{"id":58,"date":"2013-05-17T20:48:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-17T20:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.american.edu\/whosedowntown\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2014-11-15T03:43:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T03:43:06","slug":"striking-from-prison-mitch-snyder-and-the-origins-of-his-activism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/?page_id=58","title":{"rendered":"Striking from Prison: Mitch Snyder and the Origins of his Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In this letter, Mitch Snyder describes his plan to engage in a hunger strike starting on Christmas Day, 1971. Image used under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright law, courtesy of Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mitch Snyder was the most recognizable activist for homelessness in Washington, DC, earning the honorary renaming of 2nd<\/sup> Street NW in front of the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter to Mitch Snyder Place. Yet his activism began while he served time in prison before he moved to DC.<\/p>\n

Snyder\u2019s background resembled that of many caught up in the prison system. \u00a0Born in 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, his parents divorced when Snyder was nine.\u00a0 His father financially neglected his children and left Snyder responsible for supporting the family. \u00a0As a teenager he was arrested several times for breaking into parking meters.\u00a0 As a result, he was sent to reform school in upstate New York.\u00a0 He dropped out of high school and worked various jobs as a vacuum cleaner and washing machine salesman, as a job counselor, and as a construction worker.\u00a0 He married Ellen Kleiman in 1963 and had two sons.\u00a0 Separated from his family, in 1970 he was arrested for auto theft in Las Vegas.\u00a0 Convicted, he was transferred to federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

While in prison serving a three-year sentence from 1970 to 1972,[2]<\/a> Snyder occupied himself with the penal system\u2019s institutionalized injustices and developed his strategy of protest by fasting. He and ten other inmates, known as the Danbury 11, fasted in protest of both the Vietnam War and unjust prison discipline.[3]<\/a> Claiming the need for better medical facilities to care for the fasting inmates, the penal system transferred the protestors to Springfield, Missouri.[4]<\/a> Director of Prisons Norman Carlson transferred everyone except Snyder back to Danbury once their health stabilized, so Snyder fasted again until they returned him to the prison closer to his family.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>
This is a clipping, from Mitch Snyder’s personal papers, of a New York Post article documenting the Danbury Eleven hunger strike protesting the Vietnam. Image used under the Fair Use provisions of the copyright law, courtesy of Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to fasting, Snyder wrote endless letters to politicians and submitted articles to newspapers and magazines.[6]<\/a> He understood that power came from making his voice heard and getting his story out to a wider audience. When asked to describe himself, Snyder wrote, \u201che has come to understand that resistance must be a lifestyle, not simply a tactic. He continues to learn, he continues to act.\u201d[7]<\/a> \u00a0Fighting inequality in the federal government\u2019s treatment of people\u2014whether they were the Vietnamese, the incarcerated, or the homeless\u2014stimulated Snyder\u2019s intellectual prowess.<\/p>\n

Snyder was not the only person organizing action for social justice.\u00a0 Through his activism in prison he made important connections that would shape his life after prison. While serving time in Danbury, Snyder befriended and organized with Daniel and Philip Berrigan, two anti-war priests who had been imprisoned for destroying draft records. The brothers strongly influenced Snyder, who became a follower of their radical brand of Catholicism. After their release, Snyder and the Berrigans teamed up in New York for anti-war marches protesting the US\u2019s involvement in Vietnam. Immediately following those marches, another former inmate imprisoned with Snyder at Danbury, Tom Ireland, asked him to join CCNV in 1973, igniting Snyder\u2019s influential work with and for the homeless.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Ellen Snyder. \u201cQuestionnaire About Mitch Snyder\u201d (1970). Snyder Box 03 Folder 11. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries; New York Times<\/i>, July 6, 1990.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> 1972_SnyderSentenceComputationRecord.jpg. Snyder Box 03 Folder 15. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a> \u201cAnother Fast Staged Here.\u201d (1971, Oct 19). Snyder Box 03 Folder 25. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a> Snyder Prison Locations and Dates notecards. Snyder Box 01 Folder 09. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a> *Need Citation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a> Mitch Snyder. \u201cThe Crime of Silence.\u201d The Village Voice<\/i> (1972, May 11). Snyder Box 03 Folder 25. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries; Mitch Snyder. \u201cLetter to Congressman Anderson.\u201d Personal correspondence (1971, Dec 14). Snyder Box 02 Folder 07. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a> Mitch Snyder. \u201cAnatomy of a Prison Strike\u201d (nd). Snyder Box 05 Folder 01. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[8]<\/a> Mitch Snyder. \u201cAnatomy of a Prison Strike\u201d (nd). Snyder Box 05 Folder 01. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University Libraries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[9]<\/a> Christine M. Elwell. \u201cFrom Political Protest to Bureaucratic Service: The Transformation of Homeless Advocacy in the Nation\u2019s Capital and the Eclipse of Political Discourse.\u201d PhD Dissertation (Washington, D.C.: American University, 2008) 55; New York Times, July 6, 1990.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitch Snyder was the most recognizable activist for homelessness in Washington, DC, earning the honorary renaming of 2nd Street NW in front of the Community for Creative Non-Violence shelter to Mitch Snyder Place. Yet his activism began while he served time in prison before he …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-58","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whosedowntown.humanitiestruck.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}