Progressive activist Tom Hayden, who was a freedom rider, a community organizer and a civil rights activist who became most famous for his anti-Vietnam war efforts, died on Sunday from complications related to a stroke earlier last year, said his wife Barbara Williams. He was 76.
A founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society, Hayden wrote the first draft of the Port Huron Statement, a student manifesto that became the foundation for demonstrations against the unpopular war.
Hayden was prosecuted in the “Chicago Seven” conspiracy trial, after he helped organize protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, although the charge was later overturned, writes Camila Domonoske.
Hayden was married several times — most famously to Jane Fonda, whom he met during the early years protesting the war, for 17 years.
