Jerry Rubin
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| Jerry Rubin | |
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_-_Spectrum_13Mar1970.jpg) Rubin speaking at the University at Buffalo in March 1970 |
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| Born | July 14, 1938 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
| Died | November 28, 1994 (aged 56) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | high-profile American social activist Author, DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution entrepreneur, businessman |
Jerry Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was a American radical social activist during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman.
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[edit] Early life
Rubin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of a bread delivery man and union representative, and grew up in the then-upscale Avondale neighborhood.
Rubin's parents died within 10 months of each other, leaving Rubin the only person to take care of his younger brother, Gil, who was 13 at the time. Jerry wanted to teach Gil about the world and decided to take him to India. When relatives threatened to fight to obtain custody of Gil, Jerry decided to take his brother to Tel-Aviv instead. There Rubin studied sociology whilst his brother, who had learned Hebrew, decided to stay in Israel and moved to a kibbutz. Before returning to social and political activism, Rubin made a visit to Cuba despite the law forbidding Americans to travel there. However, the trip (especially after an encounter with activist Che Guevara), proved to be highly inspirational to Rubin, and thus furthered his ambitions.
Rubin attended Cincinnati's Walnut Hills High School, co-editing the school newspaper, The Chatterbox and graduating in 1956. While in high school Rubin began to write for The Cincinnati Post, compiling sports scores from high school games. He later went on to graduate from the University of Cincinnati, receiving a degree in sociology. Rubin attended the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964 but dropped out to focus on social activism.
[edit] Social activism
Rubin began to demonstrate on behalf of various left-wing causes after dropping out of Berkeley. Rubin also ran for mayor of Berkeley, receiving over twenty per cent of the vote. Having been unsuccessful, Rubin turned all his attentions to political protest. His first protest was in Berkeley, protesting the refusal of a local grocer to hire African Americans. Soon Rubin was leading protests of his own.
Rubin organized the Vietnam Day Committee, led some of the first protests against the war in Vietnam, and was one of the founding members of the Youth International Party or Yippies, along with social and political activist Abbie Hoffman. He played an instrumental role in the anti-war demonstrations that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago by helping to organize the Yippie "Festival of Life" in Lincoln Park and speaking at an anti-war rally at the Grant Park bandshell on August 28, 1968. Violence between Chicago police and demonstrators (which an official government report called a "police riot") eventually led to the indictment of Rubin and seven others (Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, John Froines, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, Tom Hayden, and Bobby Seale) on several charges of conspiracy and incitement to riot.[1]
The defendants were commonly referred to as the "Chicago Eight." Seale's trial, however, was severed from the others after he demanded the right to serve as his own lawyer and was sentenced to four years in prison for contempt of court, making the Chicago Eight the Chicago Seven. Rubin, along with the six other defendants, was found not guilty on the charge of conspiracy but guilty (with four other defendants) on the charge of incitement. He was also sentenced by the judge to more than three years in prison for contempt of court. All the convictions for incitement were later thrown out by an appeals court, who cited judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. Most of the contempt of court citations were also overturned on appeal.[2]
[edit] Author
Jerry Rubin's anti-establishment beliefs were put down in writing in his book, DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution, with an introduction by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver and unconventional design by Quentin Fiore. In 1971, his journal, written while incarcerated in the Cook County Jail, was published under the title We are Everywhere. The book includes an inside view of the trial of the Chicago Seven, but otherwise focuses on the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, LSD, women's liberation and his view of a coming revolution.
In 1976, Rubin wrote another book entitled Growing (Up) at Thirty-Seven, which contained a chapter narrating his experience at an Erhard Seminars Training (EST) session that was later included in the reader "American Spiritualities."
- DO IT! was also the inspiration for a track of the same name on the 1972 Aphrodite's Child album 666.[1] It was also the apparent inspiration for the titles of two other books: Eat It: A Cookbook by Dana Crumb and Grow It! The Beginner's Complete In-Harmony With Nature Small Farm Guide by Richard W. Langer.
[edit] Death
On November 14, 1994, Rubin jaywalked on Wilshire Boulevard, near UCLA in Los Angeles, California. It was a weekday evening and, as usual, traffic was heavy, with three lanes in each direction. A car swerved to miss Rubin and a second car (immediately behind the first) was unable to avoid him. He was taken to the UCLA Medical Center, where he died 14 days later. He is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
[edit] Quotations
"I fell in love with Charlie Manson the first time I saw his cherub face and sparkling eyes on TV."[3]
"His words and courage inspired us" - Rubin wrote concerning Charles Manson in his book, We Are Everywhere.[4]
Often incorrectly credited for coining the phrase "Never trust anyone over 30."[5]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Schultz, John (2009). No One Was Killed: The Democratic National Convention, August 1968. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226740782. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?isbn=9780226740782.
- ^ Schultz, John (2009). The Chicago Conspiracy Trial: Revised Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226741147. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?isbn=9780226741147.
- ^ Bugliosi, Vincent (1974). Helter Skelter. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 502. ISBN 039308700X, 9780393087000.
- ^ Rubin, Jerry (1971). We Are Everywhere. Harper & Row. pp. 255. ISBN 006013724X, 9780060137243.
- ^ Before Jerry Rubin
[edit] External links
- Berger, Joseph (1994-12-04). "Born to Be Wild. Scratch That. Born to Be Mild.". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDB1639F937A35751C1A962958260. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
- Horstman, Barry M (1999-05-04). "Jerry Rubin: Activist changed his rap". The Cincinnati Post (E. W. Scripps Company). Archived from the original on 2007-08-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20070818191620/http://www.cincypost.com/living/1999/rubin050499.html.
- Welter, Ben (2006-11-12). "April 1970: Jerry Rubin leads Honeywell protest". Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Avista Capital Partners). http://www.startribune.com/blogs/oldnews/?p=126.
- Jerry Rubin at Find a Grave
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