Activist an icon in war-addicted world

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Tom Pahl Lewis, a Catholic artist, was sketching a civil rights protest in 1964 at a segregated amusement park in Baltimore when he noticed the crowd around him becoming hostile toward the demonstrators. Concerned his silence would signal consent, he picked up a sign that read “Jim Crow stops here” and stood with those calling for desegregation.

That moment would set him on a path that combined art, social criticism and protest that would last until his death April 4 at his home in Worcester, Mass. Lewis, 68, died of a heart attack.

Convinced that war was incompatible with Christianity, Lewis became deeply involved in antiwar activities beginning in the 1960s. He participated in an iconic event for the Catholic antiwar movement when he joined Philip and Daniel Berrigan and six others who burned draft files at a Selective Service office in Catonsville, Md. The group became known as the Catonsville 9, and their protest inspired hundreds of draft board actions across the nation in opposition to the Vietnam War. The Catonsville action was “the best piece of performance art since the cleansing of the Temple,” said Melkite Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, homilist at Lewis’ funeral.

Born in Uniontown, Pa., Lewis grew up in postwar suburbia. He attended Catholic high schools where he played football, developed a passion for art, enlisted in the National Guard and by his own description emerged “a very conservative person.” But that conservatism was tempered by his growing awareness of costly truths involving war and peace. The list of issues that commanded his attention included the civil rights movement, the nuclear arms race and war in Iraq. He was arrested numerous times for nonviolent civil disobedience and spent more than four years in prison for his acts of conscience, three of them for his role at Catonsville.

Lewis, a personal friend and long-time ally of the Catholic Worker movement, was a painter and skilled printmaker who developed a nontoxic method of printmaking. He lived frugally in the inner city and taught at a local museum and college, deliberately keeping his schedule part-time so he could be free to go to jail. The homeless, the imprisoned and victims of war were among the subjects of his art, as were the glorious flowers that adorned his urban block.

He died on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Like the civil rights leader, Lewis saw the connections between militarism, racism and poverty, and responded with a life that integrated creativity and conviction. Amid choices that seemed heroic to some, confounding to others, he remained utterly human. He adored his only child, Nora. He loved to fish, frequently got lost while driving, took forever to plan anything, and had an appreciation for the absurd. Most important, Tom Lewis articulated a relevant faith to our war-addicted society.

National Catholic Reporter May 2, 2008