Laura Whitehorn
Encyclopedia
Laura Jane Whitehorn was born in April 1945 to Lenore and Nathaniel Whitehorn of Brooklyn
, New York. As a college student in the 1960s, she organized and participated in civil rights and anti-war movements. as well as involvement in a series of revolutionary bombings and armed robberies. After her graduation from Radcliffe College
in 1966, she went on to receive her master’s from Brandeis University
.
(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.
” or the “National Action” rapidly degenerated into destructive riots and open confrontations with Chicago Police, leaving a vast amount of public property destroyed, including 100 shattered windows in the vicinity. The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) made a number of demands, primarily related to the Vietnam War. Whitehorn, along with approximately 55 other people, was arrested for her participation in the violence. 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.
was a culmination of the 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." Three Weathermen died in the explosion, Terry Robbins
, Diana Oughton
, and Ted Gold
.
While Whitehorn continues to claim that great care was taken (during the numerous bombings), to ensure that no one would be hurt, including the janitorial staff, critics have pointed out that when a bomb goes off, there is always the potential for endangering lives, especially those of the emergency agencies responding to the scene, who are at risk by the very nature of such an intrinsically dangerous situation.
s and spray-paint. 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.
Even though attendance far surpassed what the WUO and PFOC had anticipated, the conference became a political disaster. Whitehorn was so nauseated by the politics of the conference that she became physically ill in the middle of it. “I hated it more than anything else I’ve ever done, she told Nicole Kief in an interview on October 20, 2002. She began to pull away from the WUO.
By the early 1980s, Whitehorn was active in a variety of radical organizations, in addition to the May 19 Communist Organization, including the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
and the Madame Binh Graphics Collective, a radical art group named for Nguyen Thi Binh
, the Viet Cong
's lead negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks
. During this time, Whitehorn worked with subversive movements in Rhodesia, South Africa and Palestine.
as well as three military installations in the Washington D.C. area and four sites in New York City.
, and Linda Sue Evans were arrested in Dobbs Ferry, New York
by FBI agents who had trailed them in the hope the pair would lead them to other fugitives. Whitehorn was arrested the same day in a Baltimore apartment rented by Buck and Evans. At the time of the arrests, group members Susan Rosenberg
and Timothy Blunk were already under arrest, Rosenberg for explosives and weapons charges connected with the Brinks robbery, Blunk for similar charges. Fugitive group members Alan Berkman
and Elizabeth Ann Duke
were captured by the FBI 12 days later near Philadelphia, however Duke jumped bail and disappeared before trial. The case became known as the Resistance Conspiracy Case.
described the goal of the conspiracy as being "to influence, change and protest policies and practices of the United States Government concerning various international and domestic matters through the use of violent and illegal means" and charged the seven with bombing the United States Capitol Building, three military installations in the Washington D.C. area, and four sites in New York City. The military sites bombed were the National War College
at Fort McNair, the Washington Navy Yard Computer Center, and the Washington Navy Yard Officers Club. In New York City, the sites bombed were the Staten Island Federal Building, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, the South Africa
n consulate, and the offices of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
.
On September 6, 1990 The New York Times reported that Whitehorn, Evans and Buck had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and destruction of Government property. Prosecutors agreed to drop bombing charges against Rosenberg, Blunk and Berkman, who were already serving long prison terms (Rosenberg and Blunk 58 years, Berkman 10) for possession of explosives and weapons. Whitehorn also agreed to plead guilty to fraud in the possession of false identification documents found by the FBI in the Baltimore apartment.
At the December 6, 1990 sentencing of Whitehorn and Evans by Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene
, in a courtroom packed with supporters, Whitehorn was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Evans to an additional five years after completing a 35-year sentence being served for illegally buying guns. Buck was already serving 17 years on other convictions, and was later sentenced to a 50-year term for the Brinks holdup and other armed robberies.
On August 6, 1999 Whitehorn was released on parole after serving just over 14 years.
Whitehorn lost many friends while she was in prison during some of the worst years of the AIDS epidemic. While Whitehorn served time in a Federal women’s prison at Lexington, Kentucky, her father, Nathaniel, “Tanny” Whitehorn died on January 3, 1992. 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.
Laura Whitehorn appears in the documentary films, OUT: The Making of a Revolutionary, directed by Sonja DeVries, and The Weather Underground, (2002), directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, which includes a cast of former Weather Underground Organization members; Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Brian Flanagan, David Gilbert, Naomi Jaffe, and Mark Rudd.
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York. As a college student in the 1960s, she organized and participated in civil rights and anti-war movements. as well as involvement in a series of revolutionary bombings and armed robberies. After her graduation from Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
in 1966, she went on to receive her master’s from Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
.
Early days
Having worked as an organizer for Students for a Democratic SocietyStudents for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS), Whitehorn became a member of the Weathermen
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
/The Weather Underground
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
organization in 1969. She traveled with them to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
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.
"The Days of Rage"
On October 6, of that same year, the Weathermen blew up an 1889 commemorative nine-foot bronze statue of a Chicago policeman located in Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, preceding several days of street fighting between protesters and police. According to FBI records, the “Days of RageDays of Rage
The Days of Rage demonstrations were a series of direct actions taken over a course of three days in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society...
” or the “National Action” rapidly degenerated into destructive riots and open confrontations with Chicago Police, leaving a vast amount of public property destroyed, including 100 shattered windows in the vicinity. The Weather Underground Organization (WUO) made a number of demands, primarily related to the Vietnam War. Whitehorn, along with approximately 55 other people, was arrested for her participation in the violence. 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.
Townhouse explosion
The March 6, 1970 Greenwich Village townhouse explosionGreenwich Village townhouse explosion
The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American radical left group, Weatherman – later renamed the Weather Underground – in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and...
was a culmination of the 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." Three Weathermen died in the explosion, Terry Robbins
Terry Robbins
Terry Robbins was a U.S. leftist radical activist. A key member of the Students for a Democratic Society Ohio chapter, he led Kent State into its first militant student uprising in 1968. Robbins was credited for drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues which later...
, Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older...
, and Ted Gold
Ted Gold
Theodore "Ted" Gold was a member of Weatherman.-Early years and education:Gold was a red diaper baby. He was the son of Hyman Gold, a prominent Jewish physician and a mathematics instructor at Columbia University who had both been part of the Old Left. His mother was a statistician who taught at...
.
While Whitehorn continues to claim that great care was taken (during the numerous bombings), to ensure that no one would be hurt, including the janitorial staff, critics have pointed out that when a bomb goes off, there is always the potential for endangering lives, especially those of the emergency agencies responding to the scene, who are at risk by the very nature of such an intrinsically dangerous situation.
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.Climate of militancy
The dead end of militancy and violence for their own sake was obvious after the townhouse explosion, says Whitehorn. 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.Battle of Boston
During the Boston busing crisis, which the WUO referred to as “the Battle of Boston,” Whitehorn was among a small group of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (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 cocktailMolotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s and spray-paint. 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.
Prairie Fire Organizing Committee
The Prairie 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. The slogan for the conference was “Hard Times are Fighting Times.”Even though attendance far surpassed what the WUO and PFOC had anticipated, the conference became a political disaster. Whitehorn was so nauseated by the politics of the conference that she became physically ill in the middle of it. “I hated it more than anything else I’ve ever done, she told Nicole Kief in an interview on October 20, 2002. She began to pull away from the WUO.
By the early 1980s, Whitehorn was active in a variety of radical organizations, in addition to the May 19 Communist Organization, including the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee was an anti-racist organization based in the United States. The group protested against the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations and published anti-racist literature. Members of the JBAKC were involved in a string of bombings of military,...
and the Madame Binh Graphics Collective, a radical art group named for Nguyen Thi Binh
Nguyen Thi Binh
Nguyễn Thị Bình, , was a Vietnamese communist leader who negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference on behalf of the Vietcong, or National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam....
, the Viet Cong
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
The Vietcong , or National Liberation Front , was a political organization and army in South Vietnam and Cambodia that fought the United States and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War . It had both guerrilla and regular army units, as well as a network of cadres who organized...
's lead negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks
Paris Peace Accords
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam...
. During this time, Whitehorn worked with subversive movements in Rhodesia, South Africa and Palestine.
Bombings: the May 19 Communist Organization
The May 19 Communist Organization, also known as the May 19th Coalition and the May 19 Communist Movement, was a self-described revolutionary organization formed by splintered-off members of the Weather Underground. Originally known as the New York Chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), the group was active from 1978 to 1985. Between 1983 and 1985, the group bombed the United States Senate1983 United States Senate bombing
The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Six members of the "Resistance Conspiracy" were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.On that day, the Senate...
as well as three military installations in the Washington D.C. area and four sites in New York City.
Arrests
On May 11, 1985 group members Marilyn Jean Buck, wanted for her role in the 1981 Brinks armored car robberyBrinks robbery (1981)
The Brink's robbery of 1981 was an armed robbery committed on October 20, 1981, which was carried out by Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams , Donald Weems , Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns , Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown ; several former members of the Weather...
, and Linda Sue Evans were arrested in Dobbs Ferry, New York
Dobbs Ferry, New York
Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 at the 2010 census.The Village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a part of, the town of Greenburgh...
by FBI agents who had trailed them in the hope the pair would lead them to other fugitives. Whitehorn was arrested the same day in a Baltimore apartment rented by Buck and Evans. At the time of the arrests, group members Susan Rosenberg
Susan Rosenberg
Susan Lisa Rosenberg is an American radical political activist, author and advocate for social justice and prisoners' rights. Rosenberg was active in many radical movements of the 1960s and 1970s...
and Timothy Blunk were already under arrest, Rosenberg for explosives and weapons charges connected with the Brinks robbery, Blunk for similar charges. Fugitive group members Alan Berkman
Alan Berkman
Alan Berkman was an American physician and activist in the Students for a Democratic Society and Weather Underground who went to prison for his involvement in a number of robberies staged by the organizations and their offshoots. Released after eight years in prison for armed robbery and...
and Elizabeth Ann Duke
Elizabeth Ann Duke
Elizabeth Anna Duke is a former teacher and militant fugitive best known for her involvement with a number of political organizations, and subsequent flight from prosecution. She is currently wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.- Personal life :Duke was born in Beeville, Texas on...
were captured by the FBI 12 days later near Philadelphia, however Duke jumped bail and disappeared before trial. The case became known as the Resistance Conspiracy Case.
Indictment, plea and sentencing
On May 12, 1988, the seven members of the group under arrest were indicted. The indictmentIndictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
described the goal of the conspiracy as being "to influence, change and protest policies and practices of the United States Government concerning various international and domestic matters through the use of violent and illegal means" and charged the seven with bombing the United States Capitol Building, three military installations in the Washington D.C. area, and four sites in New York City. The military sites bombed were the National War College
National War College
The National War College of the United States is a school in the National Defense University. It is housed in Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the third-oldest Army post still active. It was officially established on July 1, 1946, as an upgraded replacement for the...
at Fort McNair, the Washington Navy Yard Computer Center, and the Washington Navy Yard Officers Club. In New York City, the sites bombed were the Staten Island Federal Building, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building, the South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n consulate, and the offices of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association or Policemen's Benevolent Association ' is the name of several labor unions representing police officers. One such union is the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York, which is the largest union representing members of the New York City Police...
.
On September 6, 1990 The New York Times reported that Whitehorn, Evans and Buck had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and destruction of Government property. Prosecutors agreed to drop bombing charges against Rosenberg, Blunk and Berkman, who were already serving long prison terms (Rosenberg and Blunk 58 years, Berkman 10) for possession of explosives and weapons. Whitehorn also agreed to plead guilty to fraud in the possession of false identification documents found by the FBI in the Baltimore apartment.
At the December 6, 1990 sentencing of Whitehorn and Evans by Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene
Harold H. Greene
Harold Herman Greene was a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia...
, in a courtroom packed with supporters, Whitehorn was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Evans to an additional five years after completing a 35-year sentence being served for illegally buying guns. Buck was already serving 17 years on other convictions, and was later sentenced to a 50-year term for the Brinks holdup and other armed robberies.
On August 6, 1999 Whitehorn was released on parole after serving just over 14 years.
Years in prison
During the 14 years Whitehorn served 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.Whitehorn lost many friends while she was in prison during some of the worst years of the AIDS epidemic. While Whitehorn served time in a Federal women’s prison at Lexington, Kentucky, her father, Nathaniel, “Tanny” Whitehorn died on January 3, 1992. 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.
Life after prison
Since her release from prison in August 1999, Laura Whitehorn has been involved in a wide range of causes, including the release of political prisoners. She has contributed writings and art work to numerous books and articles, and has been a 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. 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.Laura Whitehorn appears in the documentary films, OUT: The Making of a Revolutionary, directed by Sonja DeVries, and The Weather Underground, (2002), directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel, which includes a cast of former Weather Underground Organization members; Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Brian Flanagan, David Gilbert, Naomi Jaffe, and Mark Rudd.