12/13/2022
Why a Young Minnesota Woman Joined the SLA
Historians in the Newstags: 1970s, radical history, Symbionese Liberation Army
On May 7, 1974, much of the nation watched a fiery shootout on television. Los Angeles police used “more ammunition than they'd ever used before,” according to the local ABC affiliate, in an attempt to detain members of the radical leftist Symbionese Liberation Army. Five people died.
Most viewers wondered whether Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst whom the SLA had kidnapped, was inside. In St. Peter, Minn., a pastor and his wife wondered whether their daughter was inside.
It turns out Patty Hearst was not, but Camilla Hall was. What led the pastor’s daughter to that house is the subject of a new book by Minnesota author Rachael Hanel. It’s called, “Not the Camilla We Knew: One Woman's Path from Small-town America to the Symbionese Liberation Army,” published by University of Minnesota Press.
“Camilla was raised Lutheran — and the type of Lutheran where social justice was really, really important,” Hanel said. “So she had a very big and caring heart. She truly wanted to see a more equal society. And I think frustrations over the years of trying to work within the system would be one reason why she became part of the SLA.”
It’s one reason among many that Hanel explores in her book. And she says that’s how we need to think about radicalization today.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"