Kathy Boudin

During the 1960’s, an organization called Students for a Democratic Society (S.D.S.) formed in U.S. colleges and universities to fight against racism, inequality, and the war in Vietnam. One of the most militant factions of this organization was the “Weathermen,” who took their name from a Bob Dylan song, a line of which went, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” While the Weathermen did not believe in killing people, they claimed responsibility for exploding bombs in at least sixteen government and corporate buildings, and thus became “The Weather Underground,” in hiding for twelve years. Kathy Boudin, a member of the Weather Underground, ultimately wound up serving more than twenty years in prison for her role in a Brinks truck robbery. Whatever you think of her politics, she most certainly was an in-your-face woman, willing to sacrifice her own peace and comfort in the attempt to bring what she saw as necessary, positive changes to her nation.