Dohrn, Bernardine (1942–)

Former member of the violent revolutionary organization Weatherman, Bernardine Dohrn led the “Days of Rage” riots in Chicago and was once a notorious fugitive on the FBI's most wanted list.

While in law school at the University of Chicago, Dohrn had the opportunity to work with Martin Luther King, Jr., toward alleviating the poverty in Chicago. She also worked closely with the civil rights group Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her activism led her to become involved with an organization called Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), an activist group originally focused on promoting civil rights and ending the Vietnam War that became increasingly radical as the 1960s progressed.

After law school, Dohrn traveled around the United States to recruit members for SDS. One of SDS's largest protests occurred at Columbia University in 1968. Students had discovered that the university was secretly doing war research for the government, and they staged a riot. The police were called in to remove [Page 109]the protestors, forcibly when necessary. Following this event, Dohrn was elected the interorganizational secretary for the SDS. Although she was now a national officer, Dohrn felt that she was not taking enough risks to further the movement.

Dohrn became one of the more militant members of the SDS. At the National Convention in 1969, these members banded together and broke off from the SDS to form the militant faction known as the Weatherman, later Weather Underground. Their first and most well known action was the riots known as the “Days of Rage” in the streets of Chicago. Led by Dohrn on October 8, 1969, members of the Weatherman looted downtown Chicago and engaged in a struggle with the local police force for four days. In 1970, a bomb they were manufacturing in their Greenwich Village house exploded and killed three of their members: Diana Oughton, Ted Gold, and Terry Robbins. With the FBI hot on their heels, the Weatherman went underground and disappeared. Several members, including Dohrn, were on the FBI's “most wanted” list.

Dohrn married fellow member Billy Ayers, continued her work for the group underground, and remained one step ahead of the law for 11 years. On December 3, 1980, after having her second child and tired of hiding, she turned herself in to the authorities in Chicago. Her charges were reduced to misdemeanors and she was put on probation for three years. In the late 1990s, Dohrn was the Director of the Children and Family Justice Center at the Northwestern University School of Law.