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Laura Whitehorn was born in 1945 to Lenore and Nathaniel Whitehorn of Brooklyn, New York, growing up during an era that she refers to as the rise and victory of national liberation struggles. As a college student in the 1960s, she channeled her own hatred of oppression, injustice, racism and sexism in a productive direction by organizing and participating in civil rights and anti-war movements.[3] After her graduation from Radcliffe College in 1966, she went on to receive her master’s from Brandeis University.[4]
===The early days:=== Having worked as an organizer for Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Whitehorn became a member of the Weathermen/The Weather Underground Organization in 1969. She traveled with them to Havana, Cuba as part of the organization’s instruction in the ideology of Marxism and urban warfare, visiting one of the camps established by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine.[5]
===“The Days of Rage”:=== On October 6, of that same year, the Weathermen blew up America’s only monument to policemen, a statue located in Haymarket Square in Chicago, igniting several days of violence.[6] Whitehorn, along with approximately 55 other people, was arrested for her participation in the violence[7]. A Federal Grand Jury in Chicago later returned a number of indictments charging WUO members with violation of Federal Antiriot Laws. The Antiriot Law charges were dropped in January 1974.[8]
===The Townhouse Explosion:=== The March 6, 1970 accidental explosion in a Greenwich Village safe house was a tragic and dramatic culmination of the grim political direction in which Weatherman had been headed, according to Whitehorn. “We were out of touch with what was going on, and we lost sight of the fact that if you’re a revolutionary, the first thing you have to try to do is preserve human life.[9]
While Whitehorn continues to claim that great care was taken (during the numerous bombings), to insure that no one would be hurt, including the janitorial staff, critics are quick to point out that when a bomb goes off, there is always the potential of endangering the lives of innocent victims, especially the emergency agencies responding to the scene, who are at risk by the very nature of such an intrinsically dangerous situation.[10]
===Feminist education===: In 1971, Laura Whitehorn helped organize and lead a militant takeover and occupation of a Harvard University building by nearly 400 women to protest the war in Vietnam and demand a women’s center. One of the founders of the Boston/Cambridge Women’s School, Whitehorn helped establish the school as an alternative source of feminist education. Operated and taught by a collective of female volunteers until it closed in 1992, Boston/Cambridge Women’s School had gained the reputation as the longest running women’s school in the United States at the time.[11]
===The Climate of Militancy===: “The dead end of militancy and violence for their own sake was obvious” after the townhouse explosion, says Whitehorn[12] Events at the 1972 Republican National Convention protest led Whitehorn to question once more the need for militancy, confirming her belief that they should allow for militancy when guided by a political framework, but not militancy for militancy’s sake.[13]
===The Battle of Boston===: During the Boston busing crisis, which the WUO referred to as “the Battle of Boston,”[14] Whitehorn was among a small group of PFOC activists in the Boston area who sat with baseball bats in people’s homes, protecting families from local white supremacists who tried to attack with bats, Molotov cocktails and spray-paint[15]. While Whitehorn and other members of the aboveground cadre carried out their vigilance for two years, the WUO engaged in only minor confrontational tactics in response to the Boston crisis.[16]
===The Praire Fire Organizing Committee===, of which Whitehorn was a member, planned the Hard Times Conference (with WUO support and leadership) as a way to build a national multiracial coalition. The goal was to bring together a multiracial crowd of more than 2,000 people at the University of Illinois Circle Campus in Chicago, from January 30 to February 1, 1976.[17] The slogan for the conference was “Hard Times are Fighting Times.”
Even through attendance far surpassed what the WUO and PFOC had anticipated, the conference became a political disaster[18]. So nauseated by the politics of the conference was Whitehorn, that she became physically ill in the middle of it. “I hated it more than anything else I’ve every done, she told Nicole Kief in an interview on October 20, 2002. She began to pull away from the WUO.[19] ===The May 19 Communist Organization===: Also referred to as the May 19 Communist Coalition, this U.S.-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by splintered-off members of the Weather Underground was active from 1978 to 1985. Originally known as the New York Chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), they were devoted to promoting the causes of the Weather Underground through lawful means[20]. By the early 1980’s, Laura Whitehorn was active in a variety of radical organizations, besides the May 19 Communist Coalition, including the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and the Madame Binh Graphics Collective, a radical art group. During this time, Laura worked in solidarity with the liberation movements in Zimbabwe and Azania/South Africa and Palestine.[21]
From 1982 to 1985, a series of bombings were attributed to the May 19 Communist Organization, including bombings of the National War College, the Washington Navy Yard Computing Center, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, New York City's South African Consulate, the Washington Navy Yard Officers' Club, New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and the United States Capitol Building.[22]
By May 23, 1985, all members of the May 19 Communist Coalition had been arrested, with the exception of Elizabeth Duke. Whitehorn became a defendant in the Resistance Conspiracy Case upon her arrest in 1985. She was charged with “conspiracy to oppose, protest and change the policies and practices of the United States government in domestic and international matters by violence and illegal means”[23]. Other charges included participating in a string of property bombings, including the U.S. Capitol (in which no one was injured), that protested police brutality and U.S. foreign policy. Her original sentence was thirty-three years, which was eventually reduced to twenty-three years. On August 6, 1999 Laura Whithorn was released on parole after serving just over 14 years in prison.[24]
===The years in prison:=== During the 14 years Whitehorn completed in prison, she directed AIDS education and wrote numerous publications. When asked if her political work ended once she was in prison, she replied that it had consisted basically of three areas: being a political prisoner, organizing and being part of the struggles for justice inside the prisons, and being part of the fight against HIV and AIDS.[25]
Laura Whitehorn lost many dear friends while she was in prison during some of the worst years of the AIDS epidemic.[26] While Laura Whitehorn served time in a Federal women’s prison at Lexington, Kentucky, Whitehorn’s father, Nathaniel, “Tanny” Whitehorn passed away on January 3, 1992[27]. Whitehorn identifies many consequences of being behind bars for fourteen years, including losing someone you love. She notes that not being with them while they are dying, or being able to go to the memorial service afterwards, is just one way families are destroyed by prison.[28] Fortunately a chaplain had allowed Whitehorn to call her father twice while he was in the intensive care unit.
[edit] The Legacy:
Since her release from prison in August 1999, Laura Whitehorn has been involved in a wide range of progressive causes, including the release of political prisoners.[29] She has contributed writings and art work to numerous books and articles, and has been a controversial guest speaker at several universities, including an official guest of the African American Studies Department at Duke University in 2003, where she was presented as a human rights activist by Duke faculty.[30] Currently a Senior Editor with POZ Magazine in New York City, much of her writing has to do with supporting AIDS healthcare providers and empowering patients through publications. Whitehorn is a member of the NY State taskforce on political prisoners, a group dedicated to supporting New York State political prisoners from the black liberation movement and anti-imperialist solidarity movement.[31]
You can see Laura Whitehorn in the documentary film, “OUT” The Making of a Revolutionary,” the story of Whitehorn’s life and our times, directed by Sonja DeVries[32], or THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, a documentary film made in 2002, directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, which includes a cast of former Weather Underground Organization members; Bill Ayers, Kathleen Cleaver, Bernardine Dohrn, Brian Flanagan, David Gilbert, Todd Gitlin, Naomi Jaffe, Mark Rudd, and Laura Whitehorn.
[edit] Sources
1 La Manana, Izando. (1990) Hauling Up the Morning. Pg. 404. Red Sea Press,
Trenton, New Jersey.
2 Day, Susan. (2001) Cruel but Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S.
Prisons. An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn by Susan Day.
NeoSlave Narratives: Prison Writing and Abolitionism (SUNY Press, 2004)
3 Laura Whitehorn. www.discoverthenetworks.org/printindividualprofile.asp?indid=1541.
Accessed November 11, 2007.
4 Laura Whitehorn. www.discoverthenetworks.org/printindividualprofile.asp?indid=1541.
Accessed November 11, 2007.
5 Laura Whitehorn. www.discoverthenetworks.org/printindividualprofile.asp?indid=1541.
Accessed November 11, 2007.
6 FBI Files. Information from the Statistical Section of the Records Division of the
Chicago Police Department. Page. 379.
7 FBI Files. Weatherman Underground Historical Files. Section VI. Page 31.
8 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 130
9 Critical Mass. (2003). More on Whitehorn’s Whitewashing.
www.erinoconnor.or/archives/2003/02. Accessed November 10, 2007.
10 Women’s School (Cambridge, Mass.) records. (1971-1992). Archives and Special
Collections, Northeastern University Libraries.
www.lib.neu.edu/archives/collect/findaids.
Accessed November 4, 2007.
11 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 129.
12 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 283.
13 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 217.
14 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 218.
15 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 218.
16 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 226.
17 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 227.
18 Berger, Dan. (2006). Outlaws of America. AK Press, Oakland, CA. Pg. 229.
19 May 19th Communist Movement from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_10th_Communist_Movement. Accessed
November 4, 2007.
21 Anarchist Black Cross Federation, http://burn.ucsd.edu
www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/profiles/whitehorn. Accessed October 26,
2007.
22 May 19th Communist Movement from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_10th_Communist_Movement. Accessed
November 4, 2007.
23 Whitehorn, Laura. (2003). Fighting to Get Them Out. Article in Social Justice,
San Francisco; 2003. Vol. 30, Iss. 2; pg. 51. www.proquest.umi.com.
Accessed Octover 31, 2007.
24 Day, Susan. (2001) Cruel but Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S.
Prisons. An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn by Susan Day.
Monthy Review: Jul/Aug. 2001; 53,3 Research Library pg. 42.
25 Day, Susan. (2001) Cruel but Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S.
Prisons. An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn by Susan Day.
Monthy Review: Jul/Aug. 2001; 53,3 Research Library pg. 44
26 Whitehorn, Laura. (1996 and 1997). Enemies of the State. Interview with Meg
Starr. Abraham Guillen Press and Arm The Spirit. 2002.
27 Day, Susan. (2001) Cruel but Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S.
Prisons. An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn by Susan Day.
Monthy Review: Jul/Aug. 2001; 53,3 Research Library pg. 48
28 New York Times Obituary. January 4, 1992. pg. 27. ProQuest Historical
Newspapers. Accessed November 9, 2007.
29 Day, Susan. (2001) Cruel but Not Unusual: The Punishment of Women in U.S.
Prisons. An Interview with Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn by Susan Day.
Monthy Review: Jul/Aug. 2001; 53,3 Research Library pg. 48
30 Green, Sam & Siegel, Bill (2002) The Weather Underground.
31 Horowitz, David. (2006) The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in
America. Regnery Publishing, Inc. National Book Network. Washington, D.C.
31 Abel, Sheryl. (1997). Interview.
http://womenandprison.org/violence/laura-whitehorn.html.
Accessed November 11, 2007.
32 DeVries, Sonja. (2000). OUT: The making of a Revolutionary. Third World
Newsreel.
Declined. This suggestion doesn't sufficiently explain the importance or significance of the subject. See the speedy deletion criteria (A7) and/or guidelines on notability. Please provide more information on why the subject is worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia. Thank you. Hersfold (t/a/c) 20:12, 20 November 2007 (UTC)