36 Facts About Tom Hayden

Thomas Emmet Hayden was an American social and political activist, author, and politician.

Tom Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring the Port Huron Statement and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case.

Tom Hayden was married to Jane Fonda for 17 years, and is the father of actor Troy Garity.

Thomas Emmet Tom Hayden was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, to parents of Irish ancestry, Genevieve Isabelle and John Francis Tom Hayden.

Tom Hayden's father was a former Marine who worked for Chrysler as an accountant and was a violent alcoholic.

When Tom Hayden was 10, his parents divorced, and his mother raised him.

Tom Hayden grew up attending a church led by Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest noted for his anti-Semitic teachings, and who was known nationally during the time of The Great Depression as the "radio priest".

Tom Hayden served as the editor for the school newspaper, and in his farewell column in the newspaper, he used the first letter of successive paragraphs to spell "Go to hell".

Tom Hayden then attended the University of Michigan, where he was editor of the Michigan Daily.

At the National Student Association convention in Minneapolis in August 1960, Tom Hayden witnessed a dramatic intervention by Sandra Cason.

Undeterred at having been beaten senseless by a white mob in McComb, Mississippi, while covering the Freedom Rides for the National Student News, Tom Hayden himself became a Freedom Rider.

Tom Hayden was called to a meeting where, refusing any further concession, he clashed with Michael Harrington, as he later would with Irving Howe.

Tom Hayden later recalled that in contrast to the interminable debates she had witnessed in Ann Arbor, in SNCC discussions the focus was on action and women had a voice.

That year, with other SNCC women, Casey Tom Hayden coauthored "Sex and Caste" since regarded as a founding document of second-wave feminism.

President of the United Packinghouse Workers of America Ralph Helstein arranged for Tom Hayden to meet with Saul Alinsky.

Tom Hayden was there to witness the 1967 Newark Riots which, in Rebellion in Newark, he tried to place in a larger social and economic context.

In 1968, Tom Hayden joined the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, and played a major role in the protests outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Tom Hayden founded the Indochina Peace Campaign, which operated from 1972 to 1975.

Tom Hayden was revealed to have developed a friendship with Sen.

Tom Hayden later served in the California State Assembly and the State Senate.

Tom Hayden mounted a bid in the Democratic primary for California Governor during 1994 on the theme of campaign finance reform and ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 1997, losing to incumbent Republican Richard Riordan.

Tom Hayden served as a member of the advisory board for the Progressive Democrats of America, an organization created to increase progressive political cooperation and influence within the Democratic Party.

Tom Hayden served on the advisory board of the Levantine Cultural Center, a nonprofit organization founded in Los Angeles in 2001 that champions cultural literacy about the Middle East and North Africa.

Tom Hayden was known widely in California as a staunch endorser of animal rights and was responsible for writing the bill popularly known as the Tom Hayden Act, which improved protection of pets and extended holding periods for pets confined as strays or surrendered to shelters.

In 2016, Tom Hayden ran to be one of California's representatives to the Democratic National Committee.

Tom Hayden claimed that he never endorsed Sanders and only supported his campaign with the hope that it would push Clinton's policies leftward.

Tom Hayden maintained that he remained radical towards the end of his life, commenting, "I'm Jefferson in terms of democracy," he said, "I'm Thoreau in terms of environment, and Crazy Horse in terms of social movements".

Tom Hayden was a teaching assistant at the University of Michigan Journalism Department in the early 1960s.

Tom Hayden taught at Occidental College and at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.

Tom Hayden taught a class at University of California, Los Angeles on protests from Port Huron to the present.

Tom Hayden was the author or editor of 19 books, including The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama, Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader, and his memoir, Reunion, and served on the editorial board of The Nation.

Tom Hayden was married to actress and social activist Jane Fonda for 17 years, and was the father of actor Troy Garity.

Tom Hayden lived in Los Angeles beginning in 1971 and was married to his third wife, Barbara Williams, at the time of his death.

Tom Hayden died at a hospital in Santa Monica, California, on October 23,2016, aged 76.

Williams told The New York Times that Tom Hayden had a history of heart problems and his health had declined in the preceding months.

Tom Hayden was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, where he was the first interment in "Eternal Meadow," an eco-friendly section.