(1944- )
Born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Co-founder of the radical Weather Underground, a.k.a. The Weathermen (1969)
Fugitive (1970-80)
Professor of Education at the University of Illinois
School reform advocate
Wrote 'Good Preschool Teachers' (1989), 'To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher' (1993), 'A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools' (2000) and 'Handbook of Social Justice in Education' (2008)
Wrote the memoir 'Fugitive Days' (2001)

Despite participating in riots and bombings, he said, 'We weren't terrorists.... Terrorism was what was being practiced in the countryside of Vietnam by the United States.'
He described the Weathermen philosophy as 'Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at.'
Former New Left radical Todd Gitlin said of Ayers and other Weathermen, 'They wanted to be terrorists. They planned on being terrorists.'
He has a tattoo of the Weathermen's rainbow and lightning logo on his neck.
In an interview with the New York Times promoting 'Fugitive Days,' he said 'I don't regret setting bombs' and 'I feel we didn't do enough.'
In a bit of unfortunate timing, the interview was published on September 11, 2001.
He hosted a 'meet and greet' for Barack Obama during his campaign for State Sentate (1995) and the two served together on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago (2000-02), connections that generated controversy during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Federal charges against him were dismissed because of prosecutorial misconduct.
After watching the documentary 'Underground,' he said he was embarrassed by 'the arrogance, the solipsism, the absolute certainty that we and we alone knew the way.'
He denied wanting to plant more bombs and said of the New York Times interview, 'This is not a question of being misunderstood or taken out of context, but of deliberate distortion.'
He organized the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (1993), a nationally-renowned school reform program.
Obama commented, 'The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing someone who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense.'

Credit: C. Fishel

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