The Symbionese Liberation Army was born in fall 1973 in Berkeley, Calif., from a deadly collusion of black convicts and middle-class white radicals. Through spectacular crimes and their attendant press coverage, the dozen or so founding members of the SLA sought to ignite a "people's rebellion" against the U.S. government and corporate America. The core of the SLA died in a clash with police in May 1974 and in September 1975, after the FBI captured three surviving members, including heiress Patty Hearst, authorities declared the SLA dead.

Out of the Prisons

In the early 1970s, there was escalating violence in California prisons between black inmates and white guards. Several high-profile murders of guards and prisoners drew the attention of the state's radicals. Many in the movement believed the black inmates were political prisoners and began organizing to support them.

In the Bay Area, white radicals, many of whom lived and studied in Berkeley, began visiting prisoners and sitting in on prison-sanctioned discussion groups like the Black Cultural Association at the Vacaville facility. The visitors injected their own anti-establishment political views, railing against institutional racism and colonialism and advocating Maoism and Marxism.

Among those who visited the prisons were six future members of the SLA: Willie Wolfe, Emily Harris, her husband Bill, Nancy Ling Perry, Russell Little and Joe Remiro. One of the inmates they met was Donald DeFreeze, a 29-year-old black convict from Los Angeles with a criminal record stretching back to his early teens.

In spring 1973, DeFreeze escaped from prison and joined his new friends in Berkeley. They introduced him to counterculture colleagues — Patricia Soltysik, Camilla Hall and Angela Atwood — and by that fall, the group had a plan for revolution.

They coined the term "symbionese" to refer to different types of people — black, white, young, old — living in harmony. For their symbol, they chose the seven-headed cobra, or naga. The heads stood for seven principles — unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative production, purpose, creativity and faith. The soldiers gave themselves "reborn" names and ranks, such as "General Field Marshall Cinque Mtume" adopted by DeFreeze and "General Tekko" taken on by Bill Harris.


NEXT: The SLA takes a life