Tom Hayden, counterculture icon, invites public to dig into his archives
Cache includes 22,000 pages of FBI files showing government surveillance of him and Jane Fonda
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The man regarded as the intellectual father of the 1960s is opening up his archives in what historians of modern America regard as one of the most important document dumps in recent times, and one that breaks a tradition in which monumental public figures wait until they are dead to show the world the personal papers, diaries and mementos of their most tumultuous times.
This week, the University of Michigan has been hosting alumnus Tom Hayden, now 74, for a series of events that culminate in a celebration on Thursday to mark the delivery of more than 120 boxes of material that historians and journalists will likely spend generations exploring for insights into the making of that all-important epoch of social and cultural upheaval.
Among the key caches in the bequest are more than 22,000 pages of FBI files showing the government’s exhaustive 15-year surveillance of him and his then-wife Jane Fonda as well as the bureau’s often ham-handed attempts to create rifts between Hayden’s circle and other prominent civil rights groups such as the Black Panthers. Hayden obtained the files in the mid-1970s after successfully suing the government on grounds that they had been illegally monitoring his actions.
“Tom is one of the great figures of the 20th century,” said Maurice Isserman, a history professor at Hamilton College in New York and author of several books on the era including “America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s.” “He was absolutely formative in the early 1960s. I will be fascinated to see the archives, and it is wonderful to have them while he’s still alive.”
Hayden burst onto the national stage in the early 1960s as the primary drafter of the Port Huron Statement, a 25,000-word manifesto published in 1962 that laid out the goals of the then-budding student protest movement. He went on to become a leading voice opposing the Vietnam War, making several controversial visits to North Vietnam during the conflict. As a key organizer of student protests in Chicago outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Hayden was convicted of inciting violence, but the conviction was later overturned.
He also is the author of 20 books on social issues, and served 18 years in the California Legislature where he championed immigration rights, climate change and animal welfare. He ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for Los Angeles mayor and lost a close primary battle to unseat a sitting Democratic U.S. senator. As recently as last week, Hayden weighed in on current events in an essay for the San Francisco Chronicle in which he criticized President Barack Obama for not offering an exit strategy in his speech on the U.S. counterattack on ISIL.
“I can’t wait till after I’m dead [to make the archives public],” Hayden said in a phone interview from California last week in advance of his appearances in Ann Arbor. “A lot of this stuff was molding or on the verge of molding. It occurred to me it would be important to turn it over to some responsible researchers and archivists while I am alive and alert because it would help me go through it and share what is there with others, with professors, graduate students, with interested undergraduates.”
University of Michigan special collections curator Julie Herrada, who is overseeing the organization and management of the Hayden material, said Hayden’s availability to explain his own archives is unusual. “He’s also young enough to still come and actively engage and work with students regarding the papers,” she said, “[to] have them see the historical artifacts and talk to the person who created them.”
Indeed, Hayden insisted on it.
As part of his arrangement with UM, he will receive $200,000 over the coming four years to visit the campus and work with both archivists and students. Hayden said he also insisted that the UM collection, which primarily focuses on social movements, also accept his papers from his time as a California legislator so that his Tom Hayden, counterculture icon, invites public to dig into his archives | Al Jazeera America: