Fifty Years For The Port Huron Statement

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Port Huron Statement, written by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). In June of 1962, the SDS met at what is now Lakeport State Park to draft their “living document.” Some commentators say the document ignited the student Civil Rights and anti-war movements of the ’60s.  Executive Director of Operation Transformation, Tom Seppo says while the document appears to be very scholarly, it is missing “the God-factor and principles our country was founded upon.”   The Port Huron Statement is again at the forefront of progressive thought in America, when the Statement’s call for “Participatory Democracy” appeared as the first principle of the Occupy Wall Street, September 17 Declaration.  Participatory Democracy calls for the expansion of democracy into every aspect of society, so that individual citizens have a greater say in the conditions that affect their lives. Port Huron holds a special place in American history and in the history of Social Justice. The Port Huron Statement forever put our city on the Social Justice map.  For five days in June 1962, members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) gathered at a UAW camp near Port Huron, Mich., for the group’s first national convention. The result was The Port Huron Statement: a 25,700-word manifesto that articulated the fundamental problems of American society and laid out a radical vision for a better future. The Port Huron Statement, written primarily by Tom Hayden, then the Field Secretary of SDS, and completed on June 15, 1962 at an SDS convention at what is now a state park in Lakeport, Michigan, a community north of Port Huron. The entire document may be viewed at http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html