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Fred Newman, Controversial Political Activist And Philosopher, Dies At 76
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 10, 2011
Modified Jul 10, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 10, 2011
Modified Jul 10, 2011
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Fred Newman passed away last week in Manhattan at age 76. Who is Fred Newman? According to his website, "Fred Newman is the public philosopher who for 30 years has translated the most progressive ideals of the 1960s into effective instruments of social and personal transformation," but the NY Times' obituary sums it up more elegantly: "Fred Newman’s influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description."
The Times obituary goes on:
He founded a Marxist-Leninist party, fostered a sexually charged brand of psychotherapy, wrote controversial plays about race and managed the presidential campaign of Lenora Fulani, who was both the first woman and the first black candidate to get on the ballot in all 50 states.
He helped the Rev. Al Sharpton get on his feet as a public figure and gave Michael R. Bloomberg the support of his Independence Party in three mayoral elections, arguably providing Mr. Bloomberg’s margin of victory in 2001 and 2009...
Mr. Newman began his climb to influence in New York in the 1960s, when, from his apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he formed a Marxist collective called “If ... Then.” Its members, many of them self-professed anarchists, collected money on the streets for the group. Most participated in Mr. Newman’s newly articulated “social therapy,” which encouraged patients to change themselves by seeking to change society. He encouraged collective members to sleep with one another, an activity he called “friendosexuality.” The collective published newspapers and started a dental clinic.
Newman attended Stuyvesant High School and went to City College for his undergraduate degree. He also got a Ph. D. from Stanford, "Mr. Newman taught at City College but was fired after giving male students A’s to help them avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Other colleges hired him but fired him for the same reason. A job as a drug counselor led to his therapy career."
The obituary is a fascinating read, and his own website has rebuttals to criticisms against himfrom claims that he's anti-Semitic to accusations that his collective was a cult (for instance, check out what the ADL thinks).
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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