Wally Nelson

Wally Nelson

Wallace Floyd Nelson (27 March 1909 – 23 May 2002) was an American civil rights activist and war tax resister.

Wally Nelson died at the age of 93 after more than a half-century of war tax resistance and activism. He spent three and a half years in prison as a conscientious objector during World War II, was on the first of the “freedom rides” (then called the “Journey of Reconciliation”) enforcing desegregation in 1947 and was the first national field organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality.

In 1948, he began his lifelong relationship with Juanita, who met him while she was working as a journalist and went to interview him in jail. Together, they began engaging in war tax resistance. “When we became tax resisters in 1948,” they wrote, “it included not filing, not answering notices to supply information and making sure we had something to refuse.”

Wally and Juanita Nelson spent a few months at the Koinonia Farm in 1957 and continued to work with that project for the next decade.

Over time, the Nelsons came to adopt the income-reduction method of war tax refusal. “Living on a reduced income is related to our refusal only as a progression of awareness, that our entire economic life is tied into violence. It seemed logical that the less we participated, the less we’d be giving to that system.”

The Nelsons cut their expenses dramatically — building a house with salvaged materials and without electricity or plumbing, and growing the majority of their own food on a half-acre of land. Eventually they came to live on less than $5,000 per year. As they aged, they wrote, “we may soon face some difficult decisions… We have no insurance. In latter years we’ve had our share of medical problems. Hospitalizations are covered by aid to the indigent. We talk with doctors before they take us on. Mostly they don’t charge; sometimes we agree on something up to twenty percent of the fee. Our greatest insurance has been the outpouring of support from many, many younger friends (and some older ones).”

Wally Nelson countered complaints about government with stern words about individual responsibility. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, he told a reporter: “What happened in China last month was because you had people following orders. There was damn fools out there doing it. You got to have somebody take orders to do it.” He added: “I never accuse presidents of doing anything — we do it.”

For their role as farmers, civil rights activists, pacifists, war tax resisters, their love & generosity and their spirited life of service to the movements of social justice, activist nonviolence and peace, Wally Nelson and his wife, Juanita Nelson received the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts.

Wally & Juanita were also founding members of the Valley Community Land Trust in western Massachusetts. A no-interest loan fund is now held by the trust in Wally's memory.