Mark Rudd

Mark Rudd

Mark William Rudd (born June 2, 1947) is a political organizer, mathematics instructor, and anti-war activist, most well known for his involvement with the Weather Underground.

Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader for Columbia's SDS chapter. During the 1968 Columbia Student Revolt, he served as spokesperson for dissident students protesting a variety of issues, most notably the Vietnam War. As the war escalated, Mark Rudd worked with other youth movement leaders to take SDS in a more militant direction. When the general membership of SDS refused to go in a more violent and pro-Communist direction, Rudd together with some other prominent SDS members formed a radical, violence-oriented organization, referring to themselves collectively as "Weatherman" after the lyrics from a famous Bob Dylan song.

Rudd went "underground" in 1970, hiding from law enforcement following a bombing that killed three of his Weather Underground peers. He surrendered to authorities in 1977, serving a short jail sentence. Now a mathematics instructor at Central New Mexico Community College, Rudd has since expressed some regret for advocating and using violence.