Anne Montgomery

Sister Anne Montgomery RSCJ (20 November 1926 – 27 August 2012) was an American non-violent activist, educator, nun, and poet who was part of the Plowshares movement. Aside from teaching, she worked with the poor, and advocated for peace via the Catholic Worker Movement. She was a member of the original Plowshares Eight in the first Plowshares action in 1980. Anne Montgomery House in Washington, D.C., run by the Society of the Sacred Heart, is named for her.

Early life Anne Montgomery was born on November 20, 1926, in San Diego California, the daughter of Alice Claire Montgomery and Alfred Eugene Montgomery. She had one sibling, an older brother who died on active duty when she was in the Sacred Heart novitiate (see Society of the Sacred Heart, below). Her father Alfred Montgomery was a career Naval officer who rose to the rank of Vice Admiral, leading the largest battle in the Pacific against Japanese war ships during World War II. The family moved a great deal during her childhood.

She attended Eden Hall Academy of the Sacred Heart in Torresdale, Pennsylvania and Manhattanville College, graduating with a bachelor's and master's degree. She later earned a second master's degree from Columbia University.

She taught at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City from 1959 to 1969 and at Street Academy of Albany in 1970. In 1975, she began educating children with learning disabilities. In the late 1970s, she returned to New York City to work with high school dropouts in East Harlem. She was also a part of the Little Sisters of the Assumption in East Harlem. She became an advocate for peace, determined to disarm nuclear weapons using nonviolent tactics.

Activism

Plowshares Movement

In 1980, Montgomery joined the Plowshares Eight, an anti-nuclear weapons and Christian pacifist movement co-founded by Philip Berrigan, Liz McAlister, Daniel Berrigan, and others. The movement included activists such as Susan Crane and often consisted of members calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Some members of the movement damaged nuclear weapons and military bases to directly disarm the facilities. Montgomery was among the first that were arrested for these acts, and served time in prison. She participated in several other Plowshares movement actions, including one in 2009, at the age of 83.

In 1987 Montgomery co-edited a book with Art Laffin, Swords into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, about the Plowshares movement, and nonviolent direct action for disarmament, peace, and social justice. In 2024 he co-edited a book of her poetry written in war zones and in prison (see the section below). The editor of the poetry series at Scarith Press is Grace Cavalieri, poet laureate emerita of Maryland, and host of the Library of Congress series "The Poet and the Poem". Cavalieri writes that "This posthumous collection of poems by activist Anne Montgomery illuminates the heart of a woman who gave her every moment in service to impede ugliness, and to do God's work." Every living member of the original Plowshares 8 and some members of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 contributed to it, including (alphabetically) Jackie Allen-Douçot, Frida Berrigan, Jim Douglass and Shelley Douglass, Clare Grady, Dean Hammer, Kathy Kelly, and Steve Kelly SJ.