My mother was an elementary school teacher for 35 years and taught at the Nixon School in New Jersey. I was raised as a very liberal Democrat, and she was protesting Nixon when he was in office.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My dad was an immigrant kid and a Democrat and a Jew, and we didn't know any Republicans in our group. So I grew up Democratic. My dad was a labor lawyer - a very hardworking guy, a one-horse labor lawyer - and then I went to hippie college and lived in the bubble.
My father, Melvin van Peebles, and my mother were both very active politically when I was a kid. The first time I was allowed to stay up late was to attend a demonstration.
I remember going through the cafeteria line and telling every kid that Nixon was in favor of school on Saturdays. It was my first political trick.
My mother, she worked in the mayor's office in Chicago when I was growing up and has been in democratic politics for a long time.
I became a Republican in the summer of 1972. I was involved in running President Nixon's re-election campaign in California and became part of his administration at the start of his second term.
I worked in the media from the late 30's through the early 70's. Politics in general became more liberal both nationally and within the state as the years passed.
My parents were very active in the Civil Rights Movement. My father was a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) worker; my mother was a secretary with the Panthers.
My mother's studies stopped with the third year of primary school, my father with the first. They taught me a deep sense of duty. But nobody was involved in politics in my family.
When I was younger, I thought of myself as a Nixon Republican because he was the anti-Communist.
My dad was a Republican. My mom - my mom was mostly a Republican, although she voted for McGovern over Nixon. She was really proud of that. She also did, however, work for Trent Lott.