Zoia Horn, librarian jailed for not testifying against protesters

Zoia Horn refused to testify against antiwar activists accused of plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger. Zoia Horn refused to testify against antiwar activists accused of plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger. Photo: Courtesy Of The Family Photo: Courtesy Of The Family Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Zoia Horn, librarian jailed for not testifying against protesters 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Zoia Horn, who in 1972 became the first U.S. librarian ever jailed for withholding information as a matter of conscience by refusing to testify against antiwar activists accused of a bizarre terrorist plot, died Saturday at her home in Oakland, her family said. She was 96.

Ms. Horn devoted much of her career and her retirement years to speaking out against government surveillance and intrusions aimed at libraries and academic institutions. The American Library Association did not support her in 1972, but later praised her courage. The California Library Association now bestows an annual Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award.

"All kinds of options are there for a librarian with a conscience," she told The Chronicle in a 2002 interview.

A native of Ukraine who emigrated with her family at age 8, Ms. Horn started working at libraries in 1942. In January 1971, she was the chief reference librarian at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., when two FBI agents showed up at her home and asked her to answer some questions and look at photos. When she refused, she was handed a grand jury subpoena.

Kidnap-bomb plot

Prosecutors said they were investigating a plot masterminded by the Rev. Philip Berrigan, along with other current and former priests or nuns, to blow up tunnels beneath Washington, D.C., and then kidnap Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's national security adviser, and hold him until the U.S. stopped bombing Southeast Asia.

Much of the evidence came from an informant who had been in prison with Berrigan and then got a job as a library assistant, where he prevailed on Ms. Horn, a tax-withholding opponent of the Vietnam War, to host a meeting with some of Berrigan's friends.

Her phone was tapped

During the legal proceedings, Ms. Horn learned that her phone had been wiretapped, said her daughter, Catherine Marrion. Prosecutors pressed Ms. Horn for information about the supposed plot. But after appearing before the grand jury, she refused to testify at the 1972 trial of the so-called Harrisburg Seven and was led away in handcuffs. She was freed after 20 days when the jury deadlocked on the conspiracy charges, which were then dropped.

She was "the first librarian who spent time in jail for a value of our profession," said Judith Krug, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. The association declared during Ms. Horn's trial that it could not support her defiance, but praised her after her release, and later elected her to its governing board.

In the aftermath of the trial, Ms. Horn, who had moved to California, found that she could no longer get a top-level job at a public or college library.

"Because she was seen as controversial, I think they didn't want to touch her," said a longtime friend, Betty Medsger, former journalism department chairwoman at San Francisco State University.

Ms. Horn spoke out again in 2002, calling on librarians to resist attempts by the FBI, under the newly enacted USA Patriot Act, to secretly obtain library records of patrons allegedly connected to terrorism investigations.

Role of the library

"She believed in the role of the library in a democracy," Marrion said. "People couldn't make intelligent decisions about how to govern themselves and make choices regarding social and political and economic issues unless they had the information."

At the same time, she said, her mother was "the most civilized, polite person you could meet."

Ms. Horn is survived by Dean Galloway, her husband of 43 years; daughters Marrion of Toronto, and Patricia Horn Fell of Berkeley; two grandchildren, and a great-grandchild. A memorial gathering is planned in August at Lake Park in Oakland.