Kit Bakke
Encyclopedia
Christopher Lynn "Kit" Bakke (born December 23, 1946) is an U.S.
activist. In the 1960s, she actively fought for women's rights and civil rights and she protested the Vietnam War
. In college, she helped to establish a new chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS). Later, she became a member of the Weathermen
, also called the Weather Underground
, a militant leftist group. After leaving the Weather Underground
, Bakke moved to Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, Bakke became a mother and worked as a nurse for many years. In 2006, her bio-memoir Miss Alcott's E-mail was published.
, championed various causes including voter education and keeping water supplies clean. All of her grandparents were college graduates.
Kit Bakke lived in a highly intellectual environment in which political awareness and activism were highly valued. On the other hand, her family was also very traditional with the bread-winning dad and the stay at home mom who volunteered and helped the children strive for success in school.
in Pennsylvania. While there, she helped to establish a new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter at her college. As a member of SDS, she was involved with issues including civil rights, women's liberation, and anti-war demonstrations. Kathy Boudin
, a key figure in the Weathermen and Diana Oughton
, a member of the Weathermen
who was killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
, also went to Bryn Mawr College. Bakke and Boudin, along with other members of the SDS participated in various protests, for example, for 24 days she refused to eat or drink in protest against the war in Vietnam. Bakke also helped end the dress requirement of women being required to wear skirts in class, and helped to unionize the "live in maids".
In her last undergraduate year, she shifted her focus to issues in the inner city rather than problems going on in the college. In the summer of 1969 at the SDS Convention in Chicago, SDS came apart. Bakke became part of a group of people, in SDS, labeled as the "Action Faction" or the "Weatherman", that broke away from the SDS. They believed that in order for a revolution to occur, they had to take militant action to provoke it. She graduated in 1968, but after earning her undergraduate degree in political science, Kit got a job as a journalist for a Seattle suburban newspaper with the intent of better understanding by getting an inside view of the "nominating conventions". When reporting on demonstrations, she took pictures, interviewed participants, and wrote articles.
, Cuba
, for eight days in July 1969 to meet with the members of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
and Provisional Revolutionary Government to discuss the opposition movements going on in the United States. While accounts of the number of SDS participants vary, according to the FBI summary, 13 people, including Bernardine Dohrn
, a key figure in the Weatherman went on the trip to Cuba. The experience was life changing for Kit and the others, according to a member of SDS. In Cuba, they learned the revolutionary tactics used by Cuba and other developing countries. This experience shaped the militant characteristic of the Weatherman. Only a few months after returning from Cuba, in October 1969, she participated in the Chicago riot termed the "Days of Rage
" and was arrested. Bakke was also jailed in Cook County for three days after "some particularly aggressive street fighting".
. All competed with one another to give up their white middle-class benefits, "We held frequent Maoist criticism sessions, confessing our failures to each other, worrying about our weaknesses, and concocting naïve improvement strategies." While she was in the Weather Underground
the FBI amassed a file of over 400 pages on Kit Bakke and classified her as a "'Priority I Security Index Subject.'"
In the early 1970s, Kit was pregnant with her first child, Maya, while she participated in a demonstration to protest against the Vietnam war. The demonstration got out of hand. Fleeing from the police, trying to avoid the teargas, police batons and the barrels of firearms, Kit decided to leave the Weather Underground. She was a political activist who got worn down by circumstance: "My revolutionary days in the passionate and violent Weather Underground were like the ruins of Pompeii, the sharp edges silted over by the ash of graduate school, marriage, kids in college, professional career, husband with ditto, vacations gardening, dinners in nice restaurants."
Bakke remained underground for two years, and in that time cut off all contact with her parents. She has expressed guilt and regret about how her actions have affected her parents, but according to Flanigan, "Bakke says she doesn't have any regrets. ‘Of course we made mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes... I believe in putting yourself out there for the things you care about. If you don't do that, you're going to live a diminished life.'" In another interview, Bakke describes the Students for a Democratic Society as being arrogant bullies. Kit Bakke has raised two daughters and currently lives in Seattle with her husband. In 2006, Kit Bakke wrote a bio-memoir, Miss Alcott's E-mail.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
activist. In the 1960s, she actively fought for women's rights and civil rights and she protested the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In college, she helped to establish a new chapter of the 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...
(SDS). Later, she became a member of the Weathermen
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, also called the Weather Underground
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, a militant leftist group. After leaving the Weather Underground
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, Bakke moved to Seattle, Washington. In Seattle, Bakke became a mother and worked as a nurse for many years. In 2006, her bio-memoir Miss Alcott's E-mail was published.
Early life
Christopher Lynn Bakke, otherwise known as "Kit" Bakke, was born in 1946. She grew up in a rural area near Seattle, Washington, with liberal parents and two younger brothers in a household that valued success in school above all else. Her father, Jack Bakke, was a physician with a passion for human biology, anatomy and the practice of medicine. Her mother, an active member of the League of Women VotersLeague of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
, championed various causes including voter education and keeping water supplies clean. All of her grandparents were college graduates.
Kit Bakke lived in a highly intellectual environment in which political awareness and activism were highly valued. On the other hand, her family was also very traditional with the bread-winning dad and the stay at home mom who volunteered and helped the children strive for success in school.
SDS
After graduating from high school, Bakke went on to Bryn Mawr CollegeBryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
in Pennsylvania. While there, she helped to establish a new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter at her college. As a member of SDS, she was involved with issues including civil rights, women's liberation, and anti-war demonstrations. Kathy Boudin
Kathy Boudin
Kathy Boudin is a former American radical who was convicted in 1984 of felony murder for her participation in an armed robbery that resulted in the killing of three people. She later became a public health expert while in prison...
, a key figure in the Weathermen and Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older...
, a member of the Weathermen
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
who was killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American radical left group, Weatherman – later renamed the Weather Underground – in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and...
, also went to Bryn Mawr College. Bakke and Boudin, along with other members of the SDS participated in various protests, for example, for 24 days she refused to eat or drink in protest against the war in Vietnam. Bakke also helped end the dress requirement of women being required to wear skirts in class, and helped to unionize the "live in maids".
In her last undergraduate year, she shifted her focus to issues in the inner city rather than problems going on in the college. In the summer of 1969 at the SDS Convention in Chicago, SDS came apart. Bakke became part of a group of people, in SDS, labeled as the "Action Faction" or the "Weatherman", that broke away from the SDS. They believed that in order for a revolution to occur, they had to take militant action to provoke it. She graduated in 1968, but after earning her undergraduate degree in political science, Kit got a job as a journalist for a Seattle suburban newspaper with the intent of better understanding by getting an inside view of the "nominating conventions". When reporting on demonstrations, she took pictures, interviewed participants, and wrote articles.
Cuba
Bakke went to HavanaHavana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, for eight days in July 1969 to meet with the members of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
and Provisional Revolutionary Government to discuss the opposition movements going on in the United States. While accounts of the number of SDS participants vary, according to the FBI summary, 13 people, including Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...
, a key figure in the Weatherman went on the trip to Cuba. The experience was life changing for Kit and the others, according to a member of SDS. In Cuba, they learned the revolutionary tactics used by Cuba and other developing countries. This experience shaped the militant characteristic of the Weatherman. Only a few months after returning from Cuba, in October 1969, she participated in the Chicago riot termed the "Days of Rage
Days of Rage
The Days of Rage demonstrations were a series of direct actions taken over a course of three days in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society...
" and was arrested. Bakke was also jailed in Cook County for three days after "some particularly aggressive street fighting".
Life underground
Bakke lived in political collectives in Oakland, Cleveland, New Mexico and the Westside of Chicago. While in Chicago, Bakke helped to print the Weatherman's publication, the New Left Notes. She says that in the communes she lived with "no more than ten or eleven..." of her fellow WeathermenWeatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
. All competed with one another to give up their white middle-class benefits, "We held frequent Maoist criticism sessions, confessing our failures to each other, worrying about our weaknesses, and concocting naïve improvement strategies." While she was in the Weather Underground
Weatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
the FBI amassed a file of over 400 pages on Kit Bakke and classified her as a "'Priority I Security Index Subject.'"
In the early 1970s, Kit was pregnant with her first child, Maya, while she participated in a demonstration to protest against the Vietnam war. The demonstration got out of hand. Fleeing from the police, trying to avoid the teargas, police batons and the barrels of firearms, Kit decided to leave the Weather Underground. She was a political activist who got worn down by circumstance: "My revolutionary days in the passionate and violent Weather Underground were like the ruins of Pompeii, the sharp edges silted over by the ash of graduate school, marriage, kids in college, professional career, husband with ditto, vacations gardening, dinners in nice restaurants."
Life after Weathermen
Bakke has earned two bachelor's degrees and two master's degrees: two nursing, one political science and one in public health. She moved to Seattle with her young daughter, Maya, to be close to family. She married in 1982. For thirteen years, Kit worked as an oncology nurse at Children's Regional Hospital in Seattle. Today, Bakke is involved with charities that tackle local issues, such as drug abuse and homelessness.Bakke remained underground for two years, and in that time cut off all contact with her parents. She has expressed guilt and regret about how her actions have affected her parents, but according to Flanigan, "Bakke says she doesn't have any regrets. ‘Of course we made mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes... I believe in putting yourself out there for the things you care about. If you don't do that, you're going to live a diminished life.'" In another interview, Bakke describes the Students for a Democratic Society as being arrogant bullies. Kit Bakke has raised two daughters and currently lives in Seattle with her husband. In 2006, Kit Bakke wrote a bio-memoir, Miss Alcott's E-mail.
External links
- Kit Bakke.com – official website