Emmett Grogan

By 1967 articles about hippie culture had been published in magazines and newspapers across the country along with hundreds of photos of long-haired teens with flowers in their hair. As a result of this media blitz thousands of young people from across the nation made their way to HaightAshbury, San Francisco's hippie neighborhood. Unfortunately, these teenagers had no money, nowhere to live, and were easy marks for street hustlers and other criminals.

In response to this problem, a group of hippies formed an organization called the Diggers, named after a seventeenthcentury English political faction who believed in free access to private lands for poor farmers. The San Francisco Diggers began feeding people for free every day in Golden Gate Park with food stolen or donated from commercial producers. Emmett Grogan, along with his best friend Billy Landout, were...