Ted Hajjar ¡Presente! - Poster of the Week

March Against Death Peace Pilgrimage

Artist Unknown

Offset, 1969

California

3961

Theodore (Ted) Hajjar was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, friend, and mentor to many. He was also an educator and peace activist, with a passionate and unwavering commitment to justice. Ted died May 30th of gastric cancer. He was 82.

CSPG’s featured poster promoted November 15, 1969, date of the huge Moratorium against the Viet Nam War—over 500,000 protested in Washington, DC and over 250,000 in San Francisco. The San Francisco march and rally was also his first date with Carol Wells. Ted and Carol were partners, friends, lovers, organizers, and comrades for over 55 years.

Ted was not raised with radical politics but was suddenly exposed to them when he started graduate school at UC Berkeley in the Fall of 1964, arriving at the start of the Free Speech movement. It was his “baptism of fire,” transporting him from a 1950s parochial mindset that didn’t question authority to the 1960s where the world was challenged.

In 1966, he began working with the Peace and Freedom Party, helping to qualify it for the 1968 ballot in California. He worked on Robert Scheer’s 1970 campaign to run for US Senate on the PFP ticket, and in the 1980s was an organizer for the Citizen’s Party. In the 1990s, he worked with Ed Pearl, trying to reopen the legendary Ash Grove on the Santa Monica Pier.

His international solidarity work was as extensive as U.S. imperialism but primarily focused on Israel/Palestine and Central America. Ted was one of the founders of the Nicaragua Task Force, mobilizing opposition to President Reagan’s war against the Sandinista Revolution.

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics was one of Ted’s most important political

accomplishments. For over 35 years he helped build it into the largest collection of post-World War II social movement posters in the U.S., creating a critical legacy for future generations.

At his core, Ted was a teacher, both in the classroom and in his everyday life. Although he taught Sociology at Cal State Northridge for nearly a decade, he was most proud of the years he taught at Middle College High School, an experimental LAUSD high school in South Los Angeles. One of his former students, class of 2004, recently said, “I wasn’t your easiest student…but I want you to know that you taught us the right way, you made us appreciate history . . . you didn’t select what you “should” teach us but taught us exactly what we should learn. You had a profound impact on my life.”

Ted is survived by his wife Carol, daughter Dara, grandson Sage, son-in-law Brandon, sister Justine, and many family members and friends. Visit activistvideoarchive.org to see a 2023 interview of Ted by the Activist Video Archive. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in his memory would be greatly appreciated.

We also invite you to share memories, sympathy messages, or words of 

encouragement in the form of a note mailed to CSPG's office: Attn: Carol Wells, 3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103, Culver City, CA 90230. We will share all notes with Ted's family. 

Ted Hajjar

¡Presente!