On Monday at the West Hollywood City Council meeting, Jane Fonda spoke on behalf of the One Billion Rising organization, a group seeking to end domestic violence. It was the movie-star-turned-activist’s latest political passion project.
Many of the causes that Fonda supports today are tame compared to the ones she championed decades ago, including a few that got her into some serious trouble.
We took a look back at five of Fonda’s most controversial activist moments.
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5. Fonda speaks at an anti-Iraq War rally on the National Mall D.C. (2007).
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4. Fonda forms a satirical troupe and tours Asia with an anti-Vietnam War message.
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3. Fonda lends support to the Native American takeover of Alcatraz in 1970.
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2. Publicly supports the Black Panther Party.
Jane Fonda reportedly flashed the Black Panther sign on the red carpet at the Academy Awards in 1970. Fonda flashes the same sign in her mug shot when she was arrested for drug trafficking in 1970 (the charges were dropped).
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1. 1972 — North Vietnam.
Perhaps her most controversial and infamous moment of activism came in 1972 when she visited North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Fonda met with North Vietnamese soldiers, American POWs and was captured in an iconic AP photo sitting atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. The trips earned her the dubious nickname “Hanoi Jane.” She is still reviled for this by some Vietnam Vets 40 years later.
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