SANTA MONICA—On Sunday, October 23, civil rights and anti-war activist, politician, and author, Tom Hayden died at the age of 76. He passed away at the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica from complications from getting ill from a stroke he suffered in 2015, his wife informed the Associated Press.
Hayden was married to Canadian actress, singer, and author Barbara Williams, and is survived by a son and two other children from a previous marriage with actress Jane Fonda.
Hayden was a political figure who during the 1960s was a freedom rider in the South. He was also an anti-war activist, against the Vietnam War. In 1965, he took a trip to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, to devise peace talks. In 1968, he helped organize street demonstrations against the war at the Chicago Democratic Convention. He was beaten and arrested and was indicted in 1969 with six others on conspiracy and indictment charges in what was known as the “Chicago Seven.”
Hayden and the others were the first to be charged under the 1968 Civil Rights Act that made it a crime to “travel in interstate commerce…with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot.” According to CNN, he was later acquitted of all charges in 1973 after a federal appeal court overturned his conviction.
In 1982, Hayden was elected to the California Assembly. In 1992, he won the state senate seat. After his career in legislation, he continued his efforts in anti-war by directing the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City to promote opposition to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hayden is the author of over 20 books during his lifetime.
