Molly Rush is a Catholic anti-war, civil and women's rights activist born in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

. She co-founded the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along with

Larry Kessler Larry Kessler is the Founding Director of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, an agency that has served over half of all people diagnosed with AIDS in Massachusetts, educated generations about the disease, and secured progressive city, stat ...

in 1972, She was one of the Plowshares eight defendants. They faced trial after an anti-nuclear weapons symbolic action at a nuclear missile plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Life and activism

Rush grew up in Pittsburgh and has been a member of civil rights organizations including the Catholic Interracial Council, Allegheny County Council on Civil Rights and

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

. She co-founded the Thomas Merton Peace & Justice Center in 1972. She participated in the first local '' Take Back the Night'' march to protest violence against women in 1976. Rush was a delegate to the National Women’s Conference in Houston in 1977.

''Plowshares action''

In 1980 Rush, with seven others,

Daniel Berrigan Daniel Joseph Berrigan (May 9, 1921 – April 30, 2016) was an American Jesuit priest, anti-war activist, Christian pacifist, playwright, poet, and author. Berrigan's active protest against the Vietnam War earned him both scorn and admir ...

, Phillip Berrigan, Carl Kabat, Elmer Mass, Anne Montgomery, John Schuchardt and Dean Hammer entered a GE plant that manufactured delivery systems for hydrogen bombs in King of Prussia, PA. The protesters then pounded on the cone of an Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) warhead to protest the nuclear arms race. Rush and the other seven were arrested. Rush was in jail for 11 weeks until two Pittsburgh religious orders, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sister of St. Joseph, provided security for her bail. She was sentenced to 2 to 5 years. After 10 years of appeals, she was re-sentenced to time served. A film on the trial, In the King of Prussia, defendants played themselves. Martin Sheen was the Judge.

Awards and recognition

She was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in 2011 by Governor

Tom Corbett Thomas Wingett Corbett Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1995 ...

. and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Coalition Award in 1990, Fannie Lou Hamer Award from Women for Racial & Economic Equality in 1994, the Mother Jones Award from the PA Labor History Society in 2003, the YWCA Tribute to Women award in 2003 and the Just Harvest Award in 2004.

Play

A play about her life, ''Molly's Hammer'' was written by Tammy Ryan and is based on the book ''Hammer of Justice: Molly Rush and Plowshares Eight'' by Liane Ellison Norman. Depicted in the play are the actions leading up to the 78 days Rush spent in Pennsylvania jails in 1980 as a result of her involvement in the Plowshares Eight's assault of a missile at General Electric Co. plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Film

Emile de Antonio Emile Francisco de Antonio (May 14, 1919 – December 15, 1989) was an American director and producer of documentary films, usually detailing political, social, and counterculture events circa 1960s–1980s. He has been referred to by Randolph Le ...

's 1982 film ''

In the King of Prussia ''In the King of Prussia'' is a 1983 film directed and written by Emile de Antonio. The film reconstructs the events of the 1980s " Plowshares Eight". The group of anti-war activists were charged with the September 1980 destruction of nose cones ...

,'' which starred

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

and Molly Rush appeared as herself. Rush was featured in the documentaries ''The Pursuit of Happiness'' and ''The Trial of the AVCO Plowshares'', by Global Village Video.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rush, Molly Date of birth missing (living people) Living people American women's rights activists Activists from Pittsburgh Year of birth missing (living people) American anti–Vietnam War activists American Christian pacifists Christian radicals Peace movements Religious activism Anti–nuclear weapons movement Nonviolence advocates 20th-century American women 21st-century American women