Voices of Protest from the 1960S, an Oral History

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United States History History

12-29-2006

Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History

Jeff Kisseloff

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Generation on Fire

Generation on Fire Voices of Protest from the 1960s An Oral History Jeff Kisseloff

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made Library of Congress possible in part by a grant from the National Cataloging-in-Publication Data Endowment for the Humanities. Kisselo√, Je√. Generation on ﬁre : voices of protest from the Copyright ∫ 2007 by Je√ Kisselo√ 1960s : an oral history / Je√ Kisselo√. The University Press of Kentucky p. cm. Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, Includes bibliographical references and index. serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2416-2 (hardcover : alk. Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky paper) University, The Filson Historical Society, ISBN-10: 0-8131-2416-6 (hardcover : alk. Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical paper) Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead 1. United States—History—1961–1969— State University, Murray State University, Biography. 2. Political activists—United Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania States—Interviews. 3. Interviews—United University, University of Kentucky, University States. 4. Oral history. 5. Counterculture— of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. United States—History—20th century. 6. Protest movements—United States— All rights reserved. History—20th century. 7. United States— Editorial and Sales O≈ces: Social conditions—1960–1980. 8. United The University Press of Kentucky States—Politics and government—1961–1963. 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, 9. United States—Politics and government— Kentucky 40508-4008 1963–1969. I. Title. www.kentuckypress.com E840.6.K57 2006 % 1009080706 54321 303.48 4092273—dc22 [B] 2006011831

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses For the younger generation of my family: my daughter, Elizabeth, and my niece and nephews, Brittany, Evan, and Jared, in the hope they’ll make their own wise choices and live righteous lives.

But mostly for Sue, with love and a wink.

When they said, ‘‘Sit down,’’ I stood up. —Bruce Springsteen, ‘‘Growin’ Up’’

Contents

Introduction 1 bernard lafayette Freedom Rider 6 bob zellner The Traitor 26 gloria richardson dandridge The Militant 51 paul krassner The Realist 64 lee weiner The Revolutionary 81 daniel berrigan Peace Preacher 100 david cline The Vet 118 peter berg The Digger 137 elsa marley skylark The Artist 152 marilyn salzman webb The Feminist 167 frank kameny The Pioneer 183 barry melton The Guitarist 194 david meggyesy The Linebacker 210 verandah porche The Queen of Poesie 225 doris krause and barry levine Allison’s Story 244

Thanks 267

For Further Reading, Viewing, and Listening 271

Index 277

Generation on Fire

Introduction

In 1998, Tom Brokaw wrote a best-selling book about Americans who came of age in the 1930s. Because so many of them survived the hardships of the Depression only to risk their lives in World War II, Brokaw called the book The Greatest Generation. Brokaw was right to herald the enormous courage of America’s World War II vets. Once the war was over, however, many settled into lives of confor- mity and comfort, paying little heed to the specters of poverty, racism, and McCarthyism that haunted the country. But it was the children of Brokaw’s ‘‘greatest’’ generation—the so-called baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s—who fought and sacrificed to compel a reluctant nation to make good on its promise of ‘‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’’ for every citizen. This book is a tribute to those Americans who stood up and said no to war, greed, racism, sexism, homophobia, pollution, censorship, lame music, and bad haircuts. All too often they had to wage these battles against their families, their neighbors, and their government, often at the risk of their own safety. Rebellion, of course, is as American as a Fourth of July picnic. Without rebellion, there would be no progress. Those long-haired radicals named Washington, Je√erson, Adams, and Franklin recognized this over two hun- dred years ago when they rose up against King George and demanded their independence. In the 1960s, antiwar activists believed they were acting in that same patriotic tradition when they demanded that President Lyndon Johnson and, later, Richard Nixon end the war in Vietnam. Think about it this way: if not for the activists of the 1960s, the first black person might still be waiting to enroll in the University of Mississippi. You or your sister might not be able to have children because of a botched back-alley abortion. Someone you love might have been the twenty-thousandth Ameri- can to die in Vietnam. Nor is this just ancient history. In the wake of the 2000 presidential election controversy, the tragedy of September 11, increased erosion of civil liberties, and a war over the now admittedly false claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the need to ask questions and speak out is as important as it has ever been. Newspapers are filled with stories indicating that the spirit of the 1960s is thriving today. The World Wide Web is an electronic version of the old under- ground newspapers. Antiglobalization protesters and Greenpeace activists make headlines by borrowing the tactics that many of their parents used so e√ectively to help stop the war in Vietnam. The 1960s also live on in the conservative backlash against so-called liberal values. The decade scared the daylights out of the industrial, military, political, and religious elite of America—and for good reason. Profit margins were threatened when corporations could no longer dump industrial waste with impunity; in Vietnam the military suddenly found itself forced to act with more restraint than it was accustomed to; and religious leaders were taken aback when young people began taking the motto ‘‘Make love, not war’’ literally. The ’60s also lay siege to the moral police, who believed that sex before marriage was immoral, use of drugs a crime, profanity an o√ense, and di√erent ways of thinking a danger. Mostly, the 1960s proved that in the face of widespread protest and discontent, even the most entrenched aspects of American life and thought are not immune to change. For those in power, that remains a terrifying prospect. That’s why, forty years later, the establishment is still fighting back. Laws have been passed limiting free speech on the Internet and curtailing a woman’s access to abortion. Congress has reinstated draft registration and the death penalty; and because so many elected o≈cials receive campaign contributions from major corporations, they are inclined to serve those interests rather than the citizens they were elected to represent. Perhaps most frightening of all, in 2000, politicians, not the voters, decided who would be the next President of the United States. Eternal vigilance, as our Founding Fathers knew, is the price of liberty.

My ﬁrst book, You Must Remember This, was an oral history about life in Manhat- tan from the 1890s to World War II. I talked to people in their eighties and nineties, and even centenarians, about what the Big Apple was like when they were young. Former bootleggers, jazz musicians, World War I veterans, even the last farmer in Manhattan—almost all were great fun to talk to. By the time I interviewed them, you’d never know that many of them had been real tough guys (or women), far stronger than I ever was. I remember one tiny ninety- year-old woman telling me about her union battles. ‘‘I beat up a lot of scabs,’’ she said with pride. That book hinged on the value of community. My next project, The Box,

≤ generation on fire focused on creativity. Using the history of television as a backdrop, it told the story about what happens when creative and commercial visions collide. Again I met people who were long into retirement. Many of them told similar stories about being in the lab or on the set, attempting to do things that hadn’t been done before. Some supervisor would invariably say, ‘‘That won’t work’’ or ‘‘It’s impossible,’’ but through cleverness and determination my subjects would prove those in authority to be wrong. With this book I intended to focus on responsibility. I also wanted to write a personal book about the decade that shaped my own life. I was fifteen years old on May 4, 1970, when four students at Ohio’s Kent State University were shot and killed by National Guardsmen for exercising their right of free speech. The next day in my Long Island high school, there was a riot when jocks chanted, ‘‘Kill the Jews,’’ attacking a group of long-haired students (many of them Jews) who were attempting to lower the flag on the front lawn as a protest against the killings at Kent State. The jocks, who mirrored the thinking of most of the country, insisted the shootings were justified (‘‘The kids weren’t in class’’; ‘‘They were throwing rocks’’) and defended the free- doms the flag symbolized by beating up those who disagreed with them. I was a ninth grader in junior high at the time. We learned what had happened when a freshman football player walked into my classroom and gleefully exclaimed, ‘‘The Jews tried to take the flag down and the jocks killed them!’’ I’d like to say that my friends and I confronted the football player and set him straight. But we didn’t. We shrank from saying anything, because we were small and he and his buddies were big. The next day we held a rally to protest what had happened at Kent State, but for me it wasn’t enough. I was ashamed of my own fear. In formulating the idea for this book, I decided to focus on people in the 1960s who believed they had an obligation to make the world a better place. Specifically, I wanted to find the people who had what I didn’t have—the courage to stand up and be heard, to say no to the things that were wrong. What unites the people who tell their stories in these pages is that they were—and still are—rebels who stood up and said no, sometimes when theirs was the only dissenting voice. That simple, courageous act of refusing to go along brought about much positive change in America, demonstrating yet again that progress occurs when people think for themselves. The stories in this book also help explode at least one enduring myth of the

introduction ≥ 1960s: that the former ’60s radicals are now SUV-driving stockbrokers who long ago traded in their principles for a six-ﬁgure salary. That’s certainly not what I found to be the case with the people in these pages, or with the others I met while conducting my research. Every one of the individuals you’ll meet here are still doing interesting things—still making a contribution, in one way or another, to causes larger than themselves. That doesn’t mean, of course, that everyone from the ’60s has traveled the same road since then; but I think it’s safe to generalize that those who were truly committed to the cause of change, those who didn’t glom onto it simply because those around them did, in one way or another continue to live an ethical life. The courageous acts of the people in these pages often had far-reaching consequences. When Freedom Rider Bernard LaFayette stepped o√ a bus into the hands of a white mob, he gave strength to a whole generation of African- Americans to stand up for their civil rights. When two priests, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, helped found the antiwar movement, they were opposed by their own church, but by holding on to their convictions, they gave moral authority to the movement that helped bring an end to the Vietnam War. When Frank Kameny decided he had had enough harassment at the hands of the government simply because he was homosexual, he helped bring about changes that opened the closet doors for succeeding generations of gay men and lesbians. Of course, not every decision or stance these individuals took changed the world. Sometimes people just changed their own world. It may have been a young child fending o√ an abusive father, a gay man stepping out of the closet, or a football player standing up to his coach. Sometimes the most courageous acts are simply those that get you through the day. Because these activists of the 1960s were young and human, they sometimes made mistakes. You may not agree with everything they did, but as you read their stories, I hope you will come to understand and admire them, and possibly recognize yourself in their struggles to learn who they were and what place they were meant to assume in the world. None of these individuals was ultimately afraid to be ‘‘di√erent.’’ I found it fascinating how time and again people told me they believed they were all alone until they stumbled across an a≈nity group of outcasts just like themselves in college or elsewhere, and that invariably these fellow rejects made for the most interesting, challenging, and enjoyable company and gave those whom I interviewed the courage to be themselves.

∂ generation on fire The people profiled here were not chosen because they were the most courageous members of the ’60s generation. Mostly, they are simply thought- ful individuals who represent a cross section of ’60s activism. But each did something special to warrant inclusion here. Some came from progressive backgrounds, while others were born into families where little was expected or o√ered in the way of encouragement to better themselves. They traveled a long emotional and intellectual road to step out of the mold that formed them. For that reason alone, I was filled with admiration. Each has a great story, with a lot to say not only about ’60s activism but also about his or her own personal development. Of those I spoke with, no one was more naturally inclined to question authority than Paul Krassner, whose combination of contrarian instincts and sense of fun were obvious even when he was just six years old. Though he earned his fame as a satirist, his impact would not have been as strong if he had not also been a terrific investigative journalist. But what struck me about Paul—and this is true of most of the other people I interviewed for this book— was that, despite his ardent criticism of American society and politics, he is at heart a patriot. The ubiquitous bumper stickers of the 1960s that declared ‘‘America, love it or leave it’’ missed the point. You could love what America stood for but detest its actions. Not all endings are happy ones. Allison Krause and three of her classmates at Kent State were killed for exercising their right to protest. Allison’s death was devastating, but it’s a story that must be told. America is a great country, but it’s an imperfect one, and the deaths of Allison Krause, and people like her, remind us that there is still work to be done. Allison should be remem- bered not just as a name in the history books, but as a person, so that we might better understand what was lost when h