Judge, can I go to Woodstock?

After the United States invaded Vietnam in the 1960s, many young Americans opposed the war on moral grounds and resisted the draft. The World War II generation was taken aback at this defiance, and the baby-boomers who were conscripted to fight in Vietnam puzzled their fathers and uncles who took it for granted that you must comply with these directives.

We used to call this the generation gap. Fathers could no longer recognize their sons. Did any decade start and end as differently as the 1960s? At the start of the decade, most young men looked clean-cut and there was little hint of the social revolution that would reach full flower only a few years later. There was no Beatles, Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan in 1960. Nor was there any Abbie Hoffman. By 1969, wide-scale social protest was a daily occurrence, and the police sometimes fought openly with the longhairs, i.e., outside the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

If you think the older generation was confused by the Vietnam protests, imagine what they thought of the counterculture. Music was no longer something you put on the hi-fi. Music by 1969 was loud, defiant, psychedelic and part of the lifestyle. It culminated in the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, commonly known as Woodstock, held on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York. They say half-million hippies showed up for a three-day concert featuring everyone except the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.

That brings us to Judge Curtin and Bruce Beyer. Judge John T. Curtin was a federal judge at the Buffalo courthouse. Born in 1921, Judge Curtin served in the Marines during World War II and was the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York from 1961 through 1967. President Johnson appointed him to the federal bench in 1967. While Judge Curtin was 48 years old in 1969, 48 back then was not 48 today. Forty-eight year-olds today go to rock concerts. Most 48 year-olds in 1969 did not subscribe to the counter-culture. (He died in 2017).

Bruce Beyer in 1969 symbolized America's youth. We don't think about Buffalo in recalling the tumult of the late 1960s, but there was an active anti-war community. Beyer was charged with assaulting a police officer. But this was your typical act of violence against law enforcement. Beyer was a principled anti-war protester who avoided the draft by seeking sanctuary at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Buffalo. He told his story last year:

On October 20, 1967 I stood on the steps of the Justice Department and returned my draft card to then US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. This act symbolized for me my opposition to the war and my desire to throw off what I came to describe as my “whites skin privileges.” By this time I came to realize that minorities and white working-class young people were serving while those of us from middle-class backgrounds were allowed an escape through a system of deferments. I would disavow my privileges. If it took going to jail as a way of serving my country then I was prepared to go.

Over the course of the next 10 months, I received three orders to report for induction. I publicly refused each time. Upon receipt of the third order, my friend Bruce Cline and I took symbolic sanctuary in my family church. After 10 days, 32 FBI agents and federal marshals, backed up by 100 Buffalo police officers, arrived at the church doors demanding my surrender. I refused.

What started out as a nonviolent protest against the war in Southeast Asia ended in a fist-swinging melee. I and eight of my friends were charged with assaulting federal officers in the process of carrying out their official duties. Of the nine of us arrested, four were veterans.

The government tried Beyer, who was among the "Buffalo Nine," for draft evasion and assaulting a police officer. According to Wikipedia, "The first federal trial began in February, 1969. Around 150 University of Buffalo students and faculty picketed the U.S. Courthouse, chanting 'Free the Nine -- The Trial's a Crime.' The defendants and their lawyers used the trial as an organizing tool. Beyer, Gross, and Kronberg and the other defendants informed the court that it was necessary to resist an 'immoral, illegal, racist, politically insane war on the Vietnamese people.' The jury was unable to reach a verdict on several of the defendants but Bruce Beyer was convicted and received a three-year sentence."

Following his conviction, Beyer was out on $5,000 bail pending appeal and needed permission to travel. In August 1969, every rock-and-roller in the Northeast had heard about the Woodstock concert. There were many rock festivals in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but there was something about Woodstock that made it a magnet for so many people. And why not? Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who and many other classic artists appeared. Bruce Beyer had to go. But he needed Judge Curtin's permission. The judge had probably heard of Woodstock, and he might have thought it was a frivolous endeavor. That did not prevent Beyer from asking the judge for permission to go. Here is the letter Beyer sent to the judge (click to enlarge):

This court order is for real. Beyer says that a paralegal friend liberated it from the court files. The judge's chambers date-stamped the letter. And Judge Curtin granted the application! Beyer was on his way to Woodstock. Nowadays, every federal court filing and order is electronically available to the world. Not so in 1969. The order turned up in a Facebook discussion among those who graduated from the antiwar Buffalo days. I write about it here because it must have been the only time in American history that a judge allowed a criminal defendant to leave the jurisdiction to attend a rock concert.

I caught up with Beyer on Facebook after I saw the Woodstock court order online. I asked if he made it to Woodstock. He did. This is what he wrote:

I arrived at Woodstock a day early with my friends Tara & Sam Abbate, ex-wife Heather and Buffalo Nine co-defendant Bruce Cline. Bruce was/is a country boy. He picked out a perfect spot on which to pitch our tents, on top of a small hill surrounded by pines. We collected a large quantity of firewood, so we had a fire going the entire time.We packed well, had plenty of food, remained dry except for our forays to the stage area. I remember Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm feeding tons of people and the Hippie market up in the woods. It was the first time I met Abbie Hoffman and I hung out with/around him for a few hours. I remember waking up to Jimi Hendrix and the Star Spangled Banner and Richie Havens! The music, of course but it was all the people and everyone was so stoned and friendly. The helicopters overhead were disconcerting and I remember going around telling people that it was like Vietnam without the death and destruction. I miss Abbie most of all and I only got to spend time with him three times after that. We shared attorneys in Jerry Lefcourt & Michael Kennedy. It was the best of times. 

Little-known fact about Hendrix at Woodstock. He may have turned in the most memorable performance ("Star Spangled Banner"), but most of the crowd had gone home by then as Jimi took the stage on Monday morning, long past his scheduled time-slot. The three-day festival bled into a fourth day, and Hendrix plugged in at 9:00 in the morning. (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, who also wowed 'em at the festival, took the stage in the middle of the night, at 3:00 a.m.). After the concert, Beyer returned to Buffalo. Things did not get easier for him. His 2017 account tells us what happened:

In 1969, having been convicted for the assault charges, I was out on bail and awaiting trial for having refused induction. My opposition to the war grew more vocal as the body count on both sides rose to staggering proportions. I spoke out at every opportunity I was given. I gave a speech at University of Buffalo after which students destroyed the ROTC offices located in the Clarke Gym. I was charged with inciting a riot, arson, burglary, and conspiracy to incite a riot.

Now facing considerable jail time, I jumped bail and fled the United States. After six months of hiding in Canada, I eventually made my way to Sweden, where I was granted humanitarian asylum. Two years latter I married my Canadian girlfriend and we immigrated to Canada. I lived in Canada for almost five years and began the process of applying for Canadian citizenship.

Beyer was not the only one who went to Canada. But in 1977, as the country continued to move away from the 1960s, Beyer decided to return to the United States, risking jail time. He contacted Ramsay Clark, now a lawyer in private practice.

Friends in the movement for universal unconditional amnesty suggested I contact former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. I knew that he had been to Ha Noi shortly after leaving office, I knew that he had spoken out strongly against continuation of the war both in private to President Johnson and vociferously upon returning to public life. I phoned him in New York City and he responded, “Bruce, I’m the one who got you into this, I owe you the chance to resolve it.”

Here is Beyer and Ramsey Clark:

The judge who allowed Beyer to go to Woodstock cut Beyer a break. Judge Curtin reduced Beyer's sentence from three years to 30 days. Since he had already served 19 days in 1970, he actually served 11 days upon return to the United States. In a 20-year retrospective published by the Buffalo News in 1988, Beyer said, "his lasting regret is that violence broke out at the church, and that he stood trial for assault instead of for defying the draft."