Abbie Hoffman | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hoffman in 1969 | |
| Born | Abbot Howard Hoffman (1936-11-30)November 30, 1936 Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | April 12, 1989(1989-04-12) (aged 52) |
| Other names |
|
| Education | Worcester Academy Brandeis University (BA) University of California, Berkeley (MA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1966–1989 |
| Known for | Political philosophy,social revolution,guerrilla theater,civil rights movement,gift economics |
| Notable work |
|
| Movement | Yippie,1960s counterculture |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
Abbot Howard Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded theYouth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of theChicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of theFlower Power movement.[1][2]
As a member of theChicago Seven, Hoffman was charged with and tried for activities during the1968 Democratic National Convention, for conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot and crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot under the anti-riot provisions ofTitle X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[3][4]: 4 Five of the Chicago Seven defendants, including Hoffman, were convicted of crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot;[4]: 8 all of the convictions were vacated after an appeal and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to pursue another trial.[4]: 9 Hoffman,[5] along with all of the defendants and their attorneys were also convicted and sentenced for contempt of court by the judge; these convictions were also vacated after an appeal.[4]: 9
Hoffman continued his activism into the 1970s and remains an icon of theanti-Vietnam war movement and thecounterculture era.[6][7] He died by suicide with aphenobarbital overdose in 1989 at age 52.[8]
Abbot Howard Hoffman was born November 30, 1936, inWorcester, Massachusetts, to Florence (née Schanberg) and John Hoffman. Hoffman was raised in a middle-classJewish household and had two younger siblings. Hoffman's mother, Florence Schanberg, was born inClinton, Massachusetts, to Orthodox Jewish immigrants fromAustria. His father, John Hoffman, was born inRussia shortly after the failed1905 revolution but rarely discussed his origins due to the anti-communist climate of the time. Hoffman only began to uncover his paternal family history while writing his autobiography in the 1970s.
According to family accounts, the Hoffmans originally bore the surname Shapoznikoff and were lower-middle-class Jewish shopkeepers in Russia. Seeking to escape czarist repression, a relative named Jacob Shapoznikoff allegedly obtained or assumed the identity of a German named Hoffman to emigrate to the United States. He traveled viaSiberia and Japan to California, eventually settling in New York, where he facilitated the immigration of other family members. Hoffman's paternal grandparents, Morris and Anna Shapoznikoff, immigrated to the U.S. around 1910.[9]
During his school days, he became known as a troublemaker who started fights, played pranks, vandalized school property, and referred to teachers by their first names. In his second year, Hoffman was expelled fromClassical High School, a now-closed public high school in Worcester.[10] As an atheist,[11] Hoffman wrote a paper declaring that, "God could not possibly exist, for if he did, there wouldn't be any suffering in the world." The irate teacher ripped up the paper and called him "a Communist punk." Hoffman jumped on the teacher and started fighting him until he was restrained and removed from the school.[12] On June 3, 1954, 17-year-old Hoffman was arrested for the first time, for driving without a license. After his expulsion, he attendedWorcester Academy, graduating in 1955. Hoffman engaged in many behaviors typical of rebellious teenagers in the 1950s, such as riding motorcycles, wearingleather jackets, and sporting aducktail haircut.
Upon graduating, he enrolled at nearbyBrandeis University, where he studied under professors such as notedpsychologistAbraham Maslow, often considered the father ofhumanistic psychology.[13] He was also a student ofMarxist theoristHerbert Marcuse, who Hoffman said had a profound effect on his political outlook. Hoffman would later cite Marcuse's influence during his activism and his theories on revolution. He was on the Brandeis tennis team, which was coached by journalistBud Collins.[14] Hoffman graduated with aB.A. inpsychology in 1959. That fall, he enrolled at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where he completed coursework toward a master's degree in psychology. Soon after, he married his girlfriend Sheila Karklin in May 1960.
Before his days as a leading member of theYippie movement, Hoffman was involved with theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and organized Liberty House, which sold items to support thecivil rights movement in the southern United States. During theVietnam War, Hoffman was ananti-war activist, using deliberately comical and theatrical tactics.
In late 1966, Hoffman met with a radical community-action group called theDiggers[15] and studied their ideology. He later returned to New York and published a book with this knowledge.[15] Doing so was considered a violation by the Diggers. Diggers co-founderPeter Coyote explained:
Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on the Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York, which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids fromScarsdale.[16]
One of Hoffman's well-known stunts was on August 24, 1967, when he led members of the movement to the gallery of theNew York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The protesters threw fistfuls of real and fakedollar bills down to thetraders below, some of whom booed, while others began to scramble frantically to grab the money as fast as they could.[17] Accounts of the amount of money that Hoffman and the group tossed was said to be as little as $30 to $300.[18] Hoffman claimed to be pointing out that,metaphorically, that's what NYSE traders "were already doing." "We didn't call the press," wrote Hoffman, "At that time we really had no notion of anything called amedia event." Yet the press was quick to react and by evening the event was reported around the world. After that incident, the stock exchange spent $20,000 (approximately equivalent to $189,000 in 2024) to enclose the gallery with bulletproof glass.[19]
In October 1967,David Dellinger of theNational Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam askedJerry Rubin to help mobilize and direct a march onthe Pentagon.[20] The protesters gathered at theLincoln Memorial as Dellinger andDr. Benjamin Spock gave speeches to the mass of people.[21] From there, the group marched towards the Pentagon. As the protesters neared the Pentagon, they were met by soldiers of the82nd Airborne Division[21] who formed a human barricade blocking the Pentagon steps.[20] Not to be dissuaded, Hoffman vowed to levitatethe Pentagon[21] claiming he would attempt to usepsychic energy to levitate the Pentagon until it would turn orange and begin to vibrate, at which time the war in Vietnam would end.[22]Allen Ginsberg led Tibetan chants to assist Hoffman.[21]
Hoffman was a member of a group of defendants that became known as theChicago Seven (originally known as the Chicago Eight), which included fellow YippieJerry Rubin,David Dellinger,Rennie Davis,John Froines,Lee Weiner,Tom Hayden, andBobby Seale (before his trial was severed from the others), who were charged by the United States federal government with conspiracy, crossing state lines with intent to incite a riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War andcountercultural protests in Chicago, Illinois during the1968 Democratic National Convention.
Presided over by JudgeJulius Hoffman (no relation to Hoffman, about which he joked throughout the trial[23]), Abbie Hoffman's courtroom antics frequently grabbed the headlines; one day, defendants Hoffman and Rubin appeared in court dressed in judicial robes, while on another day, Hoffman was sworn in as a witness with his hand givingthe finger. Judge Hoffman became the favorite courtroom target of the Chicago Seven defendants, who frequently would insult the judge to his face.[24] Abbie Hoffman told Judge Hoffman "you are ashande fur de goyim [disgrace in front of the gentiles]. You would have servedHitler better." He later added that "your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room."[24] Both Davis and Rubin told the judge, "This court is bullshit." When Hoffman was asked in what state he resided, he replied the "state of mind of my brothers and sisters."
Other celebrities were called as "cultural witnesses" includingAllen Ginsberg,Phil Ochs,Arlo Guthrie,Judy Collins,Norman Mailer and others. Hoffman closed the trial with a speech in which he quotedAbraham Lincoln, making the claim that the president himself, were he alive today, would also have been arrested in Chicago's Lincoln Park.
On February 18, 1970, Hoffman and four of the other defendants (Rubin, Dellinger, Davis, and Hayden) were found guilty of intent to incite a riot while crossing state lines. All seven defendants were found not guilty of conspiracy. At sentencing, Hoffman suggested the judge tryLSD and offered to set him up with "a dealer he knew in Florida." (The judge was known to be headed to Florida for a post-trial vacation.) Each of the five was sentenced to five years in prison and given a $5,000 fine (equivalent to $40,000 in 2024).[25]
However, all convictions were subsequently overturned by theSeventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
AtWoodstock in 1969, Hoffman interruptedthe Who's performance to attempt to speak against the jailing ofJohn Sinclair of theWhite Panther Party. He grabbed a microphone and yelled, "I think this is a pile of shit while John Sinclair rots in prison ..."Pete Townshend was adjusting his amplifier between songs and turned to look at Hoffman over his left shoulder. Townshend shouted "Fuck off! Fuck off my fucking stage!"[26][27][28] and reportedly ran at Hoffman with his guitar and hit Hoffman in the back, although Townshend later denied attacking Hoffman.[29] Townshend later said that while he actually agreed with Hoffman on Sinclair'simprisonment, he would have knocked him offstage regardless of the content of his message, given that Hoffman had violated the "sanctity of the stage," i.e., the right of the band to perform uninterrupted by distractions not relevant to the show. The incident took place during a camera change and was not captured on film. The audio of this incident, however, can be heard on The Who's box setThirty Years of Maximum R&B (Disc 2, Track 20, "Abbie Hoffman Incident").
InWoodstock Nation, Hoffman mentions the incident and says he was on abad LSD trip at the time.Joe Shea, then a reporter for theTimes Herald-Record, a local newspaper that covered the event on-site, said he saw the incident. He recalled that Hoffman was actually hit in the back of the head by Townshend's guitar and toppled directly into the pit in front of the stage. He does not recall any "shove" from Townshend, and discounts both men's accounts.[30]
In 1971, Hoffman publishedSteal This Book, which advised readers on how to live for free. (Many readers followed his advice and stole the book, leading many bookstores to refuse to carry it.) The book contained a section called "Free Communication," in which Hoffman encourages his readership to take to the stage at rock concerts to use the pre-assembled audience and PA system to get their message out. However, he mentions that "interrupting the concert is frowned upon since it is only spitting in the faces of people you are trying to reach."[28]
Hoffman was also the author of several other books, includingVote! co-written with Rubin andEd Sanders.[31]
Hoffman was arrested on August 28, 1973, for intent to sell and distribute cocaine. He always maintained that undercover police agents entrapped him into a drug deal and planted suitcases of cocaine in his office. In the spring of 1974, Hoffman skipped bail, underwent cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance, and hid from authorities for several years.[32]
Some believed that Hoffman made himself a target. In 1998,Peter Coyote stated:
The FBI couldn't infiltrate us. We did everything anonymously, and we did everything for nothing because we wanted our actions to be authentic. It's the mistake that Abbie Hoffman made. He came out, he studied with us, we taught him everything, and then he went back and wrote a book calledFree, and he put his name on it! He set himself up to be a leader of the counterculture, and he was undone by that. Big mistake.[33]
Hoffman lived under the name Barry Freed inFineview, New York, nearThousand Island Park, a private resort on theSt. Lawrence River. He helped coordinate an environmental campaign to preserve the St. Lawrence River.[34] Hoffman also was the travel columnist forCrawdaddy! magazine. On September 4, 1980, he surrendered to authorities, and he appeared the same day on a pre-taped edition of ABC's20/20 in an interview withBarbara Walters.[35] Hoffman received a one-year sentence but was released after four months.
In November 1986, Hoffman was arrested along with 14 others, includingAmy Carter, the daughter of former PresidentJimmy Carter, for trespassing at theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst.[36] The charges stemmed from a protest against theCentral Intelligence Agency's recruitment on the UMass campus.[37] Since the university's policy limited campus recruitment to law-abiding organizations, the defense argued that the CIA engaged in illegal activities. The federal district court judge permitted expert witnesses, including former Attorney GeneralRamsey Clark and a former CIA agent who testified that the CIA carried on an illegalContra war against theSandinista government inNicaragua in violation of theBoland Amendment.[38]
In three days of testimony, more than a dozen defense witnesses, includingDaniel Ellsberg, and former Contra leaderÉdgar Chamorro, described the CIA's role in more than two decades of covert, illegal, and often violent activities. In his closing argument, Hoffman, acting as his own attorney, placed his actions within the best tradition of Americancivil disobedience. He quoted fromThomas Paine, "the most outspoken and farsighted of the leaders of theAmerican Revolution: 'Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. Man has no property in man, neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.'"
Hoffman concluded: "Thomas Paine was talking about this Spring day in this courtroom. A verdict of not guilty will say, 'When our country is right, keep it right; but when it is wrong, right those wrongs.'" On April 15, 1987, the jury found Hoffman and the other defendants not guilty.[39]
After his acquittal,[37] Hoffman acted in acameo appearance inOliver Stone's later-released anti-Vietnam War film,Born on the Fourth of July (1989).[40] He essentially played himself in the movie, waving a flag on theramparts of an administration building during a campus protest that was beingteargassed and crushed by state troopers.
Despite his return to activism, Hoffman also grew frustrated with the growing unwillingness of the younger generation to engage in protests.[13]
In 1987 Hoffman summed up his views:
You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have aCIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tightoligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.[36]
Later that same year, Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers wroteSteal This Urine Test (published October 5, 1987), which exposed the internal contradictions of thewar on drugs and suggested ways to circumvent its most intrusive measures. Although Hoffman's satiric humor was on display throughout the book,Publishers Weekly wrote that "the extensive, in-depth research and a barrage of facts and figures ... make this the definitive guide to the current drug-testing environment."[41]
Stone'sBorn on the Fourth of July was released on December 20, 1989, just eight months after Hoffman's suicide on April 12, 1989. At the time of his death, Hoffman was at the height of a renewed public visibility, one of the few 1960s radicals who still commanded the attention of the media. He regularly lectured about the CIA's covert activities, including assassinations disguised as suicides. HisPlayboy article (October 1988) outlining the connections that constitute the "October Surprise", brought that alleged conspiracy to the attention of a wide-ranging American readership for the first time.[42]
In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin (1938-2021),[12] and had two children. Hoffman and Karklin divorced in 1966. In 1967, he marriedAnita Kushner (1942-1998) in Manhattan'sCentral Park.[43] They had one son. He and Kushner were effectively separated when Hoffman became a fugitive in 1973, although they were not formally divorced until 1980. While underground, Hoffman's companion was Johanna Lawrenson.
His personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), whose file on him was 13,262 pages long.[44]
Hoffman was found dead in his apartment inSolebury Township, Pennsylvania, on April 12, 1989, age 52. The cause of death was suicide by overdose from 150phenobarbital tablets and liquor. Two hundred pages of handwritten notes were nearby, many detailing his moods. He had been diagnosed withbipolar disorder in 1980.[13] He had recently changed treatment medications and was reportedly depressed when his 83-year-old mother was diagnosed with cancer (she died in 1996 at age 90). Some who were close to him claimed that he was also unhappy about reachingmiddle age,[45] combined with the fact that the liberal upheaval and rebelliousness of the 1960s and 1970s had been followed by a conservative backlash in the 1980s.[45] In 1984, he had expressed dismay that the current generation of young people were not as interested in protesting and social activism as the youth had been during the 1960s.[13]
His death was officially ruled a suicide. Hoffman's fellow Chicago Seven defendantDavid Dellinger disputed this; he said, "I don't believe for one moment the suicide thing" and said that Hoffman had "numerous plans for the future."[46] However, the coroner stood by the ruling, saying, "There is no way to take that amount of phenobarbital without intent. It was intentional and self-inflicted."[45]
His memorial service was held a week later inWorcester, Massachusetts, atTemple Emanuel, the synagogue that he attended as a child, with 1,000 friends and family members in attendance.[46]
Hoffman is featured in interviews and archival news footage in the following documentaries:
According to Abbie, the teacher took issue with his defense of atheism.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
