Thomas (activist)

American peace activist (1947–2009)

William Thomas

Thomas with his dog Sophie

Born|

William Thomas Hallenback Jr.

(1947-03-20)March 20, 1947

Tarrytown, New York, US

Died| January 23, 2009(2009-01-23) (aged 61)
Occupation| Anti-nuclear activist
Spouse|

Ellen Benjamin

(m. 1984)​

Thomas started the White House Peace Vigil, the longest-running peace vigil in US history, in 1981.

William Thomas Hallenback Jr., known as Thomas (March 20, 1947 – January 23, 2009), was an American anti-nuclear activist and simple-living adherent who undertook a 27-year peace vigil – the longest recorded vigil in US history at the time, with the title passing to his co-protester Concepción Picciotto after Thomas' death  – in front of the White House.[1]

Thomas was born in Tarrytown, New York, and became a truck driver, jewelry maker, and carpenter.[2] Inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, he became a pilgrim and began traveling the world[when?] in the interest of world peace.[3]

In 1978, having tried to swim across the Suez Canal on his way to Israel, Thomas spent eight months in an Egyptian prison. Later, in response to United States foreign policy, he destroyed his passport while trying to renounce his American citizenship in London.[3] The British authorities deported him to the United States in 1980.[2]

In 1981, Thomas traveled to Washington, D.C., and spent several months at Mitch Snyder's Community for Creative Non-Violence. On June 3, he launched the White House Peace Vigil in Lafayette Square.[2] A couple of months later, in August 1981, he was joined by Concepcion Picciotto and then, in April 1984, by Ellen Benjamin.[4] The following month, on May 6, 1984, Thomas and Ellen were married at a Quaker wedding.[2]

During the first three years of the vigil, the Park Police had arrested Thomas sixteen times. The charges ranged from illegal camping to disorderly conduct.[2] In subsequent years, Thomas and Ellen protested with numerous other activists, including representatives from the Catholic Worker and Plowshares movements.[5]

Thomas died on January 23, 2009, aged 61, of pulmonary disease.[6]

## Legacy

[edit]

Thomas and the White House Peace Vigil inspired Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton to introduce the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act to Congress in 1994. It would require the United States to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons – once all other nations possessing nuclear weapons did likewise – and redirect the funds saved into renewable energy and social projects.[7] Since 1994, Norton has continued to introduce revised or renewed versions of the bill. In March 2011, for example, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, it was reintroduced under the name of the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act".[8]

The Oracles of Pennsylvania Avenue, a 2012 TV documentary commissioned by the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, recounts the lives of Thomas, Ellen, Concepcion Picciotto and Norman Mayer.[3]

## See also

[edit]

* Brian Haw
* Christian anarchism
* Christian pacifism
* Ed Grothus
* List of peace activists

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Colman McCarthy (February 8, 2009). "From Lafayette Square Lookout, He Made His War Protest Permanent". The Washington Post.
2. ^ a b c d e Lloyd Grove (December 14, 1984). "Birth of a street person". The Washington Post.
3. ^ a b c Tim Wilkerson (director) (2012). The Oracles of Pennsylvania Avenue. Al Jazeera Documentary Channel.
4. ^ "Thomas, Peace Park Vigiler and Antinuclear Activist". Prop1.org.
5. ^ "Significant Peace Park Vigilers from the Past". Prop1.org.
6. ^ John Kelly (November 6, 2011). "For 30-year peace activist, a new battle". The Washington Post.
7. ^ "Norton Files Nuclear Disarmament Bill to Implement D.C. Ballot Initiative". March 19, 2009.
8. ^ "Norton Reintroduces Nuclear Disarmament Bill in Wake of Japan's Nuclear Catastrophe". April 1, 2011.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Thomas Hallenback.

* Thomas explaining his protest on YouTube, September 16, 2007.
* Peace Park Website
* The Oracles of Pennsylvania Avenue

* v
* t
* e

Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

General|

* Anti-nuclear groups in the US
* California movement
* Great Peace March
* Nuclear history of the United States
* Nuclear power in the US
* Canceled nuclear reactors in the US
* Nuclear weapons and the US
* Protests in the US
* Anti-nuclear advocates in the US

Organizations
and
groups

* Abalone Alliance
* Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
* Clamshell Alliance
* Committee for Nuclear Responsibility
* Corporate Accountability International
* Critical Mass Energy Project
* Friends of the Earth
* Greenpeace USA
* Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
* Mothers for Peace
* Musicians United for Safe Energy
* Nevada Desert Experience
* Nuclear Control Institute
* Nuclear Information and Resource Service
* Physicians for Social Responsibility
* Plowshares movement
* Ploughshares Fund
* Public Citizen
* Shad Alliance
* Sierra Club
* Three Mile Island Alert
* Women Strike for Peace
* Kings Bay Plowshares

People|

* Daniel Berrigan
* William J. Bichsel
* Bruce G. Blair
* Larry Bogart
* Helen Caldicott
* Barry Commoner
* Norman Cousins
* Frances Crowe
* Carrie Barefoot Dickerson
* Paul M. Doty
* Bernard T. Feld
* Randall Forsberg
* John Gofman
* Paul Gunter
* John Hall
* Jackie Hudson
* Sam Lovejoy
* Amory Lovins
* Bernard Lown
* Arjun Makhijani
* Gregory Minor
* Hermann Joseph Muller
* Ralph Nader
* Graham Nash
* Linus Pauling
* Eugene Rabinowitch
* Phil Radford
* Bonnie Raitt
* Carl Sagan
* Martin Sheen
* Karen Silkwood
* Thomas
* Louis Vitale
* Harvey Wasserman
* Victor Weisskopf

Main
protest
sites

* Black Fox
* Bodega Bay
* Diablo Canyon
* Indian Point
* Lawrence Livermore
* Montague
* Naval Base Kitsap
* Nevada Test Site
* Rancho Seco
* Rocky Flats
* San Onofre
* Seabrook
* Shoreham
* Three Mile Island
* Trojan
* Vermont Yankee
* White House Peace Vigil
* Y-12 Weapons Plant
* Yankee Rowe

Books|

* Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free
* Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon
* Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power
* Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978
* The Cult of the Atom
* The Doomsday Machine (book)
* Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy
* Killing Our Own
* Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant
* Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West
* Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System
* Nuclear Politics in America
* We Almost Lost Detroit

Films|

* Atomic Ed and the Black Hole
* The China Syndrome
* Countdown to Zero
* Dark Circle
* Nuclear Tipping Point
* Silkwood

* v
* t
* e

Simple living

Practices|

* Barter
* Cord-cutting
* DIY ethic
* Downshifting
* Dry toilet
* Fasting
* Forest gardening
* Freeganism
* Frugality
* Gift economy
* Intentional community
* Local currency
* Low-impact development
* No frills
* Off-the-grid
* Permaculture
* Regift
* Sattvic diet
* Self-sufficiency
* Slow living
* Slow movement (culture)
* Subsistence agriculture
* Sustainable living
* Sustainable sanitation
* Veganism
* Vegetarianism
* War tax resistance
* WWOOF

Religious and spiritual|

* Amish
* Aparigraha
* Asceticism
* Detachment
* Distributism
* Jesus movement
* Mendicant
* Mindfulness
* Monasticism
* New Monasticism
* Plain dress
* Plain people
* Quakers
* Rastafari
* Temperance
* Testimony of simplicity
* Tolstoyan movement
* Twelve Tribes communities

Secular movements|

* Back-to-the-land
* Car-free
* Environmental
* Hippie
* Open Source Ecology
* Slow
* Small house
* Tiny house
* Transition town

Notable writers|

* Wendell Berry
* Ernest Callenbach
* G. K. Chesterton
* Duane Elgin
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Richard Gregg
* Tom Hodgkinson
* Harlan Hubbard
* Satish Kumar
* Helen Nearing
* Scott Nearing
* Peace Pilgrim
* Nick Rosen
* Dugald Semple
* E. F. Schumacher
* George Skene Keith
* Henry David Thoreau
* Leo Tolstoy
* Valluvar

Modern-day adherents|

* Mark Boyle
* Robin Greenfield
* Ted Kaczynski
* Pentti Linkola
* Jim Merkel
* Peace Pilgrim
* Suelo
* Thomas

Media|

* "Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral"
* Escape from Affluenza
* The Good Life
* The Moon and the Sledgehammer
* Mother Earth News
* The Power of Half
* Small Is Beautiful
* Walden

Related|

* Affluenza
* Agrarianism
* Amateurism
* Anarcho-primitivism
* Anti-consumerism
* Appropriate technology
* Bohemianism
* Consumerism
* Critique of work
* Deep ecology
* Degrowth
* Ecological footprint
* Food miles
* Front Porch Republic
* Green anarchism
* The good life
* Global warming
* Hedonophobia
* Intentional living
* commune
* Rainbow Gathering
* Itinerant
* Low-technology
* Nonviolence
* Peak oil
* Sustainability
* Work–life interface

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