Weathermen Clipping (Boston Herald 1980)

On March 6, 1970, a bomb went off in a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. The bomb detonated accidentally as it was being constructed by members of the Weather Underground. Three members of the group (Ted Gold, Diana Oughton and Terry Robbins) were killed in the explosion. Two other members Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson were at the scene of the crime but avoided prosecution as fugitives for ten years.

The Weather Underground existed from 1969 until 1977 and functioned as an extremist left-wing, anti-imperialist and communist group known for a string of bombings throughout the 1970s including the detonation of bombs at the Pentagon and New York City police headquarters. The group formed as a faction of the Student for a Democratic Society and as some points aligned itself to the Black Power Movement. The group became very well known in popular culture and was very active in the 1970s. The group eventually dissolved due to pressures from the federal government and internal fracturing.

Read more about the  more information on the Weather Underground on Wikipedia. I have included a clipping from the Boston Herald from July 1980 that outlines Cathy Wilkerson’s surrender to the police ten years after the apartment bombing.

There are over 60 boxes of newspaper clippings in the Hall-Hoag Collection. Many of them are unlabeled and very hard to process. Even at the end of this project most of the newspaper clippings will be unavailable for research because it would take far too much time and effort to organize them. In addition, items like the image at this post can be found in the Boston Herald’s archives. I chose a clipping today to show the scope of Gordan Hall’s work. He closely followed the mentions of extremist groups in publications throughout the country. For example, the folder this item came from had clippings about the Weather Underground from 19 different newspapers from Mississippi, Florida, Delaware, Massachusetts and many other. It must have taken considerable effort to find all of these clippings at the time considering they most likely had to be collected in their home state and shipped to Hall or collected by Hall on location.

The Weathermen were founded in 1969 as a faction of the Students for a Democratic Society. Original members included: Karen Ashley, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, Gerry Long, Howie Machtinger, Jim Mellen, Terry Robbins, Mark Rudd, and Steve Tappis.[1]

The Weathermen later came to be known as the Weather Underground and the Weather Underground Organization. They became very well-known due to their provocative literature and acts of violence. Through the late 1960s and mid-1970s the Weathermen took credit for two dozen bombings. [2] This included an accidental bombing in March 1970 that killed 3 Weathermen in their New York City apartment.

The item featured here focuses on Benjamin H. Brown, director of the Center for International Affairs of Harvard University. In the Fall of 1970 the Weathermen bombed the CFIA injuring Brown. Three members of the Weathermen; Eric Mann, Henry Olson and Phil Niles were tried and convicted on assault and battery and disturbing the peace charges.[3]

Weathemen November 1970

The Hall Hoag collection contains roughly 50 items from the Weathermen.

 Learn More:

Weathermen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground

CFIA: http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/