Interview with Susan McKevitt, PhD : The Movement Oral History Project
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Susan “Sue” McKevitt discusses her unique upbringing as a “red diaper baby,” the child of two parents who were part of the American Communist Party. She speaks about her early exposure to activism. McKevitt describes coming to Stanford and how she joined the activist community in and around Stanford, especially the Revolutionary Union (RU). She also speaks about the difficulty of balancing home life and activism, and the sometimes difficult gender dynamics of the movement itself. McKevitt recounts particularly memorable demonstrations and the process of becoming disillusioned with the group, detailing how she moved back to the East Coast where her activism moved into a more “white-collar” format.
- Susan “Sue” McKevitt begins her oral history by discussing her childhood in New York City and her unique upbringing as a “red diaper baby,” the child of two parents who were part of the American Communist Party. She speaks about her mother’s efforts to run an egalitarian household and her early exposure to activism, participating in her first demonstration at age fourteen. McKevitt describes coming to Stanford with her ex-husband and two children, the process of becoming “dorm parents,” and how she joined the activist community in and around Stanford, especially the Revolutionary Union (RU). She also speaks about the difficulty of balancing home life and activism and the sometimes difficult gender dynamics of the movement itself. McKevitt recounts particularly memorable demonstrations, including one in Redwood City in which she stood in front of a bulldozer and another on campus where she saved a friend from a group of men from the Young Americans for Freedom. She goes on to describe the process of becoming disillusioned with the group, detailing how she moved back to the East Coast where her activism moved into a more “white-collar” format. She discusses the demonstrations that she has been involved in, her career, and her dissertation. McKevitt ends the interview with her advice for future generations of activists: to fear charismatic leaders, know the history of the struggle in which you are participating, and trust yourself.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | May 9, 2018 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | McKevitt, Susan | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | McKevitt, Susan | |
| Interviewer | Beckman, Caroline | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Bay Area Revolutionary Union |
|---|---|
| Subject | Communist Party of the United States of America |
| Subject | College Students > Political Activity > United States |
| Subject | Student movements |
| Subject | Anti-war demonstrations |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biography |
Susan McKevitt was born a Red Diaper Baby in New York in 1944, the second of three children by Andy and Marjorie Apter McKevitt. Her family lived in Sunnyside, Queens, until she was eleven when they moved to Flushing where she graduated from Flushing High School in 1962. She attended Queens College for one semester, married, and moved to New Haven in 1964 with her then-husband who attended Yale University and their daughter, Diana. They spent 1966-67 in Berlin Germany (her then-husband on a Fulbright) protesting the Viet-Nam war and the Shah of Iran, and touring. They arrived at Stanford University in 1968 along with their second daughter, Andrea. There she participated in demonstrations, attended women’s consciousness raising groups, and helped build a free medical center until 1974 when, divorced, the McKevitt and her children went east to New Hampshire. She has lived there ever since.
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| Audio |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/hk821pr4131 |
| Location | SC1432 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. For commercial permission requests, please contact the copyright holders.
- Copyright
- Copyright © Susan McKevitt and Caroline Beckman, 2018. All rights reserved.
Collection
The Movement oral history project, 2018
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