Biography
Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a Detroit-born United Methodist pastor, theologian, author, and nonviolent activist. After studying at Union Theological Seminary, he served churches and community organizations in Detroit and became a contributing editor for Sojourners. His antiwar and nuclear-disarmament work led to repeated arrests. He served a month after a symbolic witness at the Pentagon in 1982 and received another 30-day jail sentence after offering consecrated bread to guards at Williams International, a manufacturer of cruise-missile engines, in 1985. He later worked on campaigns against Detroit water shutoffs and served ten days in 2018 after a Poor People’s Campaign action.
In a first-person recollection, Wylie-Kellermann describes being jailed over a weekend in summer 1976 after leafleting a Grand Rapids Kroger with Catholic Worker friends, followed by Monday arraignment.
The report individually identifies this Williams International peace resister as jailed for civil contempt after the June 11, 1984 blockade. Actual release was 1984-07-16; this separate stay lasted 35 elapsed days.
Bill Wylie-Kellermann, spelled Wylie-Kellerman in the contemporary report, and Tommy Tackett were arrested May 21, 2018 while blocking the entrance of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in Lansing during the Poor People’s Campaign. They pleaded no contest October 30 and chose jail rather than a $300 fine. They surrendered December 3 and were released December 12 with credits. Although the report describes twelve days served, the physical custody dates span nine elapsed days; the credited figure is not counted as twelve physical days in jail. This is separate from his earlier imprisonment. Source: The Nuclear Resister No.190, December 18, 2018, printed page 3.
