Tom Hayden, former state senator, will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Tuesday, Sept. 28. His lecture, Reforming California's Prison System, begins at 6:45 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Hayden was elected to the state Assembly in 1982 and the Senate in 1992. His legislative record includes legislation on behalf of women, African-Americans and Latinos, Holocaust survivors and immigrants. He also has led recent battles in Sacramento to stop university tuition increases and reform the K-12 system. Hayden was named "legislator of the year" by the American Lung Association for his battles against the tobacco industry, and has also been honored by the California League of Conservation Voters, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the UC and Cal State student associations, and the Jewish National Fund.
He is the author of nine books, including The Lost Gospel of the Earth, The Whole World Was Watching and Irish Hunger. His latest, Street Wars: Gangs and the Future of Violence, examines urban violence and prison reform.