3/10/1981 Abbie Hoffman, Student Center Ballroom, Carbondale, IL

 40 years ago today...

March 10, 1981 - Carbondale, IL

Counterculture activist Abbie Hoffman spoke to a crowd of mostly college students at the Student Center ballroom at Southern Illinois University.

Hoffman, a leader of the loosely-organized Youth International Party ("Yippies"), is best known for being one of the infamous Chicago Seven convicted of inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Now a 22-year-old senior in college, I was just nine years of age when Hoffman was wrecking havoc at the convention and protesting the Vietnam war.  

The Flower Power movement had long passed and Hoffman was now irrelevant, but he began touring the college lecture circuit to raise money for his legal defense.  He had been busted for cocaine possession, jumped bail, and went underground for six years, changing his identity.  On the day he turned himself in he appeared on a national TV interview on 20/20 with Barbara Walters.  At the time of the speech, he was awaiting sentencing. 

His appearance was equal parts glorifying his history of anti-establishment activism while also ripping the government, politicians and recent events in a stand-up comedy-style delivery.  He encouraged students to protest against U.S. involvement in El Salvador.

Last year's Netflix movie "The Trial of the Chicago Seven" provides an account of these radicals attitudes and mindset.  Hoffman comes off as a loose cannon crazy cartoon character regularly insulting the judge.  Each of the Chicago Seven were sentenced to five years in prison and a fine, but all convictions were eventually overturned in court of appeals.

Several months after his appearance at SIU, Hoffman was sentenced to jail for the cocaine possession, but only served a few months.  He died eight years later of a drug overdose at age 52.