem. It was annoying to me you know even though 1 did some ofthe things that they wanted me to do. But I think that mostly I feel badly about the fact that we were never a group of organized women, because we had such a bad position on , Three years later I was in an organization that was all woinen, almost and still could not get that for white women il's not racist to want a better job for yourself. You know everything didn't have to be about racism.

MG: Were there any women leaders in the Weathennen?

LW: Later on there were. I mean by the time ofthe Weather Bureau there were three men, two women, but it was always I mean the men were always in a position of power... but some ofthe people I was most drawn to actually were some ofthe women,

1 T :..^* *1 ^1-' *t-- -" ---1 -^;.,4 i-,-, ;.,-,-,f r.,.. f1.^. .,.^, ;., ,. f ll ,...„... A. ...._. X. a way I was never. So yeah, but the leaders were men, and very, very sexist. There was aclually al one point a big fight that I was involved in. The book, Prairie Fire came out.... Five of us took a trip across the country all the way from California to the south to hold meetings wilh groups of people and find out about their work, It was a combination Greenwood 38

of Hying lo promote the book and the politics and partly sort of doing an assessment of

where the movement was after the war in Vietnam ended. When we came together to

assess our trip, I said and it was true that some ofthe best, most creative work against

racism and against the government in general was being done by women in different

communities and that the only really integrated groups that we saw were some lesbian groups. Il was really true. One of the men who had been on the trip jusl guffawed. He

said that is ridiculous. The union guys we saw - we had gone lo one or two places mostly

in Detroit and North Carolina - there were some leftists doing good union work, but they weren't getting anywhere and so the Union workers were.,, and it wasn't, it was tiny, it was good but it wasn't everywhere. Everywhere we went there were women's groups that were challenging all types of stereo types, racial and sexual and there was this huge struggle over it. The thing that pisses me off was that it wasn't an open debate. They were smirking. The men were smirking talking about it. It was like so insulting. It was one of those moments where there was the most sexism ever.

MG: Sounds condescending.

married. I was really good friends with my husband's father but he was, he used to literally pat his wife on the head when they disagreed and say "Oh honey you're cute when your mad" and he would literally do that. He knew he was sort of being Greenwood 39 outrageous. He knew il was ridiculous when he did it and that's how it made me feel, worse than that. We were supposed to be peers.

MG: What did your parents think when you went underground?

LW: Poor Things. They were distraught. They were not happy at all, but my parents were supportive, especially my father. My mother died in 1984, so my father later on when I was in prison was wonderful. In the earlier period when I was arrested in

Pittsburg and they visited me injail, the Allegany counly jail, my father, my mother didn't come in. My father said he didn'l want her to see me behind bars, but he was a little excited about the concept, because after all the way he was brought up. His brother was named after Eugene V, Debs, and he was familiar wilh that whole concept of political imprisomiient with May Day demonstrations and union demonstrations, so he was kind of proud. At the same time, he was really furious al me (laughs). So it was a mix ofthing. I have to say they were supportive, even though they haled that I was doing this. They just really were generous ++ and I tried to get a message, please don't come down here. I thought he was going to say at some point, thank God your mother

seven years before I got out, and I'm really sorry he wasn't there when I got oul. He came to visit me, even when he was to sick, when he was in an assisted living thing, he got my sister lo gel a inedi- van to come see me, so he was supportive. And, as I said, at that point loo he was kind of proud, because he might not have agreed with where I had Greenwood 40 ended with my politics, but he didn't disagree with my fundamental actions. Number one and number two, he was proud that I had the courage lo take il all the way, because he had sort of backed off of his politics at an early age, I think he felt that he had eompromised on some things. But they weren't happy, and they weren't happy that I was a lesbian. They were very, they never really accepted that and my mother just kept saying to me, "don't you think if you jusl met the right man" and I said well yeah I could probably have stayed married. You know I could have managed it, but I'm happier this way, so.

MG: But Abe and Tumby always seemed so opened minded and tolerant, (Abe and

Tumby were Laura Wliitehorn's aunt and uncle who lived in Washington, D.C.)

LW: Abe and Tumby were much more open minded and tolerant than my parents were.

I mean my sister and I laughed at the difference between them and my parents. My parents were really I wasn't allowed to not be happy! They'd say "you had so much more that I had when I was your age, you don't have a right to be unliappy". If we had ever brought home bad grades. There was a story told at Larry's funeral about how he

J-: fi_. .. - I • ]._ ,^^ 1 ^1 • • • *;,, 1.:,..".. ,.n Tr.'....'.- .?>.. «.-..-. i - and Marian and I, my sister, just laughed in the car, because if we had ever brought home a D our father would never had said if that's the best you can do. We would have been dead! And then Larry turned around and became the perfect student, so it worked. We Greenwood 41 always used to laugh about how we loved seeing Abe and Tumby, because they were so nice to us,

MG: Do you remember where you were when you heard about the Greenwich Village townhouse bombing?

LW: Yeah, I was, I didn'l hear about it when it happened. I was in Aim Arbor, something like that, a college lown and we were.... And we were summoned to a meeting, someplace in the Midwest. I really can't remember. There were a lot of people fhere and we were told about the townhouse. I still to this day don't agree with the public stance taken about the townhouse. They said that il was all Teny Robbins fault and that the other people in leadership didn't know what was going on. While I don't have any specific information about it I still don't think it's true. Number one, because we were so consistent with our politics. Although I think others would never have been involved in soinething that we thought would hurt even I mean, maybe a genera, but not like a bunch of officers which is just awftil, but I just think that none of us were thinking that clearly.

But Ijust think it's immoral to accuse the dead, because they can't defend themselves.

M. .1-1 -1 -- T !,. -. 1.,;;; MMi^^i^ ,..^ I. .'.>= ..i ,.,T'-*f ..,>...! !1 -? r.^, that we had to... because it was bad what happened, but it would have been worse if we had killed the girlfriends and dates of whalever they were, officers at Fort Dix. Greenwood 42

MG: After the bombing were you part ofthe group that changed the philosophy ofthe

Weathermen?

LW: Not really. 1 mean 1 remember when ;V^u' Aborning came out. Some of it I was glad about. Some I thought was a little hippie dippie or something like that,,, when you use violence you have to be really careftil. You can't, if you're in a party with violence you have to be more careftil than you think you should be and taking life is a very serious thing. We really have to be in a revolutionary situation. We felt that way al some points.

Fred Hampton and Mark Clark had been killed. Other PaiUhers had been killed, but we wouldn't be getting back if we killed them,,. it's not like a team where there are players on each side. So I felt that we needed a revised strategy. So I wasn't a part of designing it, but afterwards I supported the general change.

MG: I understand that the Weathermen broke apart in the mid 1970's, what impact do you think they had on history?

LW: You know its ftinny, one ofthe reasons why I think they broke up is because I don't

were starling to come home and the great majority of them were black and Puerto Rican.

They had learned to use weapons. They were forced to be in a situation where they would fight and maybe die for a governnient that they felt was unjust. They came back and their coimnunities were impoverished and in really bad shape and where racism was Greenwood 43 still part of every day. They had seen an oppressed people fighting and witming. So a lot more people started to think about fighting for a revolution. At that point after the sixties and the college students were all done with il, we started to see a little bit ofa difference in the nature ofthe movement. Nationalism, Black Nationalism, became sort ofthe order ofthe day and the Weather Underground couldn't quite deal wilh that. So for example, at different points the leadership was asked lo support things or share with the black underground groups and Puerto Riean underground groups and they didn'l want to, because they were afraid of... and protected and that's one ofthe reasons why they broke up, because they were protecting their privilege. You know part of the reason why the Weather Underground was able lo stay underground was because we were white and we had money, people's parents had money, so I think ,.. then it all kind of slided at the

Hard Times Conference, a conference where that argument happened publicly, I think this is the sexiest focal point ofthe anti- war movement and al the moment it was happening in Europe, where the children ofthe ruling classes and ofthe rulers ofthe society, sort ofthe majority ofthe population went over to the other side and fought with the oppressed. I think that's a powerful image. That there was enough ofa reason that you would want to give up your own life path which we thought we were doing. That to

Weather Underground has a very fine job. Like you know I always kid about. You know

I went to prison. You know a white, middle class, educated woman and I came out the same way. Now I'm an editor at a magazine. A lol of black women would gel out of prison and not have very much going them and not have very much going afterwards. I Greenwood 44 mean my job isn't very well paid, but ifi wanted a different job, I could probably get it.

The privilege doesn't go away, bul at that point we thought we were making a real choice, so it rose about you know get... you know by being so outrageous we brought attention to certain issues in society that would not have been noticed.,.. But I'm really, I talked lo a lot of young people since I gol out of prison and I always ask them what they think the contribution was, because I don't think we get to say what our contribution was, you know what I mean. I know what I think. People say to me, how could you do it? I did what I wanted lo and I gol away with it, because here I am now. I'm nol in prison for life like I thought I would be. Fm not dead. You know I have friends who are in prison for life, and I visit them. I'm working on their parole campaigns and it hurts me deeply that they're not out, but I did what I wanted. I feel like I made my point and 1 hope that it made some kind of impression on people in the same way that I look back to the thirties or to the fifties when people stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee,

That gives me a lot of hope for what's possible and so I hope that that's the case. On the downside, I think that people's focus on Weathermen misses a lot ofthe rest of what went on in the sixties and seventies, like the Weather Underground movie. I wouldn't have had jusl Todd Gitlin, who knocks the Weather Underground, but I would have had

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Weather Underground. And the other thing is that I hope that it made a point to younger black people that their struggle for justice will not be ignored by the white progressives, that there will be support. Greenwood 45

MG: Looking back, whal do you think of your own involvement in the Weather

Underground?

LW: You know it's really hard for me to say, because it was a historical moment. And a lot of things came together for me. Now I look back and I go, "what were we thinking?"

You know I have a lol ofl wish we had done this differently and that differently or whatever, but given the historical construct ofthe moment it's hard to see that. And one ofthe most exciting Ihings for me is Fm friends with Cathleen Cleaver and we speak together at different points. She is now one ofthe main people talking aboul the Black

Panthers. She was the wife of Eldridge Cleaver and she joined the Panthers for the same reason basically that I joined the Weather Underground, She's really clear. Okay, she traveled around the world in those days lo Nigeria. Some Panthers were in exile there.

She's really clear that everywhere she went, there were groups similar lo the Panthers and the Underground and that we really had reason, we weren't crazy to think that there could be a new world order, because revolutions aren't always incremental. I mean Cuba was an utter dictatorship and people had nothing righl up lo 1959 when Fidel and the others had a revolution and took power. I mean there are problems with Cuba, but there was an

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People still have free housing. I mean there's oppression. There's political oppression and people in prison, but there is in every single countiy in the world. Ultimately, hopeftiily, that will ease up. So we thought we could be part of something like that, even though it looked so distant. You know that there were moments like this right now Greenwood 46 where the Republicans and Bush are under such criticism and where they have been shown to be so utterly bankrupt, morally that if there were a really powerftil movement, you can see where there would be either anolher candidate, there could be a demand for impeachment. For all of them, not just him, but Cheney and all of them, because they have been so exposed. You know this is part of what keeps me up at night is the fact that there isn't. Not in the Democratic Party. Keny was a pathetic candidate. He wouldn't stand up and say what he Ihoughl. There's no real opposition. That makes me really unhappy, but I think Ihal's jusl how things go. But you were asking about me personalty, right? So personally. Every once in a while, like when I look at you and your mother, I wish I had a daughter. I always wanted a daughter. But I couldn't, because il would have been unfair and I knew that. I'm happy. I'm slill friends with all the people who were in Weathermen. I'm not friends with Todd Gitlin (laughs). I don't think he wants to be my friend. I don't have any enemies from those days. I feel we can all gel together and laugh about k I feel happy, Fm very lucky. Fve got a great girlfriend. She was there as soon as I got out of prison and my sister is wonderftil, so my life has not been squandered. My biggest sorrows in my life are like I said, that there's no opposition and the people who are still in prison. The Panthers who are still in prison, because in those

J— .1 . . 1 :!,... n. . ... 1 /.,-. 1.T-. .1. ..-,.--.-.....^:.- y-i . ;. .. -1 being shot down all the time. The black liberation army killed a few cops. They said this isn't going to be a one sided war. They're still in prison and yes they killed some cops.

That's true. No one can get around that, but the cops killed people too and none of them Greenwood 47 are in prison. So okay some people have been in there thirty years without parole and that's all we're asking, that they get parole,

MG: After the Weather Underground, what other causes were you involved in?

LW: After Weathermen, I joined a group called May 19"' which was an acfion originally.

After Weathermen dissolved, il turned into May 19", a coimnunist organization. That's what I was in right until I want underground. Basically in those days, even though I think we were more sophisticated and rational in some ways, we were sort of trying lo create the level of struggle that existed in the sixties. So we went underground, because the black liberation army and the F.A.L.A organization were doing actions, bombings and stuff like that, and we felt that since we supported the goals of independence for a black nation, we felt that we should go underground too. We did a series of bombings of public buildings. We were fortunate, because we were post Brinks. Do you know what that is?

It was when the black liberation army was doing bank robberies for the black community.

We could get money, because all our supporters had jobs, bul in the black community it was harder, so they did a series of bank robberies and one of them ended in a shoot out

able after that, we went underground after that, so we were able to learn from that, that we should be really careful. That you think you're being careful, but if you don't make a rule in advance, if you don't look at what's going to happen if you're caught. We decided that we're just going to surrender, which was completely against what we used lo Greenwood 48 think. Revolutionaries never surrender, but we thought well whal does it do for the movement if there are a lot of killings? How does that portray us? Because we are not really about that, so we were really careful wilh our bombings. No one was hurt, because we did such good surveillance. My girlfriend, she's more spiritual that I am, says that some power in the universe, some kind of energy that recognized that our hearts were in the right place, that gave us some good luck. But we did do months of surveillance and used very little dynamite, just to make a point and then I wenl to prison. In prison I started doing AIDS work, because so many ofthe women in prison had AIDS and didn't know what it was. It was just a horrible disease in those days. You were diagnosed with

AIDS one day and died a week later. There were no medicines for it. People were terrified. No one really understood... well they did understand how it was transmitted, you know the doctors did and the scientists did and so I just stuck with that. I was mofivated a lot by dear friends dying. It was horrible situation to be in. Feeling ashamed of yourself I did a lol of FIIV and AIDS educalion and when I got out I got a job at Cos magazine, whicii was started with people who have HIV and I joke with people. I say there are three main parts ofmy life. There's anti- Iraq war stuff, political prisoner stuff, trying to get political prisoners out of jail, and then there's AIDS. It's a sign ofthe fimes

J U ««.a.ivi the other two are going no where, so I really enjoy that. Having taken no science classes in college, I am a science editor now (laughs).

MG: So you were arrested in 1980 for bombing ofthe Capitol Greenwood 49

LW: 85'

MG: Oh, 85', do you want to talk about that for a minute?

LW: Well, the United States had just invaded Grenada, which is a Caribbean nation, a black nation, that had a progressive, socialist, black government and the Uniled States had the pretense of protecting, there's a medical school there that a lot of Americans go to, and under the pretense of protecting that, the United Slales invaded Grenada and al the same lime the United Slales was shelling Lebanon and trying to destroy the Palestinians.

We chose the Capitol, because there were a lot of demonstrations going on, but we chose the Capitol, because we feh that the United States was getting away wilh all this sluff without being asked to answer for the destruction that they were reeking. That was in

1983,1 guess, and when we were arrested it wasn't exactly for the Capitol bombing.

When I was arrested I lived in an apartment with fugitives. Some people had been arrested and from that the government was able to trace us to where we were. They broke into the apartment looking for other people and I was there, so they arrested me.

That was '85, Originally, I was charged with possession, they found a couple guns in the apartment, fake IDs and resisting arrest. I did resist arrest I have to admit (laughs).

were all indicted. Six of us were indicted for conspiracy with the bombing. The govenunent made a mistake when they brought us all together. We had all been separated. We were all together and we had a political impact, because we organized people and the outside people were supporting us. They were amazed that there were Greenwood 50 tlnee lesbians in our group, so the gay movement responded to that. We were doing

AIDS work, so the gay inovement responded to that. The black movement responded, because they knew us. The Puerto Rican movement responded, 1 mean we got so much support and I think it was an advance in the movement to free political prisoners, because we were able to draw attention to how many political prisoners there are in the Untied

States. We ended up not getting that much time, because one of our members had cancer for the second time, Flodgkin's disease, and because of that they decided to give us... and

I think if we had gone to trial we would have gotten a lot more. I got the most time out of the group which was twenty years, which is nothing compared to seventy eight years which I thought I'd get,

MG: Of your group where you one ofthe ones who went in the capitol with the bomb?

LW: (laughs) I can't answer that,

MG: Never mind, I think that's all the questions I have, thank you very much.

T«-»FTr t • f* 1 -1 • T*« ^^*.., ...... ,.r . .•;.-- " ' • ' J ' '" " "'• '' ••'••-" ^'.'""'t'-'T'l J !". . --Z'-V.. • . •..^- ,^u-_..i.i.-.i..j V iiiHil liis. Kt WktXJ me. Greenwood 51 Interview Analysis

Oral hislory, the recordings of people's memories, helps increase understanding ofa historical event or time period. It is a first person account of an event and helps the reader to learn information they would not normally find in other sources. According to

Donald A. Ritchie, "Simply put, oral history collects spoken memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded interviews". First person accounts and stories can make studying an event more interesting and allow the reader get a different perspective than history books give, Laura Whitehorn is a revolutionary who in the late sixties joined the Weather Underground, as a way to support her causes and change whal she considered America's unjust society. An interview with Laura

Wliitehorn adds to the history ofthe period, because il gives her personal opinions and reflections on the movement as a well as a firsl hand account of historical events that people read about in books.

Oral history is an account of one person's unique life experience. Recording the view point of an individual expands upon what text books, essays and other historical documents report about an event or place in time. Oral history personalizes the pasl, and can provide new infomiation and details to the historical record. An intei-view with nnp person not only captures that individuals experience but also, his or her feelings and motivation. Oral hislory helps bring the past lo life. Il should be noted that oral history is not an objective view ofthe past and represents only the ideas and experience of one person. For a complete history ofthe period numerous people with different view points should be interviewed and many historical texts consulted. Greenwood 52

My interview with Laura Whitehorn shows the process she went tlnougii in changing from a young girl living in New York to a revolutionary. Laura got many of her values and beliefs from her Jewish, progressive parents. She was always taught that

"to be a Jew means to take responsibility for other people" (Greenwood 2). Ever since she was young, she was upset by unfairness, if it was done lo her or if she knew of il happening to someone else. Most of all, Whitehorn was bothered by the injustice she witnessed happening to black people.

"Ijust hated unfairness and when I saw the difference between how black kids

had to live and how we lived, what their schools looked like and what the ours

did... It deeply upset me in the core ofmy stomach" (Greenwood 3).

Because of her strong beliefs, Whitehorn attempted all the traditional forms of protest, such as sit-ins and marches to suppori her causes. When all of her efforts led to no improvement in what she saw as an unjust society, Whitehorn slates that "I was very frustrated, because I could not see a way that it was going to change" (Greenwood 3).

This confirms the research done for my historical contextualization paper, which reports that by 1969, radical groups such as the Weathermen gave up hope of peacefully reforming the American establishment.

* I; .;^t.v :.,•:.. 1..-I. ...-.., ...... r;.:. i i -% ' - • r-:-- - ^-i her husband, Don, in the summer of 1968. Her first year in Chicago was tumulttious with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the growing protest movement against the war in Vietnam. Upon moving to Chicago, Laura witnessed some ofthe strongest racism she had ever seen. She recalls seeing a young black man walking down the street and Greenwood 53 getting bealen up and arrested by a policeman for no reason. After this Whitehorn came to the realization that "white supremacy and power was not going to give anylhing up without a fight" (Greenwood 10). Don helped found a progressive law firm, which did a lot of work with the Black Panthers. Don's involvement with the Panthers led to

Whitehorn joining a study group with Fred Hampton, the chairman ofthe Illinois Black

Panthers, Hampton first inspired Whitehorn to think like a revolutionary when he told her

"You're not a liberal. These lawyers are liberal, so in other words they're

progressive but don't think the system should fundamentally change. But

everything you say is about how racism, classism, sexism all these things are not

just byproducts. They are fundamental parts ofthe system, so the conclusion you

are going to draw is revolution" (Greenwood 6),

According to Whitehorn, this statement made her think for the first time about being a revolutionary. Il made her begin lo realize that to her a just sociely could not be achieved with this country's existing institutions.

Soon after Laura's meetings with Fred Hampton, the split ofthe Students for a

Democratic Society occurred at their amiual conference in Chicago. Since Don was

papers. After reading the Weathermen's paper, Whitehorn began to come to the realization that change was possible,

"It absolutely just grabbed my imagination, because it said black people are an

oppressed nation within the United States and just like every other oppressed Greenwood 54

people around the world have they can have a revolution, and it can be violent or

it can be nonviolent. It's nol clear what il's going to be, but it has to be a struggle

for polilical power" (Greenwood 6).

In response to reading about the views ofthe Weathermen, Whitehorn started demonstrating wilh them and within the span ofa few months, she reached the point in her political career where she made the decision to leave her husband and go underground with the Weathermen. The decision lo become a revolutionary she describes as was "kind of an intellectual process bul really came from the gut"

(Greenwood 4). She thought ofthis as her chance to change what she thought was an oppressive society.

In the interview Whitehorn talked aboul what being in the Weather Underground meant to her. By standing up for whal she believed to be righl, she realized that she would have lo give up the protection of being white and middle class. She decided this sacrifice was worth it. She was willing to do whatever it took to help make a better society. To Whitehorn, the best part of being a member ofthe Weather Underground was

"The sense of being part of history. I literally thought about it that way. I thought

this is different. This is not about me succeeding, getting a good job, being smart.

tiying to be part of llistory" (Greenwood 20).

Whitehorn liked the idea ofa being part ofa group working for a common goal. To her it was liberating to work for a less competitive society where people would be more equal. Greenwood 55

Whitehorn thinks that the Weather Underground made some positive contributions and should be judged in the context ofthe time. She points out that the late sixties, early seventies it was a time of militancy and of worldwide revolution. The

Weathermen believed they could help bring about a new world order. Although she might have done some things differently, she is hopeftil that the actions ofthe Weather

Underground and other revolutionary groups made a difference. She thinks that by being outrageous, the Weathermen drew attention to important issues. Whitehorn notes that the student revolutionaries were generally members ofthe white middle and upper class. By being willing to give up their status and place in society, the revolutionaries painted a powerful image. She also hopes that the Weather Underground and other revolutionaries made the point to young black people in America that some white people would support their struggle to achieve justice.

For the most part, my interview with Laura Whitehorn confirms the information I found while researching for this project. For example, Whitehorn confirms that mostly financially well- off white people led the revolutionary student movement. Whitehorn, like the other members ofthe Weathermen noted in the contextualization paper had given up hope of peacefully reforming the American establishment. She verifies that a

. ;•• t .1 V.' :' TT. ..l , * I-..;' ;.. ,.n.. . :;T. it... t,!....! ^....-,,t .. i.-. ..-..-, -.",-.- trying to overthrow the govermnent. Whitehorn's account ofthe Days of Rage agreed with my reading about other people's experiences and the chaotic feeling ofthe event. In researching the Weather Underground I learned that the members were treated poorly by Greenwood 56 the police. This corroborates with the slory Whitehorn told me about the time the

Chicago police raided her apartment.

Whitehoni did bring up two points in which she has a different view than that usually noted. First, she does not agree wilh the Weather Undergrounds public stance that Teny Robins was the only person to blame for the bomb exploding in the Greenwich

Village townhouse and that none ofthe other leaders ofthe Weather Underground knew about the plans lo bomb Fort Dix. She stated that "we were so consistent with our politics" (Greenwood 25), that it would be difficult for one leader to plan a bombing without the others knowing. She thinks it is "immoral to accuse the dead, because they can't defend themselves" (Greenwood 25). Second, Whitehorn thinks that hislorians have often missed a key reason that the Weather Underground broke up in the I970's.

After the war ended, many ofthe returning GIs, mostly black and Puerto Rican wanted to fight for a revolution to obtain justice. Whitehorn states that the Weather Underground leadership had trouble working with these movements. She notes that

"At different points the leadership was asked to support things or share with the

black underground groups and Puerto Rican underground groups and they didn't

want to, because they were afraid.... that's one of the reasons why they broke up.

1 • ii^ • • I •

Whitehorn thinks that some ofthe Weather Underground members, who were mostly white and had financial support from family members and others, did not want to work closely with these underground black and Puerto Rican groups, because they might loose Greenwood 57 suppoiL Only someone intimately involved in the group and its politics would have this kind of information.

Going tluough the process of conducting my interview with Laura Whitehorn has taught me much about the sixties and seventies as well as helped me understand the motivation and reasoning ofa member ofthe Weather Underground. Doing background research and talking to Whitehorn made me realize what a hectic time the sixties and seventies were. Before interviewing Whitehorn I could not understand why anyone would want to bomb the Capitol. That sounded like terrorism. After interviewing

Whitehorn I had a greater understanding of why Whitehorn and other members ofthe

Weather Underground felt the way they did about the governmenl and why they were willing to take drasfic measures to change it. The interview was limited by time.

Whitehorn had only an hour and a half to share with me. She has done so much in her lifetime that I had to careftilly decide what experiences to focus on. Ifi had had more time, I could have fallowed up more of her answers wilh additional questions. Overall it was a good experience, Laura Whitehorn is an interesting and gracious person and I enjoyed interviewing her. Greenwood 57 Time Index Log

00:00 Laura talks aboul her childhood, her family and experiences in her childhood that infiuenced her beliefs.

5:00 Laura's realization that the govertmient can change, her college life, her opinion on the SDS and her study group with Fred Flamplon.

10:00 Her decision to join the Weather Underground her experience al the Days of Rage.

15:00 Her experience al the Days of Rage and experiencing extreme racism in Chicago.

20:00 Getting arrested during the Days of Rage and her opinion on fear.

25:00 Her experience being underground and how the members ofthe Weather Underground got money.

30:00 Communicafing with her family while underground and taking over a building in Harvard for a women's center with the Weathermen.

35:00 Working against racism with the Weather Underground and working with the Black Panthers.

40:00 Protest march with the Young Lords in Chicago.

45:00 Dislike ofthe Weathermen's self criticism teclinique and being a part of history.

50:00 Sexism in the Weafiier Underground, being a spokesperson for the Weather Underground and women leaders in the Weather Underground.

55:00 Traveling the country promoting the book Prairie Fire and experiencing sexism directly in the Weather Underground and her parents' opinion of her going underground.

60:00 Talks about relatives in Washing D.C, recollection ofthe Greenwich Village

65:00 Weathermen's impact on history

70:00 Laura's opinion of her own involvement in the Weather Underground

75:00 Causes Laura has been involved in since Weathennen broke up.

80:00 Being involved in the bombing ofthe United State's Capitol and getting sentenced to time in prison. Greenwood 58 Works Consulted

Ayers, Bill. Fugitive Days, United States of America: Penguin Books, Ltd. 2003.

Charlton, Linda. "Views Attributed to Miss Doln-n Indicate a Shift From Violence," New York Times. Dec 25"'. 1970: 18.

DeBenedetti, Charles. An American Ordeal. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1990.

Dougan, Clark and Samuel Lipsman. A Nation Divided. Boston, MA: Boston Publishing Company.

Gilbert, David. Students for a Democratic Societv and the Weather Underground Organization. Montreal, Quebec: Abraham Guillen Press & Arm the Spirit, 2002.

Hunter, Marjorie. "Hearings Opened In Capitol Blast." New York Times. March 2'"'1971: I.

Maraniss, David. They Marched Into Sunlight. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc, 2003.

Margolis, Jon. The Last Innocent Year. New York: William Morrow and Company, INC, 1999,

Out. The Making ofa Revolutionary, By Sonja de Vriries and Rhonda Collins. USA, video, USA.

Sargeant, Jack. Guns, Death, Terror. New York: Creation Books, 2003.

Smith, Dinifia. "No Regret for a Love of Explosives". New York Times. Sept 11^2001: 1.

"The Weather Underground," Independent Lens. PBS. 2004.

Willoughby, Douglas. The Vielnam War. Chicago, IL: Reed Educational and Professional Publishing,

Witcover, Jules. The Year The Dream Died. New York: Warner Books, Inc, 1997.