In 1970, a sixty-five-year-old Philadelphian named Maggie Kuhn
began vocally opposing the notion of mandatory retirement. Taking
inspiration from the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements,
Kuhn and her cohorts created an activist organization that quickly
gained momentum as the Gray Panthers. After receiving national
publicity for her efforts-she even appeared on the Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson-she gained thousands of supporters, young
and old. Their cause expanded to include universal health care,
nursing home reform, affordable and accessible housing, defense of
Social Security, and elimination of nuclear weapons.
Gray Panthers traces the roots of Maggie Kuhn's social
justice agenda to her years as a YWCA and Presbyterian Church staff
member. It tells the nearly forty-year story of the
intergenerational grassroots movement that Kuhn founded and its
scores of local groups. During the 1980s, more than one hundred
chapters were tackling local and national issues. By the 1990s the
ranks of older members were thinning and most young members had
departed, many to pursue careers in public service. But despite its
challenges, including Kuhn's death in 1995, the movement continues
today.
Roger Sanjek examines Gray Panther activism over four decades. Here
the inner workings and dynamics of the movement emerge: the
development of network leadership, local projects and tactics,
conflict with the national office, and the intergenerational
political ties that made the group unique among contemporary
activist groups. Part ethnography, part history, part memoir,
Gray Panthers draws on archives and interviews as well as
the author's thirty years of personal involvement. With the
impending retirement of the baby boomers, Sanjek's book will surely
inform the debates and discussions to follow: on retirement, health
care, and many other aspects of aging in a society that has long
valued youth above all.
eISBN: 978-0-8122-0351-6
Subjects: Anthropology
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