Hoffman, Jack

He did not attain the worldwide reputation of a brazen civil rights activist and an anarchist like his brother, Abbie Hoffman. But if he were a younger man today, Jack Hoffman would be out there protesting against racism alongside the millions of other Americans who are demanding a change in the way African Americans are treated in this country.

“Yes, he would be protesting and carrying a sign that said “Black Lives Matter,” if he were younger … absolutely,” said Joan Hoffman, 76, Jack Hoffman’s wife of 54 years, in a telephone interview from her Framingham home Monday. “He felt it (racism and police brutality) was disgusting and it was a major blemish on this country and how even to this day it still exists.”

Jack was not the radical activist that his older brother was, but the Hoffman brothers agreed on a lot politically, Mrs. Hoffman said.

Jack was involved in politics locally, and he was the Massachusetts campaign manager for Shirley Chisholm in 1972, when she became the first African American candidate from a major party to run for the U.S. presidency. Hoffman went on to serve as a delegate at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, where Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota was selected as the party’s nominee. Chisholm, who was also the first African American congresswoman, came in fourth place, ahead of eight other candidates, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Republican Richard Nixon was re-elected president.

Mrs. Hoffman said it’s interesting that Jack and Abbie were such ardent Democrats, because their father was a Republican.

“He was probably like an Eisenhower Republican. But he wasn’t vocal about it,” she said. “He was mortified by Abbie because he made the newspapers all the time in Worcester, and then when he became known worldwide, their father blamed it on Brandeis.” It was at that university that Abbie became politically active. He later gained national prominence when he co-founded the anarchist Youth International Party (Yippies), in 1968, to protest the Vietnam War and the U.S. political and economic system.