Ammon Hennacy

Ammon Hennacy
Hennacy in 1966
Born	July 24, 1893 Negley, Ohio, U.S.
Died	January 14, 1970(1970-01-14) (aged 76) Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Selma Melms (1919–1964) Joan Thomas (1965–1970)

Ammon Ashford Hennacy (July 24, 1893 – January 14, 1970) was an Irish-American pacifist, Christian anarchist, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement and a Wobbly. He established the "Joe Hill House of Hospitality" in Salt Lake City, Utah and practiced tax resistance.

Hennacy was born in Negley, Ohio to Quaker parents, Benjamin Frankin Hennacy and Eliza Eunice Fitz Randolph, 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 Industrial Workers of the World member. He studied at three different institutions, (a year at each one): Hiram College in Ohio in 1913, University of Wisconsin–Madison 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." He was also the secretary of Hiram College's Intercollegiate Socialist Society. At the outbreak of World War I Hennacy was imprisoned for two years in Atlanta, Georgia for resisting conscription. While in prison the only book he was allowed was the Bible. This inspired him to radically depart from his earlier beliefs; he became a Christian pacifist and a Christian anarchist. He led a hunger strike and was punished with eight months in solitary confinement. Hennacy believed that adherence to Christianity required being a pacifist and, because governments constantly threaten or use force to resolve conflicts, this meant being an anarchist.