Ralph DiGia
Encyclopedia
Ralph DiGia was a World War II
conscientious objector
, lifelong pacifist and social justice activist, and staffer for 52 years at the War Resisters League
.
Born in the Bronx to a family of Italian immigrants in 1914, DiGia grew up on Manhattan
's Upper West Side
. A 1927 rally for Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti set him on the path he would follow for 80 years.
At the College of the City of New York
, where he was studying bookkeeping, DiGia signed the “Oxford Pledge,” refusing to participate in the coming war. In 1942, when the Selective Service System
ordered him to report for induction, he said he was a conscientious objector
. But his objections to war were based on ethics, not religion, and the draft board had no category for secular COs. The U.S. Attorney's office referred him to pacifist lawyer Julian Cornell, at the War Resisters League
; Cornell lost his case, and DiGia spent the next three years in federal prisons.
At Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut
, and later at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
in Pennsylvania
, he met other draft resisters, like Dave Dellinger, who some decades later would be a defendant in the Chicago Seven
case, and Bill Sutherland, who would move to Africa
after the war and eventually become a pan-Africanist advocate for nonviolence. While in prison, DiGia and other COs conducted hunger strikes to compel the prison system to integrate its dining halls. They succeeded. In 1946, along with Dellinger, Igal Roodenko
, and others, DeGia helped found the radical pacifist Committee for Nonviolent Revolution
.
commune with Dellinger. In 1951, DiGia, Dellinger, Sutherland, and fellow CO Art Emery bicycled from Paris to Vienna, handing out antiwar leaflets as they went, urging Cold War soldiers everywhere to lay down their arms and refuse to fight. In the early 1950s, he left the commune and moved to the Manhattan area that would later be called Soho, where he lived for the rest of his life, and in 1955 he joined the War Resisters League staff as a bookkeeper. In the early 1960s, he was arrested more than once for not taking shelter during the "civil defense" drills. In 1964 he served four weeks in jail in Albany, Georgia (with, among others, the late peace theorist Barbara Deming
) in the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo Peace Walk organized by the Committee for Nonviolent Action.
, DiGia did necessary office work at WRL but also organized demonstrations and counseled draft resisters. In 1971 he was among 13,500 arrested in the May Day antiwar actions in Washington
. When the Vietnam War ended, WRL took on anti-nuclear
work; in 1977, he protested nuclear power at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in New Hampshire
, he was there. In 1978 he was arrested on the White House
lawn, demanding nuclear disarmament
. He was in New York's Central Park
in June 1982 when a million people said “No Nukes!” He was at dozens of demonstrations at the United Nations
.
In the 1990s, he traveled frequently to Bosnia
with his wife, Karin DiGia, and worked with her relief agency Children in Crisis, which Karin created, but also continued to demonstrate for peace and justice at home. In 1996, he became a volunteer instead of a paid staffer at WRL, but continued to work there five days a week. In 1998, he was arrested in Washington at WRL's "A Day Without the Pentagon" in 1998 and at the mass protests against the acquittal of the New York City
police officers who shot Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo
in 1999. He continued his work at the WRL office through his 93rd birthday in December, 2007. He often said he was even an activist at the ball park: An ardent New York Mets
fan, he remained seated—on principle—during the national anthem.
In 1996, the Peace Abbey, the multi-faith retreat center in Sherborn, Massachusetts
, gave DiGia its Courage of Conscience award "for his example as a conscientious objector and for over forty years of dedicated service at the War Resisters League." In 2005, WRL gave the 40th annual War Resisters League Peace Award
to DiGia and his longtime colleague, former photographer Karl Bissinger
.
, he developed pneumonia
and died February 1.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
, lifelong pacifist and social justice activist, and staffer for 52 years at the War Resisters League
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
.
Born in the Bronx to a family of Italian immigrants in 1914, DiGia grew up on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
. A 1927 rally for Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti set him on the path he would follow for 80 years.
At the College of the City of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
, where he was studying bookkeeping, DiGia signed the “Oxford Pledge,” refusing to participate in the coming war. In 1942, when the Selective Service System
Selective Service System
The Selective Service System is a means by which the United States government maintains information on those potentially subject to military conscription. Most male U.S. citizens and male immigrant non-citizens between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of...
ordered him to report for induction, he said he was a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
. But his objections to war were based on ethics, not religion, and the draft board had no category for secular COs. The U.S. Attorney's office referred him to pacifist lawyer Julian Cornell, at the War Resisters League
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
; Cornell lost his case, and DiGia spent the next three years in federal prisons.
At Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, and later at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
The United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg is a male inmate high security federal penitentiary and satellite minimum security prison camp housing some 1,000 and 500 respectively, just outside Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, he met other draft resisters, like Dave Dellinger, who some decades later would be a defendant in the Chicago Seven
Chicago Seven
The Chicago Seven were seven defendants—Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner—charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968...
case, and Bill Sutherland, who would move to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
after the war and eventually become a pan-Africanist advocate for nonviolence. While in prison, DiGia and other COs conducted hunger strikes to compel the prison system to integrate its dining halls. They succeeded. In 1946, along with Dellinger, Igal Roodenko
Igal Roodenko
- Biography :Roodenko graduated from Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan, New York. He attended Cornell University from 1934 to 1938, where he received a degree in horticulture. Roodenko was a gay man, and a printer by trade....
, and others, DeGia helped found the radical pacifist Committee for Nonviolent Revolution
Committee for Nonviolent Revolution
The Committee for Nonviolent Revolution, or CNRV, was a pacifist organization founded in Chicago at a conference held from February 6 through 9, 1946. Many of the founding members were conscientious objectors who had served time in prison or in Civilian Public Service camps due to their refusal to...
.
Opposition to the Cold War
After his release, he joined a New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
commune with Dellinger. In 1951, DiGia, Dellinger, Sutherland, and fellow CO Art Emery bicycled from Paris to Vienna, handing out antiwar leaflets as they went, urging Cold War soldiers everywhere to lay down their arms and refuse to fight. In the early 1950s, he left the commune and moved to the Manhattan area that would later be called Soho, where he lived for the rest of his life, and in 1955 he joined the War Resisters League staff as a bookkeeper. In the early 1960s, he was arrested more than once for not taking shelter during the "civil defense" drills. In 1964 he served four weeks in jail in Albany, Georgia (with, among others, the late peace theorist Barbara Deming
Barbara Deming
Barbara Deming was an American feminist and advocate of nonviolent social change.- Early life :Barbara Deming was born in New York. She attended a Friends school up through her high school years....
) in the Quebec-Washington-Guantánamo Peace Walk organized by the Committee for Nonviolent Action.
Anti-Nuclear Efforts and Opposition to the Vietnam War
During the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, DiGia did necessary office work at WRL but also organized demonstrations and counseled draft resisters. In 1971 he was among 13,500 arrested in the May Day antiwar actions in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. When the Vietnam War ended, WRL took on anti-nuclear
Anti-nuclear
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...
work; in 1977, he protested nuclear power at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, he was there. In 1978 he was arrested on the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
lawn, demanding nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
. He was in New York's Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
in June 1982 when a million people said “No Nukes!” He was at dozens of demonstrations at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
.
In the 1990s, he traveled frequently to Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
with his wife, Karin DiGia, and worked with her relief agency Children in Crisis, which Karin created, but also continued to demonstrate for peace and justice at home. In 1996, he became a volunteer instead of a paid staffer at WRL, but continued to work there five days a week. In 1998, he was arrested in Washington at WRL's "A Day Without the Pentagon" in 1998 and at the mass protests against the acquittal of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
police officers who shot Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo was a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant in New York City who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The four officers fired a total of 41 shots...
in 1999. He continued his work at the WRL office through his 93rd birthday in December, 2007. He often said he was even an activist at the ball park: An ardent New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
fan, he remained seated—on principle—during the national anthem.
In 1996, the Peace Abbey, the multi-faith retreat center in Sherborn, Massachusetts
Sherborn, Massachusetts
Sherborn is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is in area code 508 and has the ZIP code 01770. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the town population was 4,119. The assessed value of the town for the fiscal year 2005 is $1,008,146,994....
, gave DiGia its Courage of Conscience award "for his example as a conscientious objector and for over forty years of dedicated service at the War Resisters League." In 2005, WRL gave the 40th annual War Resisters League Peace Award
War Resisters League Peace Award
Since 1958, the "War Resisters League", the pacifist group founded in 1923, has awarded almost annually its War Resisters League Peace Award to a person or organization whose work represents the League's radical nonviolent program of Gandhian action....
to DiGia and his longtime colleague, former photographer Karl Bissinger
Karl Bissinger
Karl Bissinger was an American photographer best known for his portraits of notable figures in the world of art following World War II.-Early years:Karl Bissinger was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1914...
.
Opposition to the Iraq War
Ralph DiGia continued his war opposition, including opposing the Iraq War.Death
In the winter of 2007-2008, after a fall and hip fractureHip fracture
A hip fracture is a femoral fracture that occurs in the proximal end of the femur , near the hip.The term "hip fracture" is commonly used to refer to four different fracture patterns and is often due to osteoporosis; in the vast majority of cases, a hip fracture is a fragility fracture due to a...
, he developed pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and died February 1.