Global InformationIra Sandperl information
Ira Sandperl | |
|---|---|
 Ira Sandperl standing outside of the Resource Center for Nonviolence. | |
| Born | March 11, 1923 St. Louis, Missouri US |
| Died | April 13, 2013 (aged 90) Menlo Park, California, US |
| Occupation(s) | American anti-war activist and educator |
Ira Sandperl (March 11, 1923 – April 13, 2013) was an American anti-war activist and educator. A proponent of nonviolence, he influenced students and heroes of the anti-war,[1] civil rights, and peace movements,[2] including Martin Luther King Jr.,[3] David Harris,[4][5][6] Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Daniel Ellsberg, Thomas Merton,[7] and Joan Baez with whom he formed the Institute for the Study of Non-violence.[8] Sandperl became a national figure in the antiwar movement of the 1960s, according to New York Times reporter and longtime friend John Markoff.[9]
Sandperl was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in a Jewish household by Harry and Ione Sandperl. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a follower of Norman Thomas, leading Mr. Sandperl early on to be exposed to both socialist and pacifist ideals.[9] He attended Stanford University but dropped out after World War II began. His attempt to join the armed forces in the ambulance corps was denied because of a childhood bout with polio.[2]
As a student at Stanford he tried to generate sympathy among the faculty for the Japanese-Americans in concentration camps. After Stanford he left for Mexico, returning after World War II to Palo Alto where he taught meditation and Sunday school classes at the Palo Alto Friend's Church, and lectured at Stanford. In 1955 he was hired at Kepler's Books as the very first employee. He engaged customers on political topics as well as giving advice on literature, and introduced a generation of draft-age men to nonviolence during the Vietnam War.[10]
Sandperl was a longtime resident of Palo Alto and Menlo Park, where he was an oracular presence at Kepler's bookstore,[11] Peninsula School and other venues in the Stanford area, and influenced many young people who grew up in his community in the 1950's and 1960's, including Joan Baez and John Markoff.
- ^ InSight Films 2023, The Boys Who Said NO!.
- ^ a b Whiting, Sam (2013-04-18). "Antiwar activist Ira Sandperl dies". SFChronicle.com. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
- ^ Fitch 1966, photo of Sandperl, Martin Luther King Jr., Joan Baez and Jessie Jackson at the annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff workshop at the Penn Center, Frogmore, SC.
- ^ Markoff 2013, "“Ira was the opening chapter,” said David Harris".
- ^ KPIX-TV 1968, news footage from March 6th 1968 featuring brief scenes from a press conference with Joan Baez ("I'll be urging the women to say yes to the men who say no"), Ira Sandperl and David Harris, who are promoting their national tour to encourage college age youths to turn in their draft cards, in opposition to the Vietnam War.
- ^ Fitch 1969, David Harris talks with Ira Sandperl and others while awaiting arrest at Struggle Mountain.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kellogg 2023, Monterey Herald article with photo of Ira Sandperl and Joan Baez in court awaiting a decision on their application for a permit to open The Institute for the Study of Nonviolence.
- ^ a b Markoff 2013, Ira Sandperl.
- ^ Swenson 2018, The Boys Who Said NO!.
- ^ Swenson 2018, Swenson's description of how deeply Ira read, and mentored other readers who came into Kepler's Books.