(Host) Activist David Dellinger, one of the “Chicago Seven” and a longtime resident of Vermont, has died at the age of 88. Dellinger was one of the group of protesters convicted of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention. Those convictions were later overturned.
He spent a lifetime promoting nonviolent social change. In the 1930s, he was labeled a communist for siding with union organizers. In the 1950’s and 60’s Dellinger walked with civil rights freedom marchers in the South. He eventually applied Gandhi’s principles of non-violence to his activism within the growing anti-war movement.
Jay Craven is a film-maker from Peacham, Vermont. Craven accompanied Dellinger on a U.S. delegation to Vietnam in 1970, and they remained close friends for the last 34 years.
(Craven) “Dave was one of the most gentle people that you could possibly imagine. He almost had a sort of theological quality about him. I mean, he was a very spiritual person, and his commitment to pacifism and non-violence were really his life long – the beacons that he followed his entire life. So I found Dave to be a gentle spirit, but one who was nonetheless resolute in his commitment against war and toward non-violent solutions, and ways of resolving conflict that would affirm both sides, or all sides. And that was a difficult journey for him, certainly, during the turbulence of the entire 20th century.”
(Host) David Dellinger died Tuesday at a nursing home in Montpelier. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth, two daughters and a son.