Biography
Jerry Ebner was a Catholic peace activist associated with the Catholic Worker Movement, known for using nonviolent civil disobedience—often prayerful, symbolic, and deliberately arrestable—as a form of resistance to nuclear weapons and U.S. military doctrine. His activism emphasized “witness” actions meant to dramatize, rather than physically prevent, systems of mass violence.
On August 5, 1987 (the Hiroshima anniversary), Ebner and Joe Gump entered a Minuteman missile silo site near Butler controlled by Whiteman Air Force Base, poured blood in the shape of a cross, and damaged parts of the site’s electrical and alarm infrastructure before waiting to be arrested. He was convicted and received a 40-month federal prison sentence. Decades later, he continued anti-nuclear protests and served additional jail time after a protest-related trespass at Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command.
