Intelligent and coolly analytical, Thomas Hayden was widely viewed as the chief ideologue of the Movement. In 1962, Hayden had drafted the famous Port Huron Statement expressing the idealism of the New Left. He was co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society. In the early sixties, Hayden participated in civil rights work in the South and in the black ghettoes of Newark. He later shifted his focus to efforts to end the Vietnam War, twice making trips to North Vietnam.
After the Chicago Seven trial, Hayden married (and later divorced) activist actress Jane Fonda.
Hayden now serves as a state senator in California. He attended the 1996 Democratic National Convention in chicago as a delegate.