Judy Gumbo, born Judith Lee Clavir in Toronto in 1943, emerged as a prominent figure in the 1960s and 1970s countercultural and political activism movements in the United States. Known as a leading member of the Youth International Party, or Yippies—a group noted for their theatrical and satirical protests against the Vietnam War—Gumbo became a frequent target of scrutiny by the FBI, which once described her as “the most vicious, the most anti-American, the most anti-establishment” activist of the era.

Gumbo's activism gained early attention in 1967 when she and other Yippies disrupted trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing real and fake dollar bills onto the trading floor, a stunt intended to criticize capitalism and greed. She then played a significant role in organizing protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, an event that ended in violent clashes between police and demonstrators. In a symbolic gesture of political dissent, the group famously nominated a 145-pound pig named Pigasus as a satirical candidate for president.

During the height of the Vietnam War, Gumbo traveled to Hanoi in 1970, where she maintained a personal relationship with Do Xuan Oanh, a senior North Vietnamese official. There, she received letters written by American prisoners of war. Later that year, she and two other women activists staged a protest outside the U.S. embassy in Moscow, dressing as Viet Cong soldiers to draw international attention to the war.

Gumbo’s activism extended beyond Vietnam-related issues. She had connections with the Black Panther Party and was investigated in 1971 concerning a bombing of the U.S. Capitol carried out by the Weather Underground, another far-left militant organization, though she denied involvement. She also visited Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro, further indicating her engagement with global revolutionary movements.

Her activism brought intense surveillance and harassment from the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Gumbo and her then-husband, Stew Albert, also a Yippie leader, relocated to the Catskill Mountains to avoid FBI scrutiny, but their home was repeatedly broken into and wiretapped. After discovering tracking devices on their car in 1975, they successfully sued the FBI and were awarded $20,000 for warrantless surveillance.

Following the Vietnam War, Gumbo continued her advocacy through academia and activism. She taught sociology at various universities and engaged in women’s rights and reproductive health campaigns, including fundraising for Planned Parenthood. She married four times; her relationships often intertwined with her political commitments. Her memoir, published in 2022 at age 78, reflects on her years of protest and the legacy of the 1960s counterculture, expressing hope that today’s activists might draw inspiration from those turbulent times.

In recent years, Gumbo praised figures like Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in 2022 protested the war in Ukraine during a live television broadcast, drawing parallels between Ovsyannikova’s actions and the Yippie tradition of using media to challenge authority and censorship. Gumbo’s life remains a testament to the era’s mix of radical activism, cultural revolution, and ongoing struggles for social justice.