The Weather Underground began as a college-based movement, emerging from the activist culture of the late 1960s. Initially operating in the open, it organized public demonstrations against what it saw as the “imperialist” policies of the United States. Its roots can be traced to 1969, when the group first convened under the banner of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
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By the mid-1970s, the Weather Underground had split into two distinct factions. The “Prairie Collective” remained relatively open and less violent, focusing on organizing and propaganda, while the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) embraced a more militant and clandestine approach. The May 19th cell collaborated with Black communist groups on a series of jailbreaks and carried out escalating armed robberies, culminating in the notorious 1981 Brinks armored truck heist, during which three people were killed. By 1986, law enforcement had dismantled both factions, with members either captured, imprisoned, or, in some cases, killed.
What distinguishes the Weather Underground is not merely their violent tactics, but the trajectories of their members post-activism. Bill Ayers, a co-founder of the group, became a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the 1990s, he collaborated with Barack Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a philanthropic organization. He later ghost wrote Obama’s memoirs.
The broader Weather Underground network also saw its members transition into academia and policy making. Bernardine Dohrn, another key figure, became a tenured professor at Northwestern University School of Law. These individuals have influenced educational and political landscapes, shaping policies and ideologies that persist today.
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