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Books by Philip Berrigan
Widen the Prison Gates: Writing from Jails /
Prison Journals of a Priest Revolutionary /
The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence
No More Strangers /
The Eight Beatitudes and Nuclear Resistance /
Disciples and Dissidents
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Philip
Berrigan, Civil Rights Activist
& Anti-War Activist Dies
at Home in Baltimore, MD
Baltimore, MD - Phil Berrigan died
December 6, 2002 at about 9:30 PM, at Jonah House, a community
he co-founded in 1973, surrounded by family and friends. He died
two months after being diagnosed with liver and kidney cancer,
and one month after deciding to discontinue chemotherapy.
Approximately thirty close friends and fellow peace activists
gathered for the ceremony of last rites on November 30, to
celebrate his life and anoint him for the next part of his
journey. Berrigan's brother and co-felon, Jesuit priest Daniel
Berrigan officiated.
During his nearly 40 years of resistance to
war and violence, Berrigan focused on living and working in
community as a way to model the nonviolent, sustainable world he
was working to create. Jonah House members live simply, pray
together, share duties, and attempt to expose the violence of
militarism and consumerism. The community was born out of
resistance to the Vietnam War, including high-profile draft card
burning actions; later the focus became ongoing resistance to
U.S. nuclear policy, including Plowshares actions that aim to
enact Isaiah's biblical prophecy of a disarmed world. Because of
these efforts Berrigan spent about 11 years in prison. He wrote,
lectured, and taught extensively, publishing six books,
including an autobiography, Fighting the Lamb's War.
In his last weeks, Berrigan was surrounded by
his family, including his wife Elizabeth McAlister, with whom he
founded Jonah House; his children Frida, 28, Jerry, 27, and
Kate, 21; community members Susan Crane, Gary Ashbeck, and David
Arthur; and extended family and community. Community members
Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, Dominican sisters, were unable
to be physically present at Jonah House; they are currently in
jail in Colorado awaiting trial for a disarmament action at a
missile silo, the 79th international Plowshares action. One of
Berrigan's last actions was to bless the upcoming marriage of
Frida to Ian Marvy.
The wake and funeral will be held at St.
Peter Claver Church in West Baltimore, (1546 North Fremont
Avenue, Baltimore MD 21217); calling hours: 4-8 PM Sunday
December 8 with a circle of sharing about Phil's life at 6 PM;
funeral: Monday, December 9, 12 PM. All are invited to process
with the coffin from the intersection of Bentalou and Laurens
streets to St. Peter Claver Church at 10 AM (please drop off
marchers and park at the church).
A public reception at the St. Peter Claver
hall will follow the funeral mass; internment is private. In
place of flowers and gifts for the offertory, attendees may
bring pictures or other keepsakes. Mourners may make donations
in Berrigan's name to Citizens for Peace in Space, Global
Network Against Nuclear Weapons, Nukewatch, Voices in the
Wilderness, the Nuclear Resister, or any Catholic Worker house.
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Funeral for Peace Activist Berrigan
December 9, 2002
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Carrying puppets, signs and
roses, hundreds accompanied a pickup truck carrying the coffin of
peace activist Philip Berrigan as it wound its way Monday through
the rough neighborhood where he once served as a priest. Family
members stood in the back of the truck along with the plain wooden
coffin, hand-painted with red roses, as bagpipers played ``Amazing
Grace'' while the procession marched to the funeral at St. Peter
Claver Catholic Church in west Baltimore.
``He was bigger than life -- extremely human and
heroic and committed,'' said actor Martin Sheen, who marched in
the funeral parade. ``He was a great inspiration and a mentor to
me and others.'' Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest, died of
cancer Friday at age 79.
He staged some of the most dramatic anti-war
protests of the 1960s and was arrested at least 100 times, serving
a total of 11 years in prison for his anti-war activities. He led
the ``Catonsville 9,'' a group that doused a small bonfire of
Selective Service draft records in homemade napalm at a parking
lot in the Baltimore suburb on May 17, 1968.
His brother, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, also was
a member of the group. Berrigan's daughters, Frida and Kate, read
a list of the jails and prisons throughout the country where they
visited their father. ``He learned patience through bolts and bars
... through long sacrifice and little reward,'' Daniel Berrigan
told mourners.
Some mourners carried sticks topped with cloth
birds with tattered wings, while others sang Christian hymns and
Buddhist monks chanted and beat drums. Ched Myers, 47, an
activist, writer and teacher from Los Angeles, said Berrigan was
``a historic pioneer in the act of civil disobedience.'' In the
church, mourners held signs reading ``Arm the world with hugs,''
``Wage Peace,'' and ``Plowshares versus Depleted Uranium,'' a
reference to the name of Berrigan's Plowshares for Peace.
``He was a great prophet of peace,'' said the
Rev. John Dear, 43, a Jesuit priest who lives in Cimarron, N.M.
``He spoke the truth against war.''
Source:
NYTimes
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
Library Journal |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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