View source for Judith Alice Clark

{{Short description|American radical political activist}}
{{Other people|Judy Clark}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}

'''Judith Alice Clark''' (born November 9, 1949), known as '''Judy Clark''', is an American [[far-left politics|far-left]] [[Radical politics|radical]] activist, formerly a member of the [[Weather Underground]] and the [[May 19th Communist Organization]] (M19). Her mother was the researcher [[Ruth Clark (pollster)|Ruth Clark]]. In 1967, she took up studies at the [[University of Chicago]], where she joined [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS) and later co-founded the Weather Underground, participating in the [[Days of Rage]]. She went underground, was arrested and briefly incarcerated; afterwards she lived in New York City, co-founding M19. In the early 1980s, M19 linked with the [[Black Liberation Army]] (BLA) as The Family in order to carry out bank robberies to support revolutionary struggle. Clark was arrested driving a getaway car after the October 1981 [[Brink's robbery (1981)|Brink's robbery]] in [[Nanuet, New York]], in which a security guard and two [[Nyack, New York]] police officers were shot and killed. 

At trial, she was sentenced three consecutive 25 to life terms for [[murder in the second degree]], which she served at the [[Bedford Hills Correctional Facility]] in New York. Whilst incarcerated, she carried out [[HIV/AIDS activism]], published in ''[[Social Justice (journal)|Social Justice]]'', participated in a scheme to train [[service dogs]] for [[military veterans]], assisted a chaplain and ran [[prenatal]] and infant support workshops for mothers. In 2016, [[Governor of New York]] [[Andrew Cuomo]] [[Commutation (law)|commuted]] her sentence to 35 years to life, making her eligible for [[parole]]. She was denied parole in 2017 and granted it in 2019.

==Early life==
Judith Alice Clark was born in November 9, 1943, in New York City.<ref name="Rosenau" />{{rp|24-25}} Her parents were the researcher [[Ruth Clark (pollster)|Ruth Clark]] and journalist [[Joseph Clark (journalist)|Joseph Clark]]. They were members of the [[Communist Party USA]] and moved to the Soviet Union in 1950 with Clark and her brother Andy. Joe Clark worked as foreign editor of the [[Daily Worker]] newspaper until the family returned to [[Brooklyn]], New York City, in 1953, living in [[Bensonhurst]] and then [[Flatbush]]. By the late 1950, her parents had withdrawn from the Communist Party, disillusioned by events such as the Soviet repression of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]].<ref name="Rosenau" />{{rp|24-25}}<ref name="Robbins">{{cite news |last1=Robbins |first1=Tom |title=Judith Clark's radical transformation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/magazine/judith-clarks-radical-transformation.html |access-date=December 16, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=January 12, 2012 |archive-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216004005/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/magazine/judith-clarks-radical-transformation.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Her mother pursued a career working for a polling firm and pioneered the [[exit poll]]; her father co-founded the [[American Left]] magazine ''[[Dissent (American magazine)|Dissent]]''.<ref name="Rosenau" />{{rp|26}}<ref name="Robbins" />

Clark attended the [[Midwood High School]] in Brooklyn and as her parents moved towards [[anti-communism]], she retained an interest in [[Left-wing politics]]. In 1967, she took up studies at the [[University of Chicago]], where she joined [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS).<ref name="Rosenau" />{{rp|26}}<ref name="Montgomery">{{cite news |last1=Montgomery |first1=Paul L. |title=Two women in Brink's case identified with Weathermen from start in '69 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/22/nyregion/2-women-in-brink-s-case-identified-with-weathermen-from-start-in-69.html |access-date=December 16, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=October 22, 1981 |archive-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216010109/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/22/nyregion/2-women-in-brink-s-case-identified-with-weathermen-from-start-in-69.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After she and other students occupied a university building in 1969 as protest in support of a sociology professor who had been refused tenure, Clark was expelled from the university. Her father asked [[Saul Bellow]] to appeal to the university president, [[Edward H. Levi]] who maintained she had to leave. She co-founded the [[Weather Underground]], which emerged from SDS.<ref name="Rosenau" />{{rp|26-27}}<ref name="Montgomery" /><ref name="Rudd">{{cite book |last1=Rudd |first1=Mark |title=Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen |date=2009 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-147275-6}}</ref>{{rp|304}}

==Weather Underground==
Clark participated in the [[Days of Rage]] in Chicago in 1969. She was arrested alongside other [[Weather Underground]] activists including [[Kathy Boudin]] and went underground to evade the charges against her. The following year, the FBI apprehended her in a movie theater in [[Manhattan]], New York City. After serving her sentence,{{efn-ua|''[[The New York Times]]'' reported her sentence as 18 months in 1983<ref name="Montgomery" /> and 9 months in 2012.<ref name="Robbins" />}} After her release, Clark worked at a bookshop and co-founded the [[May 19th Communist Organization]] (M19) with Boudin, [[Linda Evans]] and [[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]]. She was kept under surveillance and in 1972 her apartment was illegally searched three times by the FBI.<ref name="Montgomery" /><ref name="JC">{{cite book |last1=Castellucci |first1=John |title=The big dance: The untold story of Kathy Boudin and the terrorist family that committed the Brink's robbery murders |date=1986 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co |location=New York |isbn=9780396087137}}</ref>{{rp|124}}<ref name="Jacobs">{{cite book |last1=Jacobs |first1=Ron |title=The way the wind blew: a history of the Weather underground |date=1997 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=1859841678}}</ref>{{rp|182}}

Two months after her release, there was a [[Attica Prison riot|prison uprising]] at Attica. In its wake, Clark was one of the founders of ''The Midnight Special,'' a newspaper affiliated with the [[National Lawyers Guild]]. Clark was also a member of the Women's Bail Fund and worked in support of political prisoners.<ref>Max Elbaum, Revolution in the Air, Verso (2002)</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2019}} Clark decided she wanted to have a child as a lesbian and asked [[Alan Berkman]] to be the sperm donor. She gave birth to Harriet Josina Clark on November 13, 1980.<ref name="Rosenau">{{cite book |last1=Rosenau |first1=William |title=Tonight we bombed the U.S. Capitol: the explosive story of M19, America's first female terrorist group |date=2019 |publisher=Atria Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-5011-7012-6}}</ref>{{rp|75}}

==Brink's robbery==
{{main|Brink's robbery (1981)}}
On October 20, 1981, members of the [[Black Liberation Army]] (BLA) and [[May 19th Communist Organization]] (M19) assembled at a [[safe house]] in [[Mount Vernon, New York]]. Those present included [[Kuwasi Balagoon]], Boudin, Samuel Brown, [[Marilyn Jean Buck]], Clark, [[Cecil Ferguson]], [[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]], Edward Josephs, [[Susan Rosenberg]], [[Mtajori Sandiata]] and [[Mutulu Shakur]].<ref name="Terrorism">{{cite journal |author=((New York state policy study group on terrorism)) |title=Report on the Brink's incident |journal=Terrorism |date=1987 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=169–206 |doi=10.1080/10576108708435625}}</ref><ref name="Killed">{{cite news |last1=Sawyer |first1=Kathy |last2=Wadler |first2=Joyce |title=One killed, one seized by police seeking Brink's suspects |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/10/24/1-killed-1-seized-by-police-seeking-brinks-suspects/bfb318efe-4a29-419e-8ac5-1aed7e917b05/ |access-date=December 16, 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=October 24, 1981}}</ref>

The gang drove to the [[Nanuet mall|mall]] at [[Nanuet, New York]] in four vehicles; Clark was driving a [[Honda]].<ref name="Killed" /><ref name="JC" />{{rp|154}}  When two guards took money from the Nanuet National Bank towards a [[Brink's]] [[Armored car (valuables)|armored car]], the BLA members opened fire and killed one of them, Peter Paige.<ref name="Killed" /> The gang stole around $1.6 million in cash and made their getaway. Local police set up a roadblock and stopped a vehicle, leading to a second gunfight in which Nyack police officers Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady were both killed. Clark drove the Honda onto Mountainview Avenue with Brown and Gilbert as passengers. After her car was chased at speed by South Nyack Police Chief Alan Colsey, Clark crashed and the three people inside were arrested.<ref name="Terrorism" /><ref name="Varon">{{cite book |last1=Varon |first1=Jeremy |title=Bringing the war home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and the revolutionary violence in the sixties and seventies |date=2004 |publisher=California University |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-23032-9 |edition=Ebook}}</ref>

At trial, Clark was at first represented by [[Susan Tipograph]].<ref name="Terrorism" />{{rp|222}} She then claimed she was a [[freedom fighter]] and thus a [[prisoner of war]]. Alongside her fellow defendants Balagoon and Gilbert, she refused to attend court except to make political statements and listened to proceedings from her detention cell. Hearings began in September 1982 at [[New City, New York]] then were moved to [[Goshen, New York|Goshen]].<ref name="Terrorism" /> On September 14, 1983, Balagoon, Clark and Gilbert were all found guilty of the three murders and [[armored robbery]]. They were each sentenced to three consecutive 25 to life terms for [[murder in the second degree]].<ref name="Terrorism" /> Clark had been observed at the [[Manhattan Criminal Court]] during a hearing related to the case of [[Assata Shakur]] and was therefore also suspected of being involved with Shakur's later escape from the [[Clinton Correctional Facility for Women]] in 1979.<ref name="Montgomery" />

==Incarceration==
Clark served her sentence at the [[Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women]], as did Boudin.<ref name="Terrorism" /> For the first month, Clark was placed in [[solitary confinement]].<ref name="Robbins" /> Whilst incarcerated, she participated in a [[creative writing]] group run by the author [[Eve Ensler]] and featured in a 2003 documentary about the group called ''What I Want My Words to Do To You''.<ref name="Weil">{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Simone Weil |editor1-last=Davis |editor1-first=Simone Weil |editor2-last=Roswell |editor2-first=Barbara Sherr |title=Turning teaching inside out: A pedagogy of transformation for community-based education |date=2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-1-137-34302-4 |pages=163–176 |language=en |chapter=Inside-out: The reach and limits of a prison education program}}</ref>{{rp|168}}

Clark obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in prison.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.timesunion.com/7dayarchive/article/An-overwhelmed-Judith-Clark-is-granted-parole-13776002.php|title=An 'overwhelmed' Judith Clark is granted parole|first=Chris|last=Churchill|date=April 17, 2019|website=Times Union|access-date=September 24, 2019|archive-date=September 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924044022/https://www.timesunion.com/7dayarchive/article/An-overwhelmed-Judith-Clark-is-granted-parole-13776002.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Alongside other female inmates, she carried out [[HIV/AIDS activism]], protesting against the staff policy of isolating people with HIV and wearing gloves and masks when interacting with them. With Boudin she published "Community of Women Organize Themselves to Cope with the AIDS Crisis: A Case Study from Bedford Hill Correctional Facility" in the academic journal ''[[Social Justice (journal)|Social Justice]]''.<ref name="Day">{{cite journal |last1=Day |first1=Emma |title=The Fire Inside: Women Protesting AIDS in Prison since 1980 |journal=Modern American History |date=March 2022 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=79–100 |doi=10.1017/mah.2022.3}}</ref> She also participated in a scheme to train [[service dogs]] for [[military veterans]], assisted a chaplain and founded [[prenatal]] and infant support workshops for mothers.<ref name="Live" /> Clark's attorney Sara Bennett created a pamphlet entitled ''Spirit on the Inside: Reflections on Doing Time with Judith Clark'' in which she photographed 15 women who had been incarcerated alongside Clark and interviewed them about her.<ref name="Dugan">{{cite web |last1=Dugan |first1=Jess T. |title=Q&A: Sara Bennett |url=https://www.strangefirecollective.com/qa-sara-bennett |website=Strange Fire |access-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-date=February 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240205153407/https://www.strangefirecollective.com/qa-sara-bennett |url-status=live }}</ref> Clark said in 1994 that she had "enormous regret, sorrow and remorse" about her part in the robbery and in 2002, she published a public apology in ''[[The Journal News]]'' to all the victims of the Family's violence.<ref name="Apology">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Judith |title=Brinks convict in 2002: 'I am deeply sorry' |url=https://eu.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/12/02/brinks-convict-judith-clark-apologizes/19776927/ |access-date=January 30, 2024 |work=The Journal News |date=March 31, 2002 |archive-date=September 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220906163116/https://eu.lohud.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/12/02/brinks-convict-judith-clark-apologizes/19776927/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gold">{{cite news |last1=Gold |first1=Michael |title=Judith Clark, getaway driver in deadly Brink's heist in 1981, is granted parole |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-brinks-robbery.html |access-date=January 31, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=April 17, 2019 |archive-date=April 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417204731/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-brinks-robbery.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 

[[David Mamet]]'s 2012 play ''[[The Anarchist (play)|The Anarchist]]'' featured two female characters inspired by Boudin, Clark and [[Cathy Wilkerson]].<ref name="Mamet">{{cite magazine |last1=Lahr |first1=John |title=Rough Justice |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/10/rough-justice |access-date=January 30, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=December 2, 2012 |archive-date=October 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001062634/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/10/rough-justice |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Goldensohn">{{cite journal |last1=Goldensohn |first1=Barry |title=The Law Plays of David Mamet: 'Race' and 'The Anarchist' |journal=The Yale Review |date=2014 |volume=102 |issue=4 |pages=117–128 |doi=10.1353/tyr.2014.0072}}</ref>
Clark was also the inspiration for the role of Hannah, performed by Dame [[Harriet Walter]] in the 2016 Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare's ''[[The Tempest]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Gender's the Thing: Harriet Walter Plays Shakespeare's Heroes as Heroines|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/theater/harriet-walter-the-tempest-shakespeare.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 10, 2017|access-date=February 19, 2017|archive-date=January 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170126082650/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/theater/harriet-walter-the-tempest-shakespeare.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Release==

In 2016, [[governor of New York]] [[Andrew Cuomo]] recognised Clark's good behavior in prison and [[Commutation (law)|commuted]] her sentence, which meant that she would be eligible for [[parole]] the following year.<ref name="Commute">{{cite news |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Eli |title=Cuomo commutes sentence of Judith Clark, driver in deadly Brink's robbery |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/nyregion/cuomo-commutes-sentence-of-judith-clark-driver-in-deadly-brinks-robbery.html |access-date=January 30, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=December 30, 2016 |archive-date=November 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113064324/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/nyregion/cuomo-commutes-sentence-of-judith-clark-driver-in-deadly-brinks-robbery.html |url-status=live }}</ref> At the seven hour long hearing, the three [[parole board]] members voted unanimously to deny her request for release, saying they had received thousands of letters from people who wanted her to serve a longer sentence for her crimes.<ref name="Live">{{cite news |last1=Dwyer |first1=Jim |title="I want to live it out" says Brink's heist driver after denied parole |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-interview.html |access-date=January 30, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=May 3, 2017 |archive-date=December 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201044741/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/nyregion/judith-clark-parole-interview.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The parole board voted by two to one to release Clark from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in 2019. The decision was backed by the [[New York Civil Liberties Union]] and opposed by the [[Sergeants Benevolent Association]].<ref name="Granted">{{cite news |last1=Chavez |first1=Nicole |last2=Carroll |first2=Jason |last3=Moghe |first3=Soni |title=Former activist Judy Clark granted parole after nearly 40 years in prison over armored truck robbery |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/17/us/judy-clark-parole/index.html |access-date=January 31, 2024 |work=CNN |date=April 17, 2019 |language=en |archive-date=December 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231216030021/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/17/us/judy-clark-parole/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Selected works==
* {{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=Judy |last2=Boudin |first2=Kathy |title=Community of Women Organize Themselves to Cope with the AIDS Crisis: A Case Study from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility |journal=Social Justice |date=1990 |volume=17 |issue=2 (40) |pages=90–109 |jstor=29766543 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766543 |issn=1043-1578}}
* {{cite book |last1=Fine| first1=M.|last2=Torre |first2=M.E |last3=Boudin |first3=K.|last4=Bowen |first4=I.|last5=Clark |first5=J.|last6=Hylton |first6=D.|last7=Martinez |first7=M.|last8=Missy |last9=Rivera |first9=M.|last10=Roberts |first10=R.A.|last11=Smart |first11=P.|last12=Upegui|first12=D.|year= 2003 |editor1-last=Camic |editor1-first=P.|editor2-last=Rhodes |editor2-first= J.E. |editor3-last=Yardley |editor3-first=L. |chapter= Participatory action research: Within and beyond bars |language= en |title= Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design | pages=173–198 |publisher= American Psychological Association|location=Washington, D.C.}}

==Notes==
{{notelist-ua}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[David Gilbert (activist)|Gilbert, David]] (2012) ''Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond''. Oakland: PM Press. {{ISBN|9781604863192}}.

==External links==
* {{official website|url=http://www.judithclark.org}}
*''[https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/whatiwant/ What I Want My Words to Do to You]'', [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]], premiered December 16, 2003.

{{Weather Underground}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Judith Alice}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1949 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish American activists]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:Members of Students for a Democratic Society]]
[[Category:Members of the Weather Underground]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists]]
[[Category:American people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by New York (state)]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New York (state)]]
[[Category:American female murderers]]
[[Category:20th-century American criminals]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Recipients of gubernatorial clemency in New York (state)]]