#OTD in 1943 five #ConscientiousObjectors began a hunger strike at the United States Northeastern Penitentiary in #Lewisburg Pennsylvania, they were soon joined by a sixth.

Forced feeding of the religious and political #pacifists refusing to fight #WWII began October 22nd as they persisted to oppose what they felt was unjust and unconstitutional "Totalitarian" control of their lives. The hunger strike ended in December 1943 when the head of the Federal Bureau of #Prisons, ended the #censorship of their mail but retained the right to read #PrisonerMail. The men were released after the conclusion of World War II.

One of those #LewisburgPrison #HungerStrikers was a theological seminary student named #DaveDellinger who had been educated at Yale and Oxford before joining the Divinity School of NYC Theological Seminary. Dellinger had already learned as an ambulance driver in the #SpanishCivilWar that "whoever won the armed struggle, it would not be the people". Dellinger later worked with the Berrigan brothers, Daniel Ellsberg and helped organize the 1967 protest march that encircled the #Pentagon. Dellinger would later end up as the oldest member of the #Chicago7 protesters, who was acquitted in a show trial alongside Abbie Hoffman in the late 60's. He made trips to Japan to protest #AtomicWeapons, and went to China and North Vietnam, securing the release of captured American servicemen, acting as a go-between with North Vietnamese leader #HoChiMinh.