Bill Ayers

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For the former association football player and manager, see Billy Ayre.
William C. Ayers
Born 1944 (age 63–64)
Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Residence Chicago, Illinois
Citizenship Flag of the United StatesUnited States
Nationality Flag of the United StatesUnited States
Field Education
Institutions University of Illinois at Chicago
Alma mater University of Michigan
Bank Street College
Teachers College, Columbia University
Columbia University
Known for Urban educational reform
Past involvement with the Weather Underground

William Charles ("Bill") Ayers (born 1944) is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, known for his work in school reform. He became a radical activist in the 1960s and was a founder of the radical Weatherman group.

Contents

Early life

Ayers grew up in a large home in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago. He attended public schools there until his second year in high school, when he transferred to Lake Forest Academy, a small prep school.[1] Ayers and earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan in American Studies in 1968. (His father, mother and older brother had preceded him there.)[1] He is the son of Thomas G. Ayers, former Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison (1973 to 1980), Chicago philanthropist and the namesake of the Thomas G. Ayers College of Commerce and Industry.[2][3]

Ayers was affected when SDS President Paul Potter, at a 1965 Ann Arbor Teach-In against the Vietnam war, asked his audience, "How will you live your life so that it doesn't make a mockery of your values?" Ayers later wrote in his memoir, Fugitive Days, that his reaction was: "You could not be a moral person with the means to act, and stand still. [...] To stand still was to choose indifference. Indifference was the opposite of moral"[4]

In 1965 Ayers joined a picket line protesting an Ann Arbor, Michigan, pizzeria for refusing to seat African Americans. His first arrest came for a sit-in at a local draft board, resulting in 10 days in jail. His first teaching job came shortly afterward at the Children's Community, a preschool with a handful of students and located in a church basement. The school was a part of the nationwide "free school movement". Schools in the movement had no grades or report cards. stressed cooperation rather than competition, and teachers were addressed by their first names. Within a few months, at age 21, Ayers became director of the school. There he also met Diana Oughton, who would become his girlfriend until her death in a bomb blast in 1970.[1]

Radical history

Ayers became involved in the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).[5] He rose to national prominence as an SDS leader in 1968 and 1969. As head of an SDS regional group, the "Jesse James Gang", Ayers made decisive contributions to the Weatherman orientation toward militancy.[4]

The groups Ayers headed in Detroit and Michigan became one of the earliest gatherings of what became the Weatherman. Between the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the June 1969 SDS convention, Ayers became a prominent leader of the group, which arose as a result of a schism in SDS.[4]

"During that time his infatuation with street fighting grew and he developed a language of confrontational militancy that became more and more extreme over the year [1969]", former Weatherman member Cathy Wilkerson wrote in 2001. Before this time, Ayers had become a roomate of and strong influence on Terry Robbins, who was two years younger and "came to idolize him", Wilkerson wrote. From the summer of 1968 to summer 1969, the pair worked closely together, "appearing inseparable at most SDS conventions and meetings", she wrote. The two competed over things small and large, "including the ability to come up with quick one-liners, quirky names, sexual conquests, street fighting ability, and eventually the ability to talk tough", she wrote. As Ayers started glorifying violence more and more, Robbins was affected by it. "But while Ayers, according to what he writes, knew that his language, which increasingly glorified violence, was just show, Robbins was one of those who really believed all of it." Robbins would later be killed in a famous Weatherman explosion.[6]

In June 1969, the Weatherman took control of the SDS at its national convention, where Ayers was elected "Education Secretary".[4]

Later in 1969, Ayers participated in planting a bomb at a statue dedicated to police casualties in the 1886 Haymarket Riot.[7] The blast broke almost 100 windows and blew pieces of the statue onto the nearby Kennedy Expressway.[8] The statue was rebuilt and unveiled on May 4, 1970, and blown up again by Weatherman on October 6, 1970.[9][8] Built yet again, the city posted a 24-hour police guard to prevent another blast.[8] He participated in the Days of Rage riot in Chicago that October, and in December was at the "War Council" meeting in Flint, Michigan.

The following year he "went underground" with several associates after the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, in which caused the death of Weatherman member Ted Gold as well as Ayers' close friend, Terry Robbins, and Ayers girlfriend, Oughton, were killed while a nail bomb was under construction. Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson survived the blast. Ayers was not facing criminal charges at the time, but the federal government later filed charges against him.[1]

While underground, he and fellow member Bernardine Dohrn married, and the two remained fugitives together, changing identities, jobs and locations. By 1976 or 1977, with federal charges against both fugitives dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct, Ayers was ready to turn himself in to authorities, but Dohrn remained reluctant until after she gave birth to two sons, one born in 1977, the other in 1980. "He was sweet and patient, as he always is, to let me come to my senses on my own", she later said.[1]

Ayers and Dohrn later became legal guardians to the son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin after the boy's parents were arrested for their part in the Brinks Robbery of 1981.[10]

Later reflections on his past

Fugitive Days: A Memoir

In 2001, Ayers published Fugitive Days: A Memoir. In an August 2001 interview about his book in Chicago Magazine, he said his reason for writing the memoir was partly to answer the questions of Kathy Boudin's son, and his speculation that Diana Oughton died trying to stop the Greenwich Village bomb makers.[11]

Historian Jesse Lemisch (himself a former member of SDS) has contrasted Ayers' recollections with those of other former members of Weatherman and has alleged serious factual errors.[12] Ayers, in the foreword to his book, states that it was written as his personal memories and impressions over time, not a scholarly research project.[10]

Brent Staples, reviewing Fugitive Days in The New York Times Book Review, questioned the truthfulness of parts of the book. "Ayers reminds us often that he can't tell everything without endangering people involved in the story. [13]

David Farber, reviewing the book for the Chicago Tribune pointed out that in the book, Ayers "blandly tells us" the bomb that killed three members of the Weatherman in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in March 1970 was, in Ayers' words, "destined for the army base nearby," (Fort Dix in New Jersey). "The massive bomb contained a box of carpenter nails, and though Ayers does not say, it almost surely was intended to kill many people."[14]

Statements made in 2001

In the months before Ayers' memoir was published on September 10, 2001, the author gave numerous interviews with newspaper and magazine writers in which he defended his overall history of radical words and actions. Some of the resulting articles were written just before the September 11 terrorist attacks and appeared immediately after, including one often-noted article in The New York Times, and another in the Chicago Tribune. Numerous observations were made in the media comparing the statements Ayers was making about his own past just as a dramatic new terrorist incident shocked the public.

"We weren't terrorists," Ayers told an interviewer for the Chicago Tribune in 2001. "The reason we weren't terrorists is because we did not commit random acts of terror against people. Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam by the United States."[1]

Todd Gitlin, a former SDS member and author of "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage," harshly criticizes Ayers and other members of Weatherman for wanting to kill, even if they didn't. Gitlin said in 2001 that the only reason no one was murdered was because the first known attempt resulted in members of the group blowing themselves up instead: "OK, let's give them a medal for not killing anybody besides themselves. But they wanted to be terrorists. They planned on being terrorists. Then their bomb blew up and killed several of them and they thought better of it. They were failed terrorists."[1]

Much of the controversy about Ayers during the decade since the year 2000 stems from an interview he gave to the New York Times on the occasion of the memoir's publication.[15] The reporter quoted him as saying "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I feel we didn't do enough", and, when asked if he would "do it all again" as saying "I don't want to discount the possibility."[10] Ayers has not denied the quotes, but he protested the interviewer's characterizations in a Letter to the Editor published September 15, 2001: "This is not a question of being misunderstood or 'taken out of context', but of deliberate distortion."[16] In the ensuing years, Ayers has repeatedly avowed that when he said he had "no regrets" and that "we didn't do enough" he was speaking only in reference to his efforts to stop the United States from waging the Vietnam War, efforts which he has described as ". . . inadequate [as] the war dragged on for a decade."[17] Ayers has maintained that the two statements were not intended to imply a wish they had set more bombs.[17][18] The interviewer also quoted some of Ayers' own criticism of Weatherman in the foreword to the memoir, whereby Ayers reacts to having watched Emile de Antonio's 1976 documentary film about Weatherman, Underground: "[Ayers] was 'embarrassed by the arrogance, the solipsism, the absolute certainty that we and we alone knew the way. The rigidity and the narcissism.' "[10]

"I condemn all forms of terrorism--individual, group and official," Ayers wrote in a letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune. He also condemned the September 11 terrorist attacks in that letter. "Today we are witnessing crimes against humanity on our own shores on an unthinkable scale, and I fear that we may soon see more innocent people in other parts of the world dying in response."[19]

Views on his past expressed since 2001

Ayers was asked by an interviewer for the PBS television program Independent Lens, "How do you feel about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?" He replied:[20]

I’ve thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it’s impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things, but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful? ... I don’t think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable.

According to Ayers, his radical past occasionally affects him, as when, by his account, he was asked not to attend a progressive educators' conference in the fall of 2006 on the basis that the organizers did not want to risk an association with his past.[21]

Academic career

Ayers is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education. His interests include teaching for social justice, urban educational reform, narrative and interpretive research, children in trouble with the law, and related issues.[22]

He began his career in primary education while an undergraduate, teaching at the Children’s Community School (CCS), a project founded by a group of students and based on the Summerhill method of education.[23] After leaving the underground, he earned an M.Ed from Bank Street College in Early Childhood Education (1984), an M.Ed from Teachers College, Columbia University in Early Childhood Education (1987) and an Ed.D from Columbia University in Curriculum and Instruction (1987).[22]

He has edited and written many books and articles on education theory, policy and practice, and has appeared on many panels and symposia.

Civic involvements

Ayers was tapped by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to shape that city's now nationally-renowned school reform program.[24] Since 1999 he has served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty, philanthropic foundation established in 1941. This became controversial in the 2008 United States presidential election, as Barack Obama had served on the board until 2002, with overlapping times of service with Ayers.[25]

Personal life

Ayers is married to Bernardine Dohrn, with whom he has two adult children. They earlier shared legal guardianship of a third child, now also an adult. They currently live in Chicago.[25]

Works

  • Education: An American Problem. Bill Ayers, Radical Education Project, 1968, ASIN B0007H31HU
  • Hot town: Summer in the City: I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more, Bill Ayers, Students for a Democratic Society, 1969, ASIN B0007I3CMI
  • Good Preschool Teachers, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729472
  • The Good Preschool Teacher: Six Teachers Reflect on Their Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0807729465
  • To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0807732625
  • To Become a Teacher: Making a Difference in Children's Lives, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0807734551
  • City Kids, City Teachers: Reports from the Front Row, William Ayers (Editor) and Patricia Ford (Editor), New Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1565843288
  • A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0807044025
  • A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation, Maxine Greene (Editor), William Ayers (Editor), Janet L. Miller (Editor), Teachers College Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0807737217
  • Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader, William Ayers (Editor), Jean Ann Hunt (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), 1998, ISBN 978-1565844209
  • Teacher Lore: Learning from Our Own Experience, William H. Schubert (Editor) and William C. Ayers (Editor), Educator's International Press, 1999, ISBN 978-1891928031
  • Teaching from the Inside Out: The Eight-Fold Path to Creative Teaching and Living, Sue Sommers (Author), William Ayers (Foreword), Authority Press, 2000, ISBN 978-1929059027
  • A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0807739631
  • Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment, William Ayers (Editor), Rick Ayers (Editor), Bernardine Dohrn (Editor), Jesse L. Jackson (Author), New Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1565846661
  • A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools, Tom Roderick (Author), William Ayers (Author), Teachers College Press, 2001, ISBN 978-0807741573
  • Refusing Racism: White Allies and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Cynthia Stokes Brown (Author), William Ayers (Editor), Therese Quinn (Editor), Teachers College Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0807742044
  • On the Side of the Child: Summerhill Revisited, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0807744000
  • Fugitive Days: A Memoir, Bill Ayers, Beacon Press, 2001, ISBN 0807071242 (Penguin, 2003, ISBN 978-0142002551)
  • Teaching the Personal and the Political: Essays on Hope and Justice, William Ayers, Teachers College Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0807744611
  • Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom, William Ayers, Beacon Press, 2004, ISBN 978-080703269-5
  • Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones, Seven Stories Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1583227268
  • Handbook of Social Justice in Education, William C. Ayers, Routledge, June 2008, ISBN 978-0805859270
  • City Kids, City Schools: More Reports from the Front Row, Ruby Dee (Foreword), Jeff Chang (Afterword), William Ayers (Editor), Billings, Gloria Ladson (Editor), Gregory Michie (Editor), Pedro Noguera (Editor), New Press, August 2008, ISBN 978-1595583383

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Terry, Don (Chicago Tribune staff reporter, "The calm after the storm", Chicago Tribune Magazine, p 10, September 16, 2001 June 8, 2008
  2. ^ Obituary: Thomas Ayers Served as Board Chair from 1975 to 1986Northwestern University, June 19, 2007
  3. ^ Thomas G Ayers, 1915-2007 Cinnamon Swirl, June 18, 2007
  4. ^ a b c d Barber, David, "Fugitive Days; A Memoir - Book Review", Journal of Social History, Winter 2002, retrieved June 10, 2008
  5. ^ Fugitive Days: A Memoir
  6. ^ Wilkerson, Cathy, "Fugitive Days", a book review, "'Fugitive Days", Zmag magazine, December, 01, 2001
  7. ^ Jacobs, Ron, The way the wind blew: a history of the Weather Underground, London & New York: Verso, 1997. ISBN 1-85984-167-8
  8. ^ a b c Avrich. The Haymarket Tragedy, p. 431. 
  9. ^ Adelman. Haymarket Revisited, p. 40.
  10. ^ a b c d Dinitia Smith, No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen, The New York Times, September 11, 2001
  11. ^ Marcia Froelke Coburn, No Regrets, Chicago Magazine, August 2001
  12. ^ Jesse Lemisch, Weather Underground Rises from the Ashes: They're Baack!, New Politics, Summer 2006
  13. ^ Staples, Brent, "The Oldest Rad", book review of Fugitive Days by Bill Ayers in New York Times Book Review, September 30, 2001, accessed June 5, 2008
  14. ^ Farber, David, "Radical on the run — Bill Ayers recounts his life outside the law as a member of the Weather Underground", book review of Fugitive Days: A Memoir by Bill Ayers, Chicago Tribune, Books section, p 1, August 26, 2001, retrieved June 8, 2008
  15. ^ NB that although the interview was published on 9/11, it was completed prior to that and cannot be properly construed as a reaction to the events of that day.
  16. ^ Bill Ayers, Clarifying the Facts— a letter to the New York Times, 9-15-2001, Bill Ayers (blog), April 21, 2008
  17. ^ a b Bill Ayers, Episodic Notoriety–Fact and Fantasy, Bill Ayers (blog), April 6, 2008
  18. ^ Bill Ayers, I'M SORRY!!!!... i think, Bill Ayers (blog)
  19. ^ Ayers, Bill, letter to the editor, Chicago Tribune, September 23, 2001, retrieved June 8, 2008
  20. ^ Web page titled "Weather Underground/ Exclusive interview: Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers", Independent Lens website, accessed June 5, 2008
  21. ^ Interview with Bill Ayers: On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times, Revolution, October 1, 2006
  22. ^ a b William Ayers University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education]
  23. ^ Before "going underground" he published an account of this experience, Education: An American Problem.
  24. ^ Mike Dorning and Rick Pearson, Daley: Don't tar Obama for Ayers, The Chicago Tribune, April 17, 2008
  25. ^ a b Chris Fusco and Abdon M. Pallasch, Who is Bill Ayers?, Chicago Sun-Times, April 18, 2008

See also

External links