Robert Alan Haber was the first president of Students for a Democratic Society, a U.S. radical student activist organization. Haber was elected at the first meeting of SDS in 1960. FBI files at the time indicated his official title as Field Secretary (Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1991). SDS Button Logo The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a student activist movement in the United States founded in 1959. ... Students occupying Sheffield town hall over the introduction of higher education fees Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. ...

Described variously at the time as "Ann Arbor's resident radical" and "reticent visionary" (Towne, 1998), Haber organized a human rights conference in April of that year which "marked the debut of SDS" (Zulick, 1996) and invited four organizers of the 1960 NAACP sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States. ... A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more persons nonviolently occupying an area for protest, often political, social, or economic change. ... Downtown Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina, is a city located in Guilford County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. ...

Haber "came from a leftist background" (Towne, 1998); his father was an "energetic" supporter of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal with socialist-progressive sympathies (Miller, 1987). This resulted in the younger Haber being tagged as a red diaper baby, an epithet directed at the time toward children of known or suspected members of the Communist Party or its sympathizers. Ironically it was Haber who would later express misgivings that the SDS was becoming too stridently anti-capitalist and Communist (Sale, 1973). Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882–April 12, 1945), 32nd President of the United States, the longest-serving holder of the office and the only man to be elected President more than twice, was one of the central figures of 20th century history. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: New Deal The New Deal is the name given to the series of programs implemented between 1933-37 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the goal of relief, recovery and reform of the United States economy during the Great Depression. ... A red diaper baby is a child of parents who were members of the U.S. Communist Party (CP) or were close to the Party or sympathetic to its aims. ... The Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) is one of several Marxist-Leninist groups in the United States. ...

Haber's parents named him after former Wisconsin governor, congressman and senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., advocate of the Wisconsin Idea political reforms in the late 19th century and early 20th century (Levine, 2000). Robert Marion La Follette, Sr. ... The Wisconsin Idea is a philosophy embraced by the University of Wisconsin, which holds that the boundaries of the university should be the boundaries of the state, and that research conducted at the University of Wisconsin should be applied to solve problems and improve health, quality of life, the environment... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...

Currently, he is working on the Megiddo Peace Project, see: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~megiddo/ . He makes a living as a cabinetmaker.

References

• Levine, Peter, "The New Progressive Era: Toward a Fair and Deliberative Democracy", Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
• Miller, James, "Democracy is in the Streets: Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago", Simon and Schuster, 1987.
• Sale, Kirkpatrick, "SDS: Ten Years Towards a Revolution", Random House, 1973.
• Scholarly Resources, Inc., "Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the FBI File on the Students for a Democratic Society and the Weatherman Underground Organization", 1991.
• Towne, David, J.D., "SDS: Rage Against the Machine", undergraduate research paper, Albion College, 1998.
• Zulick, Margaret, Ph.D., "Movement Chronology from the Civil War to the Present", from syllabus for graduate course on American Rhetorical Movements (COM 341), Wake Forest University, 1996.