"The Harvard-Radcliffe Young Democrats had more to do with the [Minnesota Sen. Eugene] McCarthy campaign than any other institution that was available," Popkin says.
And Popkin, like other graduates of 1968, sees her current occupation as an extension of that activism. Popkin, in particular, likes her job at the legal aid bureau, where she can help those who can't afford proper counsel in the law. Lieberman also says she took her present job because it was in public service.
Other graduates focused their activism at Harvard on changing the University. Thomas S. Williamson Jr. '68, solicitor for the U.S. Department of Labor, was in the student government and served as the first chair of an ad hoc committee of Black students formed in response to the King assassination which took steps to establish Afro-American studies.
"Harvard hadn't been aggressive about making the country less racist," Williamson says. "My role was to help things get started in a way that was both progressive and conciliatory."
Williamson says the committee was part of an effort to make Harvard more accessible to minorities. He also says he and other students urged the admissions office to recruit more heavily from different kinds of schools.
"We said, 'you don't understand how remote Harvard seems to a Black student at an inner city high school,'" Williamson says.
He also worked hard on public interest issues as a lawyer, taking on race discrimination cases and working for Planned Parenthood before going on to the Carter administration in 1978.
"It's a very appealing and logical evolution from modest student activism to government to try to find ways in improving the role of people at the bottom rungs of society," Williamson says.
Other graduates didn't become politically active until long after graduation.
Linda J. Greenhouse '68, who covers the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times, notes that the women's movement in particular did not get into full swing until the mid-1970s.
"I'm certainly committed to social change," says Greenhouse, who took part in a march in support of abortion rights while she was covering the issue for The Times. "[But] I wouldn't call myself an activist."
But for all its different permutations, the ultimate effect of the 1960s activist spirit is best described by the silent protest undertaken by so many Radcliffe women a quarter century ago.
While the gesture of wearing armbands had its roots in a shared history and common principles, it ultimately has meant-and still means-slightly different things to different people.
Says Popkin: "I still think it's immoral to do nothing in the face of injustice."