In 1960 fifty-percent of the American population was below the age of 18.  This surplus of youth led to a very unsure time in the 1960's.  People began to notice that we live in a democracy which is for the people and by the people; and many people decided to excercise their rights in order to achieve social change, this period was known as "The Civil Rights Movement".  Women were protesting for equal rights as men, The Black Panthers were fighting for equal rights as whites, and the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) were trying to correct the corruption and injustice of the United States government.  The main goal of the SDS was to get US citzens to get more involved with their government politically, in this "participatory democracy".

   The SDS was a group of student activist that formed in 1959.  Their intentions in the beiginning was to help out with the civil rights movement and to improve living conditions of the harsh ghettos scattered across the US.  Later the group became heavily involved with protesting the Vietnam War.  SDS was supposed to be a non-violent activist group however; the group slowly became more and more militant.  Eventually in 1969 the SDS had finally dissolved into nothingness while a majority of its members split up into seperate factions such as the "Progressive Labor Party", "Revolutionary Union", and the infamous "Weathermen".

   The Weathermen were a group of extreme left-wing radicals that wrecked havoc upon the United States in the late sixties and early seventies.  The reason that they split from the SDS to form their own faction was because they disagreed with the peacful protest startiges.  They wanted action and they wanted it NOW!  Some may consider the Weathermen were a terrorist group, which they certianly may qualify for.  However; they were fighting for what seemed to be a probable cause.  They might not have needed to go to such extreme lengths to get the point across, but thats what makes them so intriguing.

   The Weathermen were on a mission to engrave their name into this country's heart.  They wanted to become well known so they could recruit more people and become a larger and more powerful force; they had sort of a socialist sort of view.  In dire needs of more recruits, and desperate for action, the Weathermen began what was planned to be a four day protest through Chicago on October 6th, 1969 known as "The Days of Rage".  They chose Chicago because they wanted revenge on the Chicago Police Department, who had brutally beaten several demonstartors (lead by the infamous "Chicago 7" during the 1968 Democratic Convention.

   In the midst of the evening on October 6th the Weathermen blew up a statue dedicated to policemen  in Chicago's Haymarket Square.   Hundreds of window shattered from the shockwave of the explosion.  The cops were aware of their presence and had a tight eye on the crew.  On wednesday evening an anticipated thousands of demonstrators failed to show and left the Weathermen with only 300 people or so.  They were all heavily armed and ready to wreck complete havoc upon Chicago.  Many weilded helmets, goggles, gas measks, clubs, lead pipes, brass knuckles and baseball bats which were intented to be used upon anything that stood in their way on that fateful night.  The cops reported hearing the group shouting out "Battle of Algiers" war cries.  COMPLETE CHAOS BROKE LOOSE!  The small but strong hearted crowd of three-hundred Weathermen or so flooded the streets of Chicago breaking windows to banks, cars, bars, and breaking anything else they saw in sight.  They plowed over anything and everything in their way on a misson to destroy.  A few stray group members that were seperated from the pack didn't give up, the cops had to beat them into submission.  As the remaining crowd of Weathermen marched on they noticed a barricade of cops.  The group marched on full bore into a full fledged fight, many cops and group members were injured and around 70 Weathermen were in police custody.

   After the Weathermen let the city cool down for a few days they decided to begin another riot.  They went out on another mission to destroy and did so sucessfully.  Only this time the cops were prepared and ended up arresting more than half of the remaining crew.  The remaining Weathermen were unsure of the situation and went back to the drawing board...

   December 1969 marked a very important month for the Weathermen.  It was in December that Frank Hampton, a member of the Black Panthers, was murdered in his own apartment during a police raid.  It is still unknown to the public weather Hampton's death was premeditated or the police had to shot Hampton to save his own life.  The Weathermen believed that the whole ordeal was premeditated and the cops knew they were to go in and kill Hampton.

   December 1969 marked the time that a select few of the Weathermen dropped out of society and went "underground" and went by "The Weathermen Underground" from then out.  They were fed up with their injust and corrupted government and decided to take the demonstrations to the next level.  The Weathermen Underground planned to overthrow the government with a set of carefully planned bombings over the next 11 months.  The bombs were usually planted somewhere of political signifigance, where they could get what they believed was revenge.  (Note that the Weathermen never intended to harm a human being with these bombings.  They would call in an hour prior to detonation to make sure that everyone would safely evacuate the building.  They were trying to overthrow the government, not murder innocent bystandards).

   The Weathermen Underground started with a bombing of a New York City judge who was involved with a case over the Black Panthers.  Maybe this was a revenge of sorts for the murder of Frank Hampton?  Another bomb was set off in a bathroom in the Pentagon after President Nixon ordered for a series of bombings in North Vietnam.  A bomb was also detonated at New York State Department of Corrections after the Attica Prison riot.

   Fatefully on March 8 1970, three members of the Weathermen Underground were killed in an explosion in James Wilkerson's (his daughter Kathy Wilkerson was a member of the "Underground" and allowed fellow members to use her father's home to make the bomb) home in Greenwich Village, NY while they were trying to make a bomb.  These victims were Diana Oughten, Ted Gold, and Terry Robbins.

   In September 1970 the Weathermen Underground sucessfully helped acid-guru of the 1960's Timothy Leary escape from prison and let him come into hiding with them. 

   Timothy Leary's escape from prison was really the last we heard from the Weathermen.  Every couple of years those who were brave enough would resurface back into society.  Some of those lucky enough to go unnoticed and slip back into their own lives and some being caught and put up against the US judicial system, the very system they despise so much. 

   The unofficial end of the Weathermen was in 1981 when Kathy Boudin comes out of hiding to commit armed robbery in Nanuet, New York.  The end result is the death of three men.  Boudin was sentenced to 22 years in prison and recently released last year.

   Bernardine Dohrn was one of the front runners of the Weathermen Underground.  She spent the 1970's living underground and was on the FBI's top ten list.  She is now a professor and director at Northwestern University in the Children and Justice Center.

Dohrn in hiding in the 1970's San Francisco Bay Area

Snapshot of Dhorn while she declares war against the US government

Mugshot of Dohrn taken in late 1969.

   When the Weathermen fell apart David Gilbert joined the Black Liberation Army and went deeper into the revolution.  He is currently serving a life sentence in Attica Correctional Facility for being involved in an armed robbery gone wrong in 1981 with his wife Kathy Boudin (also a former member of the Weathermen) .

Gilbert's mugshot after being arrested in 1981 with his wife.

   Bill Ayers (former member) is now a professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  He lived "underground" for ten years and wrote a book about his tribulations entitled Fugitive Days.  Ayers is also married to Bernardine Dohrn (former Weathermen leader).

One of Ayers mugshots.

Picture of the Cover of Ayer's book entitled Fugitive Days.

   Mark Rudd was also a big leader in the Weathermen.  Rudd is most famous for his protest at Columbia in 1968.  He lived underground for several years during the seventies along with many of his fellow members.  Rudd is currently a teacher in New Mexico.

Yet another mugshot, this time of Mark Rudd.

There were many other members of the Weathermen Underground who are not mentioned above...