"During that time his infatuation with street fighting grew and he developed a language of confrontational militancy that became more and more pronounced over the year ", disaffected former Weathermen member Cathy Wilkerson wrote in 2001. Before the June 1969 SDS convention, Ayers became a prominent leader of the group, which arose as a result of a schism in SDS. The group Ayers headed in Detroit, Michigan, became one of the earliest gatherings of what became the Weathermen. He rose to national prominence as an SDS leader in 19 as head of an SDS regional group, the " Jesse James Gang". Early activism Īyers became involved in the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). There also he met Diana Oughton, who would become his girlfriend until her death in 1970 after a bomb exploded while being prepared for Weather Underground activities. Within a few months, at age 21, Ayers became director of the school. Schools in the movement had no grades or report cards they aimed to encourage cooperation rather than competition, and pupils addressed teachers by their first names. The school was a part of the nationwide " free school movement". His first teaching job came shortly afterward at the Children's Community School, a preschool with a very small enrollment operating in a church basement, founded by a group of students in emulation of the Summerhill method of education. His first arrest came for a sit-in at a local draft board, resulting in ten days in jail. In 1965, Ayers joined a picket line protesting an Ann Arbor, Michigan pizzeria for refusing to seat African Americans. To stand still was to choose indifference. (His father, mother and older brother had preceded him there.) Īyers was affected at a 1965 Ann Arbor teach-in against the Vietnam War, when Students for a Democratic Society ( SDS) President Paul Potter, asked his audience, "How will you live your life so that it doesn't make a mockery of your values?" Ayers later wrote in his memoir, Fugitive Days, that his reaction was: "You could not be a moral person with the means to act, and stand still. Ayers earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from the University of Michigan in 1968. He attended public schools until his second year in high school, when he transferred to Lake Forest Academy, a small prep school. Ayers College of Commerce and Industry was named. Ayers, who was later chairman and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Edison (1973 to 1980), and for whom Northwestern's Thomas G. His parents were Mary (née Andrew) and Thomas G. He is married to lawyer and Clinical Law Professor Bernardine Dohrn, who was also a leader in the Weather Underground.Īyers grew up in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. presidential campaign, a controversy arose over his contacts with then-candidate Barack Obama. The bombings, which caused no fatalities, except for three members killed when one of the group's own devices accidentally exploded, resulted in Ayers being hunted as a fugitive for several years, until charges were dropped due to illegal actions by the FBI agents pursuing him and others.Īyers is a retired professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, formerly holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. In 1969, Ayers co-founded the Weather Underground, a revolutionary group modeled on the Red Guards in China active at the same time, that sought to overthrow " American imperialism." The Weather Underground conducted a campaign of bombing public buildings (including police stations, the United States Capitol, and the Pentagon) during the 1960s and 1970s in response to U.S. William Charles Ayers ( / ɛər z/ born December 26, 1944) rose to prominence during the 1960s as an activist.ĭuring the 1960s, Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground militant group, described by the FBI as a terrorist group.
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