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Ann Arbor 200
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AADL Talks To: Bill Ayers, Former U-M Student Activist and Member of the SDS and Weather Underground

Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers, director of the Children's Community School in Ann Arbor, May 1968

Bill Ayers is a retired Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. During his time in Ann Arbor during the 1960s, he served as director of Ann Arbor's experimental Children's Community School; Education Secretary for the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); and co-founder of the militant Weather Underground organization, which originated in Ann Arbor in 1969 as a far left-wing revolutionary party. 

Ayers traces the path of his political awakening from wide-eyed college freshman to seasoned student organizer and educator. He reflects on the tumultuous moral dilemma he and many activists faced as the Vietnam War raged on in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He discusses the factionalism within the SDS leadership that resulted in the formation of the Weather Underground; how the strands of student activism during this turbulent time were rooted in the moral agenda outlined by Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; and his lifelong pedagogic commitment to education.

Bill Ayers, 1993
Bill Ayers at a Borders book signing, 1993

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Legacies Project Oral History: Russ Fuller

Russell M. Fuller was born in 1924 and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He married Barbara Stauffer in 1948 and they both attended the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago. After moving to Ann Arbor, they became active in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements and in 1965 they helped found the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. Russ was chairman of the Human Relations Commission in the late 1960s. He also served as pastor of Memorial Christian Church for 40 years, retiring in 1995. Russ passed away in 2020, six years after Barbara.

Russ Fuller was interviewed by students from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor in 2015 as part of the Legacies Project.

Zion Lutheran Church Women Decorate for World Community Day Breakfast, November 1964 Photographer: Doug Fulton

Zion Lutheran Church Women Decorate for World Community Day Breakfast, November 1964 image
Year:
1964
Published In:
Ann Arbor News, November 2, 1964
Caption:
Select Community Day Theme Focus of the World Community Day breakfast Friday will be "The Women's Touch." Decorating Zion Lutheran Church for the event are (from left) Mrs. E. J. Royce, Mrs. Armand Hewett and Mrs. Ernest Nicolaides. Mrs. Kenneth Boulding will be guest speaker. Mrs. Ralph Lenz is chairman of the affair.

Quakers Here Mark Anniversary

Quakers Here Mark Anniversary  image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
October
Year
1975
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Copyright Protected

Robert Kennedy Mobbed

Robert Kennedy Mobbed image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
October
Year
1966
Copyright
Copyright Protected

Book Review Luncheons Planned

Book Review Luncheons Planned image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
February
Year
1967
Copyright
Copyright Protected