Catonsville Nine Digital Story Map

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1. Catonsville Knights of Columbus Building

The Catonsville Knights of Columbus office was originally built as a country home in the post-Civil War era and was purchased by the local Knights of Columbus in 1921. During the Vietnam War, it was home to the local Selective Service office. In 1968, it was the site of a well-publicized act of civil disobedience, when a group of nine activists (Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, David Darst, John Hogan, Tom Lewis, Marjorie Melville, Thomas Melville, George Mishe, and Mary Moylan) seized hundreds of draft files and burned them with homemade napalm in the parking lot. Following this protest against the Vietnam War, the activists became known as the Catonsville Nine.

2. Catonsville Nine Historical Marker

This historical marker was dedicated up by the Maryland Historical Trust in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of the Catonsville Nine's protest against the Vietnam War. The actions of the nine activists remain a topic that generates a variety of responses among Catonsville residents, and for this reason, it was agreed that marker the marker would not be placed in front of the Knights of Columbus building where the action took place, but instead in front of the Catonsville Public Library.

3. US Custom House, Baltimore

The Custom House was built at the very beginning of the 20th century in Beaux-Arts style and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. On October 27th, 1967, Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis, later to be part of the Catonsville Nine action, were joined by David Eberhardt and James Mengel, in an act of civil disobedience that saw them labeled as “The Baltimore Four”. At the time the Customs House was home to the Baltimore Selective Service, and the four men entered and poured blood (a combination of their own blood and animal blood) onto draft records in protest of the Vietnam War. “We shed our blood willingly and gratefully in what we hope is a sacrificial and constructive act. We pour it upon these files to illustrate that with them and with these offices begins the pitiful waste of American and Vietnamese blood” - Statement of the Baltimore Four (The Catonsville Nine, Peters).

4. War Memorial Plaza

The Baltimore War Memorial was dedicated in 1925 for veterans of WWI and rededicated in 1977 in honor of all Maryland veterans of wars of the 20th century (Pousson, Baltimore Heritage). The plaza was also the site of a large protest and rally on behalf of the Catonsville Nine during their trial in 1968.

5. United States Post Office and Courthouse

The Post Office and Courthouse was built in 1932 in the Neo-Classical style and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This was the site of the trial of the Catonsville Nine, which in many ways was to be of more importance than the actual burning of the draft files. Using the court transcript, Daniel Berrigan later wrote a dramatic account in The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, which was transformed into a play that has seen multiple revivals. The quotes below are taken both from that text, and from the book The Catonsville Nine, by Shawn Francis Peters.

6. St. Ignatius Church

St. Ignatius was built in the 1850s, and is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Baltimore. It underwent extensive renovations in 1999. This church was one of the main meeting places for many protestors and activists who supported the Catonsville Nine, and several rallies, speeches, and events were held here throughout the trial. Father J. William Michelman, the Jesuit priest in residence in 1968, made it available to the activists, a choice that led to him later being pushed out of the parish.

7. St. Peter Claver Church

St. Peter Claver Church was founded in 1888 by the Mill Hill Josephite Fathers, and was built specifically for African American parishioners. It is named for Saint Peter Claver, the patron saint of slaves. Philip Berrigan, a Josephite priest, was assigned here as priest prior to his civil disobedience actions in Baltimore and Catonsville in the 1960s.

8. Jonah House

Jonah House is a faith-based community that was founded by a group that included Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister (McAlister was a former nun; Berrigan left the priesthood to marry her in 1973). Their tenets are “nonviolence, resistance, and community”. The Jonah House moved to its current location in 1996, having previously been located in a rowhouse. They are affiliated with the Plowshares Movement, an anti-nuclear war movement founded in 1980 by a group that included Philip and Daniel Berrigan. Philip Berrigan died in 2002, but the Jonah House and Plowshares continue on.

9. Viva House

Founded in 1968 by Brendan Walsh and Willa Bickham, members of the Catholic Worker movement, Viva House has been a working soup kitchen for more than 50 years. Per founder Walsh, “Viva House has been a place for discussion and clarification of local, national and international issues. It has been a gathering place where people talked seriously and made plans for acts of nonviolent resistance to the greed and violence so peculiar to the United States.”

This Tour is a Digital Story Map.

Catonsville Nine Digital Story Map

Created by Sarah Caughey on November 1st 2020, 8:25:49 pm.

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Description

This digital story map interprets the history of the Catonsville Nine, a group of anti-Vietnam War activists who seized and burned draft files from a Selective Service office in Catonsville, Maryland. Using places on the map to explore the history of the events surrounding the protest and its aftermath, this educational resource offers an exploration of of the nine activists, their motivations, the significance and aftermath of the protest, and the way the event has been remembered over the past half-century.

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Catonsville Nine Digital Story Map

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