Lennon, John Summary

  • Last updated on November 10, 2022

After winning international fame as one of the lead singers of the British rock band called the Beatles, Lennon moved to the United States in 1971 and joined in a number of radical leftist causes. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon attempted to have him deported for political reasons.

Upon the breakup of John Lennon’s world-famous rock group the Beatles, he and his Japanese-born wife, Ono, YokoYoko Ono, used their celebrity to promote the anti-Vietnam War movement. In 1969, they staged quixotic protests such as “Bed-ins for Peace,” and Lennon was denied entry to the United States. Lennon and Ono moved to New York City in 1971, associating with such radicals as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. Lennon and Ono also advocated a number of leftist causes in their protest album Sometime in New York City (1972).British immigrants;John Lennon[Lennon]Lennon, JohnBritish immigrants;John Lennon[Lennon]Lennon, John[cat]EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS;Lennon, John[03200][cat]SUBVERSIVE AND RADICAL POLITICAL MOVEMENTS;Lennon, John[03200][cat]ARTS AND MUSIC;Lennon, John[03200][cat]DEPORTATION;Lennon,John[03200][cat]BIOGRAPHIES;Lennon, John[03200]

John Lennon (left) with his Japanese wife, Yoko Ono, in New York City, in 1972.

(AP/Wide World Photos)

President Nixon, Richard M.[p]Nixon, Richard M.;and John Lennon[Lennon]Richard M. Nixon, fearing that Lennon’s influence on young voters could undermine his reelection and that there could be a Lennon-led disruption of the 1972 Republican National Convention, ordered Lennon’s deportation. In March of that year, Lennon was served a deportation notice by the Immigration and Naturalization Service citing a 1968 misdemeanor drug conviction in England. Lennon appealed the order, which was eventually overturned in 1975. Despite Lennon’s radical associations, theFederal Bureau of Investigation;and John Lennon[Lennon]Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance of him determined the often intoxicated Lennon to be a minimal subversive threat. He gained permanent resident status in 1976 but was killed by a mentally deranged American fan four years later.British immigrants;John Lennon[Lennon]Lennon, John

Further Reading
  • Norman, Philip. John Lennon: The Life. New York: Ecco Press, 2008.
  • Wenner, Jann. Lennon Remembers. 1971. New ed. New York: Verso, 2000.
  • Wiener, Jon. Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S.

Drug trafficking

Films

“Moral turpitude”

Music

New York City
Categories: History