In the 1930s, when other kids his age were reading the comics, Leon Letwin was reading a Communist Party newspaper and accompanying his radical parents to political rallies. His early activism made him one of the younger targets of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which opened a file on him when he was 13.
Although Letwin later backed away from the party, he spent the rest of his life fighting for social justice. In the courts, the longtime UCLA law professor helped win important cases involving the rights of criminal defendants and high school journalists. On campus he helped defend Angela Davis when she was under attack for her militant views.