Scene inside the courtroom following acquittal in the CIA protest trial: Abbie Hoffman talks to Amy Carter, April 16, 1987. Kathy Borchers Photojournalism Collection (PH 083). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries – Permalink
It wasn’t Abbie Hoffman’s finest moment. But it was one of them. It was a critical moment in 1987 when he and the daughter of a president protested against the presence of the CIA and CIA recruitment on the campus of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Abbie was 50. Amy was less than half his age. Together, they spanned the generation gap that sprawled across much of the 1980s. The daughter of a president and the co-founder of the Yippies and one of the eight defendants at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial showed that the American spirit of defiance had not evaporated into the thin air of the Reagan years. Nationally acclaimed lawyer, Lenny Weinglass, came out of semi-retirement and led the defense team for Amy and Abbie.
Along with Bill Kunstler, Weinglass had defended the Chicago Eight in a federal courtroom before Judge Julius Hoffman. Nearly two decades after that infamous trial, Weinglass was in a Massachusetts district courtroom, where Judge Richard Connor allowed testimony about the role of the CIA in Nicaragua. Weinglass argued “the necessity defense.” He insisted that the protesters had to commit a minor crime to prevent major crimes by the CIA from taking place. Amy had been charged with disorderly conduct.
Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Ramsey Clark, former US attorney general, testified for the defense. Abbie and Amy were found not guilty.
For the trial, Abbie coined and popularized the slogan “What’s so intelligent about the CIA?” which brought smiles to many of the faces of the spectators in the courtroom.
When Jimmy Carter died at 100, his daughter was briefly back in the news. The New York Times ran a story with the headline “Amy Carter, Thrust into the Public Eye at a Young Age, has since receded.“ The Times didn’t get the full story. Initially, Amy became newsworthy because her father was president. But she also intentionally thrust herself into the public eye years after Jimmy Carter left the White House.
One of her fourth grade teachers observed, “She is a private person and likes to live a private life.” That’s true, but she also chose to live a public life when it mattered greatly to her, to Abbie and to students at the University of Massachusetts. Amy chose to take a stand, albeit briefly, with one of the least private radicals of the 1960s/ 1970s. “Every time a person sacrifices themselves for a larger injustice, it aids in the cycle of change,” she said. Abbie might have said much the same. They were a knockout team and helped to educate a generation or two about the global crimes of the CIA.
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