Ammon Hennacy

Ammon Hennacy (July 24 1893 - January 14 1970) was an American pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a Wobbly, and was known for establishing the "Joe Hill House of Hospitality" in Salt Lake City, Utah and never paying taxes.

Biography

Hennacy was born in Negley, Ohio to Quaker parents and grew up as a Baptist. On hearing Billy Sunday preach in 1909 he became an atheist and shortly afterward became a socialist and an IWW member. He studied for a year at three different institutions, Hiram College in Ohio in 1913, University of Wisconsin in 1914, and The Ohio State University in 1915. During this time Hennacy was a card carrying member of the Socialist Party of America and in his words "took military drills in order to learn how to kill capitalists" ^*. Upon the outbreak of the First World War Hennacy was imprisoned for two years in Atlanta, Georgia for resisting conscription. While in prison the only book he was allowed to read was the Bible. This inspired him to make a radical departure from his earlier beliefs. He became a pacifist and a self-proclaimed "Christian anarchist", he also led a hunger strike and was punished with an eight month spell in solitary confinement. Hennacy believed that adherence to Christianity meant being a pacifist and, due to governments constantly threatening or using force to resolve conflicts, this meant being an anarchist.

In 1919 Hennacy married his first wife under common law; two years later they hiked around the United States passing through 48 different states. Hennacy then settled down in 1925, buying a farm and raising his two children. In 1931 he began his social work in Milwaukee and organised one of the first social worker unions. He refused to use force or self-defense even when threatened during his social work, preferring instead to use nonresistance. During this time he also refused to sign up for the draft for World War II and declared that he would not pay taxes in protest to his government's position. He also tried to reduce his tax liability by taking up a lifestyle of simple living and bartering. Between 1942 and 1953 Hennacy worked as a migrant farm labourer in the south west of the United States. In 1952 he was baptised as a Roman Catholic by an anarchist priest with Dorothy Day as his godmother.

Ammon Hennacy moved to New York in 1953 and became the associate editor of the Catholic Worker. Hennacy's life in New York was noticeable for his picketing. He started annual air raid drill protests and picketed against the Atomic Energy Commission's war preparations in Las Vegas, Cape Kennedy, Washington, D.C. and Omaha. In 1958 Hennacy fasted for 40 days in protest of nuclear weapons testing. During 1961 Hennacy moved to Utah and organised the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City. While in Utah Hennacy fasted and picketed in protest of the death penalty and the use of taxes in war. In 1965 Hennacy married Joan Thomas and in the same year left the Roman Catholic Church though he remained a Catholic. He wrote of the reasons for leaving and of his thoughts on Catholicism ^*. This essay and others have been published under the title The Book of Ammon. In 1968 Hennacy had to close the "Joe Hill House of Hospitality" and turned his attention to further protest and writing; he published a book titled The One-Man Revolution in 1970. Ammon Hennacy died from a heart attack on January 14, 1970.

Political beliefs

Ammon Hennacy was a pacifist, Christian anarchist and advocate of nonresistance. He was often extremely critical of the what he described as the "institutional church" ^*. He did not drink or smoke and was a vegetarian. Much of his activism was anti-war, anti-nuclear proliferation and against the death penalty. Hennacy never paid any taxes in his life, ostensibly because of their use in paying for the military and war. He lived a life of voluntary simplicity and believed in his "One-Man Revolution" against sin and authority. He also refused to accept the legitimacy of the judiciary.

Hennacy in folk art

When Ani DiFranco gathered stories by Utah Philips to make the 1996 album The Past Didn't Go Anywhere, she included an episode about Hennacy, whom Philips met at the Joe Hill House, under the title "Anarchy".

Bibliography

Hennacy, Ammon (1954) Autobiography of a Catholic Anarchist. New York, Catholic Worker Books.
Hennacy (1994) The Book of Ammon. Baltimore, MD, Fortkamp Publishing Co.
Hennacy (1970) The One-Man Revolution. Salt Lake City, Ammon Hennacy Publications.
Thomas, Joan (1993) The Years of Grief and Laughter: A "Biography" of Ammon Hennacy. Baltimore, MD, Fortkamp Publishing Co.
Page, Marcus P. Blaise (2005) A Peace of the Anarchy: Ammon Hennacy and other Angelic Troublemakers in the USA.

External links

Ammon Hennacy - A One-Person Revolution in America
Ammon Hennacy Collection - A selection of photographs of Ammon and others
Ammon Hennacy: A Brief Biography
Ammon Hennacy: an anecdotal sketch by Don Dedera
The authorized biographical MOVIE - by Lovarchy-Shalom Productions
A review of Hennacy's autobiography: "The Book of Ammon"
Industrial Workers of the World

Selected Essays