Early Life and Education
Green was born in 1944 to Gerald and Mary Green in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
In 1966, he received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University. During his time at Northwestern, Green was deeply influenced by President John F. Kennedy's famous civil rights address on national television on June 11, 1963, the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers later that same evening, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963. Green interned in the summer of 1965 and 1966 in the office of Senator Paul Douglas.
While working in the nation's capital, Green met Senator Eugene McCarthy, and later worked on McCarthy's 1968 presidential campaign.
From 1966 to 1968, Green was a Woodrow Wilson fellow conducting historical research in Washington, D.C.
Green entered Yale University to work on his doctorate. He was a member of the Student Strike Coordinating Committee which led a mass rally, teach-in and demonstration on May 1, 1970. More than 15,000 people jammed the Yale campus from Friday through Sunday to protest the arrest and murder trial of Black Panther leader Bobby Seale.
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