50th Anniversary of the Port Huron Statement
EXHIBIT of SDS and SNCC artifacts and photos
Entryway of UW Memorial Library, Tuesday, May 1 through Saturday, June 30
CARL DAVIDSON: “Revolutionary Youth as a Critical Force: From One Generation to the Next”
Wednesday, May 2, 7pm, Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse, 1101 Williamson Street
TOM HAYDEN: “Participatory Democracy: From Port Huron to the Wisconsin Recall”
Thursday, May 3, 7pm, Room 180 Science Hall – UW-Madison campus
This June will be the 50th anniversary of the completion of the final draft of the Port Huron Statement. According to Kirkpatrick Sale’s SDS, published in 1970 (and still the most comprehensive history of the Students for a Democratic Society), the Port Huron Statement “may have been the most widely distributed document of the American left in the sixties,” with 60,000 copies printed and sold for 35 cents each between 1962 and 1966. SDS held its first meeting in 1960 on the University of Michigan campus at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Its political manifesto, the Port Huron Statement, was adopted at the organization’s first convention on June 15, 1962. April 2012 also marks the 52nd anniversary of the founding of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, a critical part of the movement by African Americans fighting for their civil rights. The archives of both SDS and SNCC were acquired by the Wisconsin Historical Society under the directorship of Leslie Fishel Jr. (1959-1969), which today constitutes the most important repositories documenting social change over the last century anywhere.
Sponsors for this series of events include: The A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change, The Harvey Goldberg Center for the Study of Contemporary History, The Socialist Potluck, The Grassroots Leadership College, WORT-FM Community Radio, and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
TOM HAYDEN was one of the founders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He served as president of SDS from 1962 to 1963 and drafted its most famous work, the Port Huron Statement. He is currently a peace & justice activist based in Los Angeles and founder and director of The Peace and Justice Resource Center.
CARL DAVIDSON was Vice President and National Secretary of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from 1968 to 1976. He is currently national co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and a national board member of Solidarity Economy Network.