Vicki Gabriner
Quick Facts
Biography
Vicki Gabriner (born 1942-) is an American-Jewish civil rights activist, feminist and LGBT rights activist who became an activist when she was just a student. She was one of the members of "The Weathermen" which was the radical student activist group. In 2002, she was honored at the 2002 Women Who Dared event in Boston.
Her Life
Early Life and College
Gabriner who was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, was raised in politically active family. Her mother and she had a lot of conversations about the importance of fighting for social justice. When she was a student at Cornell, she was involved in civil rights and the nascent anti-war movement.
After College
She went to Fayette County,Tennessee with a Cornell-affiliated group to spend three summers with the black community. She taught at freedom schools, worked on local elections, voter registration, and integration of public facilities.She earned a master's degree in education at the University of Wisconsin,Madison during her school year. Gabriner who moved to New York in 1968, taught in a decentralized school. In the meanwhile, she joined the radical student activist group "The Weathermen" . She had ambivalent feelings about this group. Then, she moved to Cuba with the Venceromos Brigade. After she became a feminist, she moved to Atlanta in 1970 and she came out as a Lesbian. Gabriner helped to found the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance.
The Weathermen and Gabriner
In 1973, she was arrested for being a participant of The Weathermen's several actions which happened earlier. The Weathermen was an radical left wing extremist group which carried out bombings, jailbreaks,riots from 1969 through the 1970s. She was convicted at trial but in 1978 she won on her appeal.
Women Who Dared
Gabriner was honored in 2002 by Women Who Dared in Boston.