David Eberhardt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | March 26, 1941 Teaneck, New Jersey, United States |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, musician, author, peace activist |
| Known for | The Baltimore Four |
| Children | 1, Christopher |
David Mack Eberhardt (born March 26, 1941), is an American peace activist and poet. He is best known for his participation, with Philip Berrigan and two others, in the antiwar action known as the Baltimore Four, an immediate precursor to the Catonsville Nine. [1]
His father, Charles R. Eberhardt, S.T.M., Ph.D., was an Episcopal minister, as well as chair of the Department of Philosophy at Towson State University, and earlier a professor at Davidson College. [2] His mother was one of the first teachers at the St. James Academy, part of the St. James Church (Monkton, Maryland). His father was author of the book The Bible in the Making of Ministers. [3] He took after his mother, who was born a Mack (Scottish), and thus Mack was his middle name. The Macks landed in Lyme Connecticut in 1717 and went up the Connecticut River valley, some fighting in the revolutionary war. A book published in 1911 details a history of American Macks, "a stubborn lot," the preface says. Her father Silas Mack was an immigration judge in Monterey, California. On his mother's side Eberhardt is related to Joseph Smith, prophet-founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Eberhardt is a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon School (1958), and Oberlin College (1962). He played varsity lacrosse at both schools. [4]
Although he grew up Episcopalian on what he called "the hard pews of the church," he does not practice it in adulthood, saying he comes closest spiritually to Zen and Sufism, and the Catholic Worker Movement. [5]
His influences include the hymn Once to Every Man and Nation, based on a James Russell Lowell poem. [6] He is also influenced by the Anglican processional hymn For All the Saints by Walsham How, making it the title of one of his books. [7] He additionally cites the unofficial national anthem of England, "Jerusalem" (And did those feet in ancient time), a choral song by Sir Hubert Parry. [8]
He taught for several years at the Boys' Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore, then began a life of activism, first in the civil rights movement with Baltimore's renowned civil rights leader Walter P. Carter as a mentor. With CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, he authored The Soul Book, with photographs by Carl X. Eberhardt began in the peace movement in 1964, and was a draft counselor for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Father Philip Berrigan became Eberhardt's mentor as they engaged in more and more assertive actions against the Vietnam War. Father Berrigan celebrated Eberhardt's marriage to Louise Yolton on October 16, 1967, the night before the actions of The Baltimore Four. [9]
As a peace protester, on October 17, 1967, Eberhardt entered the Selective Service Board at Baltimore's Customs House with Father Philip Berrigan, Tom Lewis, and a United Church of Christ pastor, Rev. James L. Mengel III, to protest the Vietnam War. [10] [11] [12] They combined their own blood and poultry blood, pouring it over draft records. [13] After Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, there were riots in Baltimore and other cities, and the trial was postponed. [14]
This action predated The Catonsville Nine by six months. While they were out on bond, Berrigan invited Eberhardt to participate in that action, but he declined, as did Jesuit priest Richard McSorley SJ. [15] Eberhardt and Berrigan, along with Mary Moylan and George Mische of The Catonsville Nine, broke bond and went underground. [16] None of them responded to prosecutor Stephen Sach's letter advising them to turn themselves in. The FBI captured Berrigan and Eberhardt on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on April 21, 1970, when they raided St. Gregory the Great Church's parish rectory and found them hidden in a pastoral closet. They had publicly announced an appearance that evening, but the FBI staged the raid to pre-empt the public event. [17]
After an appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States, he was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in 1970 for 21 months. [18] In prison he met Jimmy Hoffa, who told him, "You pacifists, [what do you know] about organizing and picket lines? Goddamn, you're never gonna get anywhere. You need fists and guns!" [19] [20] He also met mafia chieftains Tony Provenzano and Carmine Galante, who expressed the same sentiments.
Eberhardt liked to joke that he was one of the few inmates who was actually "corrected" in the correctional system, in that it gave him a career in criminal justice. [21] He worked at the Baltimore City Detention Center, (the jail), assisted at the beginning by then-warden Gordon Kamka and Charles Benton, Finance Director for Mayor William Donald Schaefer. [22] At the jail he was Director of the Baltimore Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR), which he founded along with Marjorie Scott, Administrator of the Baltimore AFSC Office. [23] One of OAR's notable projects was its Bail Fund, one of the first of its kind, designed to help reduce overcrowding and meet a federal overcrowding mandate. OAR's original mission was to match volunteers with inmates and to initiate criminal justice reforms. His title at the BCDC was Social Program Administrator, and he brought many groups to the jail, such as Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, yoga, writing classes, life skills classes, and more. After 33 years working for the city and then the state, he retired in 2010. [24]
After prison he also worked along with George Mische of The Catonsville Nine as a newsletter editor for the National Coordinating Committee for Justice under Law on prison reform issues. [25] He also worked for the National Moratorium on Prison Construction, sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee along with Brian Willson, on alternatives to prison. [26]
As Vice Chair of his CORE chapter, he was again arrested several times, once for trying to integrate the Chartley Apartment Complex. During the 1960s he was a journalist for several underground newspapers. He was military editor for 'Harry', which he began while in prison, and also 'Dragonseed'. [27]
He never stopped getting arrested (although for less serious offenses), for example protests at the Pentagon and NRA headquarters. Along with peace movement work, he is active on gun control issues and Baltimore's gun violence. He assisted the Baltimore Non Violence Center and as well the SPARK's campaigns for a Workers Party. [28]
On December 23, 1982, he received a full and unconditional pardon from President Ronald Reagan, although he quipped that Reaganites needed a pardon from him. [29]
Catonsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland. The population was 44,701 at the 2020 US Census. The community is a streetcar suburb of Baltimore along the city's western border. The town is known for its proximity to the Patapsco River and Patapsco Valley State Park, making it a regional mountain biking hub. The town is also notable as a local hotbed of music, earning it the official nickname of "Music City, Maryland." Catonsville contains the majority of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), a major public research university with close to 14,000 students.
Philip Francis Berrigan was an American peace activist and Catholic priest with the Josephites. He engaged in nonviolent, civil disobedience in the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament and was often arrested.
Daniel Joseph Berrigan was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author.
The Catonsville Nine were nine Catholic activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17, 1968, they took 378 draft files from the draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned them in the parking lot.
John Dear is an American Catholic priest and peace activist. He has been arrested 85 times in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience against war, injustice, nuclear weapons.
Investigation of a Flame is a 2001 documentary by Lynne Sachs about the Catonsville Nine, nine Catholic activists who became known for their May 17, 1968 nonviolent act of civil disobedience in burning draft files to protest the Vietnam War.
Thomas P. Lewis was an artist and peace activist, primarily noted for his participation with the Baltimore Four and the Catonsville Nine.
Elizabeth McAlister is an American peace activist and former nun of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. She married Philip Berrigan and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. McAlister served prison time for nonviolent acts of civil disobedience.
Jonah House is a faith-based community/commune in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) centered on the concept of "Nonviolence, resistance and community". It was founded in 1973 by a group that included Philip Berrigan, then a Catholic priest, and Elizabeth McAlister, formerly a Catholic nun. Jonah House is located on the grounds of St. Peter's Cemetery in West Baltimore south of Coppin Heights. The 22-acre (89,000 m2) cemetery was largely abandoned and overgrown, the community has devoted itself to restoring and maintaining it.
Catholic social activism in the United States is the practical application of the notions of Catholic social teaching into American public life. Its roots can be traced to the 19th century encyclical Rerum novarum of Pope Leo XIII.
The Cornell Catholic Community is the Catholic organization and parish at Cornell University, which provides worship services and community for the university's Catholic students. Its current director is Father Daniel McCullin.
Hit & Stay is a 2013 documentary directed by Joe Tropea and Skizz Cyzyk. It looks at the actions of The Catonsville Nine and The Baltimore Four taken in protest of The Vietnam War, and the influence of these actions and the activists behind them on subsequent progressive political protests. The press labeled this group "the Catholic Left." The film contains interviews with many of the activists who took part in these actions, as well some of the F.B.I. agents who monitored them. It also contains contemporary commentary on the influence of these actions from such names as Bill Ayers, Noam Chomsky, Ramsey Clark, Amy Goodman, Howard Zinn, and Laura Whitehorn.
The Silver Spring Three refers to a Vietnam War era anti-draft action. On May 21, 1969, three young men walked into a Silver Spring, Maryland Selective Service office where they destroyed several hundred draft records to protest the war. Les Bayless, his brother John Bayless, and Michael Bransome lived at a commune known as Blair House just down the street from the draft board. Files were mutilated with blood and black paint, office equipment was destroyed, and the office was completely ransacked. The three waited for police and FBI agents to arrive and were arrested.
Harold Buchman was a 20th-Century American Communist attorney, "the most important communist member" of the Progressive Citizens of America (founded by former vice president Henry A. Wallace, president of the Roosevelt Democratic Party Club, and treasurer for the Screen Writers Guild.
The Milwaukee Fourteen were fourteen peace activists who burned Selective Service records to protest the Vietnam War. On 24 September 1968, they entered Milwaukee's Brumder Building, site of nine Wisconsin draft boards, gathered up about 10,000 files, carried them to an open public space, and set them on fire with homemade napalm. The fourteen then remained at the site, singing and reading from the gospels of John and Luke as Milwaukee firemen and police officers arrived. The subsequent trial of twelve of the protestors became the first resistance trial in which the defendants chose to represent themselves. After a trial of eleven days, the defendants were each found guilty of theft, arson, and burglary.
Mary Moylan was a nurse-midwife and political activist, primarily known for her participation with the Catonsville Nine.
Margarita Melville, is a Mexican-born American anti-war activist, and retired university professor and associate dean. Melville's advocacy for Guatemala led her and her husband to join the group known as the Catonsville Nine.
The Chicago 15 were a group of 15 American antiwar activists known for protesting the U.S. war with Vietnam. On Sunday, May 25, 1969 the group broke into the Selective Service office at 2355 W. 63rd Street in Chicago, which housed the records of 34 south side draft boards. They removed 40,000 records, stuffing the documents into burlap bags and dragging the bags outside to the alley where they doused the records in gasoline and set them ablaze. The 15 men and women stood singing songs around the bonfire until police arrested and transferred them to Cook County Jail.
Frida Berrigan is an American peace activist and author. She published the 2015 book, It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into Rebellious Motherhood, about her life in a family of prominent activists and her own philosophies of parenting. Raised in the Plowshares movement, she has been featured in documentaries and studies of the movement, including award-winning director Susan Hagedorn's 2021 The Berrigans: Devout and Dangerous. Frida Berrigan has documented and interpreted the movement's history and meaning from her first-hand perspective for a global audience.