Kathy Boudin, a member of the radical leftist Weather Underground who was imprisoned for her role in a murderous robbery in the 1960s, has died at the age of 78, according to her son, Chesa Boudin.
According to a statement from the Columbia University Justice Center, Pudding died Sunday, with Chesa and her life partner, David Gilbert, by her side. She’s been fighting cancer for a long time.
According to the statement, Pudding and Gilbert took part in a robbery of a Brinks armored vehicle in Nyack, New York, in 1981 while attempting to raise funds for the Black Revolutionary Organization.
Pudding claimed she was only a bait and had never had a gun. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one criminal offense. incarcerated. After 22 years in prison, she was released in 2003.
“My mum fought cancer with unshakable optimism and courage for seven years,” her son stated. “She always closes the phone call with a grin, a habit she picked up during her 22 years in prison, and she wishes to provide joy and hope to everyone she speaks with, including myself.”
According to the statement, Pudding, a 1965 Bryn Mawr College graduate, was radicalized by the emerging anti-war and racial rights movements in the 1960s and began her career as an activist, organizer, teacher, and social justice advocate. It is work that will last a lifetime.
According to the Justice Center, Boudin was the first woman to acquire a master’s degree while jailed in a New York state prison. She obtained her Ph.D. from Columbia University Teachers College in 2007 and taught at the Columbia School of Social Work after her discharge.
Kathy underwent a remarkable metamorphosis in prison as she came to terms with her crimes and the consequences. “She became a leading advocate for women in prison, launching campaigns to reunite incarcerated women and their children, bringing college classes back to Bedford Hills after the Pell Fellowship ended, and establishing a community response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that saved countless lives,” says the article.
Boudin’s “outward-looking moves became avenues for many to seek restorative justice, culminating in parole and release from prison.”
However, her release was not without controversy. As CNN reported at the time, police groups protested her parole and tried to prevent her release.
She spent her childhood in Greenwich Village, New York, with her father, renowned civil rights attorney Leonard Pudding. mother, poet Jean Boudin; his brother Michael Boudin is a retired federal appeals judge, the statement said. The family home was a meeting place for political activists, intellectuals and artists.
An avid reader and music lover, she was a beloved aunt and adoptive grandmother to dozens of young people, the statement said.
Her brother Michael survived. Her partner David, her son Chesa, her daughter-in-law Valerie Bullock and her grandson Aiden Pudding. Chesa’s two adoptive brothers, Zayd and Malik Dohrn, also survived. After her imprisonment, her then 14-month-old son was adopted by activists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. After his release, Boudin worked with Ayers and Dohrn to raise his son.
“She is a role model for other generations, inspired by her thoughtful introspection, kindness and passionate determination to make the world a better place,” the statement said.
Kathy Boudin, a 1960s radical imprisoned for a fatal crime, has died at the age of 78
