Born November 30, 1936
Worcester, Massachusetts
Died April 12, 1989
New Hope, Pennsylvania
Social activist and author
Abbie Hoffman was one of the most outspoken and outrageous radicals in American history. He combined biting humor with traditional organizing techniques to protest racism, war, capitalism, greed, polluting industries, and moral puritanism. In an effort to ridicule and devalue institutions he felt were evil, Hoffman threw money on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, tried to “levitate” the Pentagon, and turned a Chicago, Illinois, courtroom into a circus. Hoffman also made headlines as environmentalist “Barry Freed” (an alias Hoffman used) while on the run from cocaine charges in the 1970s.
Abbie (full name Abbott) Hoffman was born on November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the oldest of three children of John Hoffman and Florence Schanberg. John Hoffman was a pharmacist who, in the mid-1940s, founded a medical supply company. The rebellious Abbie and his disciplinarian father were constantly at odds. Abbie described his mother, on the other hand, as loving, accepting, and humorous. In his autobiography, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, Abbie credited his mother with shooing away the police when he switched license plates on cars in the neighborhood.
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