Stew Albert
Encyclopedia
Stewart Edward "Stew" Albert (December 4, 1939 – January 30, 2006) was an early member of the Yippies, an anti-Vietnam War political activist, and an important figure in the New Left
movement of the 1960s.
Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn
, NY to a New York City employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth, though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman
. He graduated from Pace University
, where he majored in politics and philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare department.
In 1965, he left New York to go to San Francisco where he met the poet Allen Ginsberg
at the City Lights Bookstore
. Within a few days he was volunteering at the Vietnam Day Committee
in Berkeley, California
. It was there he met Jerry Rubin
and Abbie Hoffman
, with whom he co-founded the Youth International Party or Yippies. He also met Bobby Seale
and other Black Panther Party
members there and became a full-time political activist. Rubin once said that Albert was a better educator than most of the professors.
Among the many activities he participated in with the Yippies were throwing money off the balcony at the New York Stock Exchange
, the Exorcism
of the Pentagon
and the 1968 Presidential campaign of a pig named Pigasus
. He was arrested at the disturbances outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention
and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator
in the Chicago Seven
case. His wife, Judy Gumbo Albert, claimed, according to his New York Times Obituary, this was because he was working as a correspondent for the Berkeley Barb
.
In 1970, he ran for sheriff of Alameda County, CA in revenge for "getting my balls sprayed with hot, painful chemicals as a welcome-to-prison health measure" after being arrested in 1969. Although he lost to Frank Madigan
, he still had 65,000 votes over the sheriff that supervised his incarceration.
After Timothy Leary
escaped from a California Jail, Albert arranged for him to stay with Eldridge Cleaver
in Tunisia
. In 1971, he was called before several grand juries investigating the planting of a bomb in the U. S. Capitol and an alleged plot to bomb a Manhattan
bank. He was not charged in either case. In the early 1970s, he and his wife sued the FBI for planting an illegal wiretap in his house. They won a $20,000 settlement and, in 1978, two FBI supervisors were fired for this action.
In 1984, he and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon
. They co-edited an anthology, The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade, that collected material that originated in the Civil Rights Movement
, Students for a Democratic Society
, the anti-war movement
, the counterculture
, and the women's movement
.
His memoir, Who the Hell is Stew Albert?, was published by Red Hen Press
in 2005. He ran the Yippie Reading Room until he died of liver
cancer
brought on by hepatitis
in 2006. Two days before his death he posted on his blog, "My politics haven't changed."
In the film Steal This Movie!
Albert is played by Donal Logue
.
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
movement of the 1960s.
Born in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, NY to a New York City employee, he had a relatively conventional political life in his youth, though he was among those who protested the execution of Caryl Chessman
Caryl Chessman
Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber and rapist who gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Chessman's case attracted worldwide attention, and as a result he became a cause célèbre for the movement to ban capital punishment.-Crime and conviction:Born in St...
. He graduated from Pace University
Pace University
Pace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
, where he majored in politics and philosophy, and worked for a while for the City of New York welfare department.
In 1965, he left New York to go to San Francisco where he met the poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
at the City Lights Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
. Within a few days he was volunteering at the Vietnam Day Committee
Vietnam Day Committee
The Vietnam Day Committee was a coalition of left-wing political groups, student groups, labour organizations, and pacifist religions in the United States of America that opposed the Vietnam War...
in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. It was there he met Jerry Rubin
Jerry Rubin
Jerry Rubin was an American social activist during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman.-Early life:...
and Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
, with whom he co-founded the Youth International Party or Yippies. He also met Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale
Robert George "Bobby" Seale , is an activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.-Early life:...
and other Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
members there and became a full-time political activist. Rubin once said that Albert was a better educator than most of the professors.
Among the many activities he participated in with the Yippies were throwing money off the balcony at the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
, the Exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...
of the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
and the 1968 Presidential campaign of a pig named Pigasus
Pigasus (politics)
Pigasus was a pig and was a satiric candidate for President of the United States for the Youth International Party . The pig's name was a play on Pegasus, the winged horse in Greek mythology. Led by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Pigasus was purchased by Phil Ochs and the candidacy was announced...
. He was arrested at the disturbances outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...
and was named as an unindicted co-conspirator
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
in the Chicago Seven
Chicago Seven
The Chicago Seven were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968...
case. His wife, Judy Gumbo Albert, claimed, according to his New York Times Obituary, this was because he was working as a correspondent for the Berkeley Barb
Berkeley Barb
The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper that was published in Berkeley, California, from 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers of the late 1960s, covering such subjects as the anti-war and civil-rights movements as well as the...
.
In 1970, he ran for sheriff of Alameda County, CA in revenge for "getting my balls sprayed with hot, painful chemicals as a welcome-to-prison health measure" after being arrested in 1969. Although he lost to Frank Madigan
Frank Madigan
Frank Madigan was sheriff of Alameda County, CA from 1963 to 1975. Thomas Lafayette Houchins Jr. served under him during the Berkeley, CA protests. Sheriff Madigan had the Alameda County Sheriff's Department aid the University of California Police, California Highway Patrol and Berkeley Police...
, he still had 65,000 votes over the sheriff that supervised his incarceration.
After Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
escaped from a California Jail, Albert arranged for him to stay with Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a leading member of the Black Panther Party and a writer...
in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
. In 1971, he was called before several grand juries investigating the planting of a bomb in the U. S. Capitol and an alleged plot to bomb a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
bank. He was not charged in either case. In the early 1970s, he and his wife sued the FBI for planting an illegal wiretap in his house. They won a $20,000 settlement and, in 1978, two FBI supervisors were fired for this action.
In 1984, he and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. They co-edited an anthology, The Sixties Papers: Documents of a Rebellious Decade, that collected material that originated in the Civil Rights Movement
African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
, Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
, the anti-war movement
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
, the counterculture
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
, and the women's movement
Second-wave feminism
The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s....
.
His memoir, Who the Hell is Stew Albert?, was published by Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press
Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press specializing in the publication of literary fiction and poetry located in Pasadena, California. Founded by Kate Gale, the mission of Red Hen Press is to discover, publish, and promote works of literary excellence that have been overlooked by mainstream...
in 2005. He ran the Yippie Reading Room until he died of liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
brought on by hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
in 2006. Two days before his death he posted on his blog, "My politics haven't changed."
In the film Steal This Movie!
Steal This Movie!
Steal This Movie is a 2000 American biographical film of 1960s radical figure Abbie Hoffman. It was directed by Robert Greenwald and the screenplay was written by Bruce Graham...
Albert is played by Donal Logue
Donal Logue
Donal Francis Logue is an Canadian actor perhaps most famous for his role as Sean Finnerty in Grounded for Life.-Personal life:...
.
Sources
- The Spies Who Thought We Were Messy by Stew Albert
- Almost Sheriff Yippie by Stew Albert
- Associated Press obituary 1 February 2006