James W. Douglass

James W. "Jim" Douglass (born 1937) is an American peace activist, Catholic theologian, teacher, and author. From 1968 to 1991, he wrote multiple books on the theology of nonviolence. He and his wife Shelley founded the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1997, the couple received the Pacem in Terris Award. Douglass is best known for his 2008 book, JFK and the Unspeakable.

Peace activism After earning a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from Santa Clara University, and a master's degree in theology from Notre Dame University, Douglass enrolled in Gregorian University in Rome during the Second Vatican Council. He served as an unofficial adviser to Catholic bishops on issues of war and peace.

In 1965, Douglass was hired to teach theology at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky. It was there that he met and was influenced by the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, author of Raids on the Unspeakable (1966). Starting in 1968 with his book The Non-Violent Cross: A Theology of Revolution and Peace, he published a series of works on the theology of nonviolence. He stopped teaching in 1972 to become a full-time author and peace activist. The Douglasses, along with other activists, formed a small intentional community, the Pacific Life Community, near the submarine base. Their goal was:

While working with the Ground Zero Center, the Douglasses developed the Tracks campaign, which protested against the White Train that transported nuclear missile parts to Bangor Trident Base. Their nonviolent actions to impede the White Train resulted in both Douglass and his wife spending months in jail for civil disobedience.

In 2006, publisher Wipf & Stock reissued four early books by Douglass on nonviolence.

Assassination research As a correspondent for Probe magazine, Douglass covered the 1999 Loyd Jowers civil trial in Memphis, and wrote about the proceedings. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed by the family of Martin Luther King Jr., alleged that the MLK assassination was carried out by "Loyd Jowers and other unknown co-conspirators". In the course of his assassination research, Douglass obtained the first public interview of ex-FBI agent Donald Wilson—he claimed to have found documents in James Earl Ray's car that pointed to a conspiracy in King's death. Wilson shared the documents with the King family, who then used them as evidence in their lawsuit. The U.S. DOJ disputed Wilson's story and the authenticity of the documents. Douglass has also written about the assassination of Malcolm X.

Douglass's book about the JFK assassination, JFK and the Unspeakable, released in 2008 by Catholic publishing house Orbis Books, is his most commercially successful work. After receiving favorable publicity on TV, the book briefly entered Amazon.com's Top 100. Douglass's thesis is that the JFK assassination was a conspiracy, ordered by unknown parties and carried out by the CIA with help from the Mafia and elements in the FBI, to halt President Kennedy's efforts to end the Cold War in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Touchstone Books, a former Simon & Schuster imprint, issued a paperback version in 2010.

Published works The Non-Violent Cross: A Theology of Revolution and Peace. London: G. Chapman (1968). . "The Human Revolution: A Search for Wholeness". In O'Gorman, Ned (ed.). Prophetic Voices: Ideas and Words on Revolution. New York: Random House (1969). . Resistance and Contemplation: The Way of Liberation. Garden City, New York: Doubleday (1972). . Lightning East to West: Jesus, Gandhi, and the Nuclear Age. New York: Crossroad (1983). . Dear Gandhi: Now What? Letters from Ground Zero. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers (1988). . Written with Shelley Douglass. Illustrations by Bill Livermore. The Nonviolent Coming of God. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books (1991). . Selections from the Writings of Shelley and Jim Douglass, with Mary Evelyn Jegen. Erie, Pennsylvania: Pax Christi USA (1991). . Compassion and the Unspeakable. Lanett, Alabama: Project Hope (1998). . This pamphlet reprints Douglass's keynote address at a conference of the International Thomas Merton Society, held in Mobile, Alabama on June 13, 1997. This journal article reprints a lecture that Douglass gave at Seattle University on January 20, 1998. "The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis". In Pease, Lisa; DiEugenio, James (eds.). The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X. Feral House (2003). pp. 492–509. . "The Murder and Martyrdom of Malcolm X". In Pease, Lisa; DiEugenio, James (eds.). The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X. Feral House (2003). pp. 376–424. . "Interview with Donald Wilson". In Pease, Lisa; DiEugenio, James (eds.). The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X. Feral House (2003). pp. 479–491. A Question of Being: The Integration of Resistance and Contemplation in James Douglass's Theology of Nonviolence, with Karen Holsinger Sherman. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock (2007). . JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books (2008). . Gandhi and the Unspeakable: His Final Experiment with Truth. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books (2012). . Martyrs to the Unspeakable: The Assassinations of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books (2025). .