Tom Hayden was born in December 11, 1939 in Royal Oak, Michigan which was considered a middle-class Detroit suburb according to Washington Post. He was considered a Social and political activist who participated in riots and protests in the democratic convention during 1960’s. During his senior year in University of Michigan he became an editor for the student’s newspaper at that university. An important moment that lead him to begin actions of peace was during 1960 when he interview Rev. Martin Luther King Jr outside Democratic National Convention when he told him “You have to take a stand with your life” (Washington Post) . He participate in multiple riots and protest but during 1961, Hayden became part of “the Freedom Riders in the South after authorities refused to enforce desegregation of public buses” (Washington Post) . Meanwhile because of that he was arrested in Albania Georgia “for attempting to desegregate a railways station” (Washington Post). Later after the arrest and becoming president of SDS he was able to help in the improvement of the Civil right Project in the Economic Research and Action Project.
During the year of 1965 he became one of the first Americans to visit North Vietnamese but two years after 1965, even with the ban to travel to Hanoi, North Vietnam he travel there and “wound up escorting three captured American soldiers from Phnom Penh back to the States, a North Vietnamese gesture of solidarity with the American peace movement.” (Washington Post). According to Washington Post in August 1968 for five days Mr. Hayden together with Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman and others did a large antiwar protest in Chicago, which they were charged and accused of inciting violence but later was overturned in 1972.
From 1982 Tom Hayden worked for 18 years in the California State Assembly and State Senate according to Washington Post. Tom Hayden also wrote several books and also became the director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver city, California and continue to share his believes in peace.
What inspire me about his work is that even from such young age he believed in the power peace and fight for what was right and he continue doing the same thing as he progressed further into his life. Also is a big inspiration for people that think that one person can’t make a big change, when him himself was able to fight for his believe and also tag along and fought side by side with people that believe in ideologies as big as the ones he had.
Works Cited
Woo, Elaine. “Tom Hayden, Preeminent 1960s Political Radical and Antiwar Protester, Dies at 76.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 24 Oct. 2016, washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/tom-hayden-key-1960s-social-activist-and-political-partner-and-husband-of-jane-fonda-dies/2016/10/24/adc6d5da-a828-11e5-8058-480b572b4aae_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d0aa5697139a.
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