Jerry Rubin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Do It: Scenarios of the Revolution, 1970 |
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| Born: | July 14, 1938 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States  |
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| Died: | November 28, 1994 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation: | high-profile American social activist Author, Do it! – Scenarios of the Revolution entrepreneur, businessman |
Jerry Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was a high-profile American social activist during the 1960s and 1970s.
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[edit] Education
Rubin attended Walnut Hills High School, co-editing the school newspaper, The Chatterbox. While in high school Rubin began to write for the Cincinnati Post, compiling sports scores from high school games. He later went on to graduate from the University of Cincinnati, receiving a degree in sociology. Rubin attended University of California, Berkeley, in 1964, but dropped out to focus on social activism.
[edit] Early life
Rubin was the son of a bread delivery man and union representative. Born in Cincinnati, Rubin grew up in the then-upscale Avondale neighborhood. Rubin's parents died within 10 months of each other, leaving Rubin the only person to take care of his younger brother, Gil, who was 13 at the time. Jerry wanted to teach Gil about the world and decided to take him to India. When relatives threatened to fight to obtain custody of Gil, based on his plans to go abroad with his brother, Jerry decided to take his brother to Tel-Aviv instead. Gil learned Hebrew, later decided to stay in Israel and moved to a kibbutz.
[edit] Social activism
Rubin began to protest after dropping out of Berkeley. Jerry's first protest was in Berkeley, protesting the refusal of a local grocer to hire African Americans. Soon Rubin was leading protests of his own.
Rubin organized the VDC (Vietnam Day Committee), led some of the first protests against the war in Vietnam, and was a cofounder of the Yippies (Youth International Party) with Abbie Hoffman, and Pigasus, the pig who would be president. He played an instrumental role in the disruption of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Along with six others (Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, and Tom Hayden; Bobby Seale was part of the original group but was excluded later), Rubin was put on trial for conspiracy and crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot.
Julius Hoffman was the presiding judge. The defendants were commonly referred to as the "Chicago Seven" (after Seale's exclusion). The defendants turned the courtroom into a circus and although five of the seven remaining defendants were found guilty of inciting a riot, the convictions were later overturned on appeal.
[edit] Author
Jerry Rubin's anti-establishment beliefs were put down in writing in his book Do it! – Scenarios of the Revolution (Simon and Schuster, 1970, ISBN 0-671-20601-X), with an introduction by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and unconventional design by Quentin Fiore.
[edit] Change of political views
After the Vietnam War ended, Rubin changed his political views and became an entrepreneur and businessman. In 1994, Rubin jaywalked on Wilshire Boulevard, near UCLA in Los Angeles, California, approximately thirty feet from an intersection. It was a weekday evening and as typical, the street was very busy with three lanes in each direction. A car swerved to miss Rubin and a second car (immediately behind the first car) was not able to avoid Rubin. Rubin was brought to the UCLA Medical Center and died a few days later. He is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
[edit] Century of the Self
Jerry Rubin appeared in the 2002 British documentary by Adam Curtis, The Century of the Self. He appears in episode part 3 of 4. This segment of the video discusses the Est Training in great detail, and includes interviews with New York Times columnist Jesse Kornbluth, Werner Erhard, and Est graduate John Denver. Jerry Rubin himself was a graduate of Erhard Seminars Training.
[edit] Trivia
- Jerry Rubin appeared on Saturday Night Live's second episode of its first season, which mostly featured musical performances (and Chevy Chase performing Weekend Update and his first show-opening fall) after the sketch-packed premiere episode left most of the cast exhausted (cf. episode transcript[1] for details) in a fake commercial for wallpaper with famous protest slogans from the 1960's and 1970's (i.e., "Make Love, Not War", "Off The Pig!", "Give Peace A Chance", "Hell, No, We Won't Go!", etc).
- In the motion picture about Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Movie, Rubin was portrayed by Kevin Corrigan.
[edit] External links
- Cincinnati Post Article: Jerry Rubin: Activist changed his rap
- Minneapolis Tribune Article: April 1970: Jerry Rubin leads Honeywell protest
