The latter half of the 1960s was, to say the least, a turbulent time in America.
Anti war demonstrations were escalating, Civil rights and women’s rights movements were growing. As the government tried to control the chaos,it made many of its critics even more radical.
As the decade drew to a close violence and even bombings became It’s everyday occurrences .
One of those caught up in this maelstrom was the young Cathy Wilkerson. She joined the radical Weather Underground Organization sometimes known simply as Weatherman.
Wilkerson’s father owned a townhouse in New York’s Greenwich Village. She and other Weather underground members turned it into a bomb factory. On March 6, 1970, one of their bombs exploded in the basement, destroying the home and killing three people.
Wilkerson, and fellow Weatherman Kathy Boudin, escaped with their lives, and became fugitives from the FBI.
Wilkerson remained in hiding for a decade, before surrendering in 1980, and serving a few months in prison.
Ultimately she became a high school math teacher.
In 2007 she finally wrote her memoir, a book called Flying Close to The Sun. And that’s when I met her.
So here now, from 2007, Cathy Wilkerson.
Cathy Wilkerson is 78 now. She lives in New York.
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