Ardeth Platte, a Dominican order nun who fought for nuclear disarmament and later served as an inspiration for a character on the Netflix show “Orange Is the New Black,” died Sept. 30 at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington. She was 84.
In recent years, the duo spent the brunt of their work speaking in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Gilbert said she had been excited Wednesday morning at the prospect of telling Sister Platte that Malaysia had become the 46th nation to ratify the treaty. Malaysia’s decision means just four additional ratifications are needed for the landmark disarmament treaty to be brought into force, Gilbert said.
Sister Platte was born in Lansing, Mich., on April 10, 1936, and grew up in Westphalia, Mich. After studying at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., she began her work for the Dominicans as a teacher. In the 1960s and ’70s, she served as principal and director of alternative education at the former St. Joseph’s Educational Center in Saginaw, Mich.
Her work as an educator impressed many in the community, and she was urged to run for the Saginaw City Council. She won, serving as councilwoman from 1973 to 1985.
She also was coordinator of Saginaw’s Home for Peace and Justice for more than a decade. It was in Michigan that Sister Platte began her antinuclear work and where Gilbert joined her. Later, the pair moved to Baltimore to join the Jonah House resistance community with Elizabeth McAlister and Philip Berrigan.
In 2002, Sister Platte, Gilbert and Sister Jackie Hudson gained international attention when they dressed as weapons inspectors, entered and were arrested at a Minuteman III nuclear missile site in Colorado. Convicted of federal felony charges, the three nuns were sentenced to prison. (Sister Platte was released in 2005 from Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut.)
A character on “Orange Is the New Black,” Sister Jane Ingalls, was based on Sister Platte, who practiced yoga at the Danbury prison with Piper Kerman, author of the book on which the series about a group of women serving time in a minimum-security prison is based. A documentary film about the sisters, “Conviction,” led to stories about the trio being published in the New Yorker, the New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as some international publications.
In recent months, Sister Platte and Gilbert joined actress Jane Fonda for large protests at the White House.
— Religion News Service
Read more Washington Post obituaries