Ernest Bromley (March 14, 1912 – December 17, 1997) was an American minister,

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

and civil rights and peace activist. A founding member of the

Freedom Riders Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia ...

, he played an active role in protests of

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Intern ...

in the Southern United States. He also organized rallies in Cincinnati which protested the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and segregation. Bromley was also a pioneer of the modern American

tax resistance Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax, or to government policy, or as opposition to taxation in itself. Tax resistance is a form of direct action and, if in violation of the tax ...

movement. In 1942 he refused to display a "defense tax stamp" on his car. He redirected the $7.09 cost of the stamp that would have gone to the war effort and gave it instead to Methodist overseas relief. He was jailed for 60 days and lost his position as minister. He married

Marion Bromley Marion Bromley ''nee'' Coddington (October 10, 1912 – January 21, 1996) was a pioneer of the modern American tax resistance movement and a civil rights activist. Tax resistance In 1948 Bromley left the staff of the Fellowship of Reconcili ...

in 1948. He produced and edited a local newsletter called ''Peacemaker'' for many years. Peacemakers was the name of an organization that he and his wife Marion helped found that encouraged pacifism and resistance to war taxes and the draft. Peacemakers developed a fund for families of people imprisoned for acts of conscience. In the 1970s the Internal Revenue Service tried and failed to seize their home for non-payment of taxes. In 1977 the

War Resisters League The War Resisters League (WRL) is the oldest secular pacifist organization in the United States. History Founded in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I, it is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International. It continues ...

gave the Bromleys its annual Peace Award. His activism informed and was informed by his faith as a member of the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

, specifically Cincinnati Community Friends monthly meeting. The

testimonies of peace and equality were values for which he lived.

References

1912 births 1997 deaths American civil rights activists American tax resisters American anti-war activists Freedom Riders {{civil-rights-movement-stub