Lynda Blackmon Lowery born Selma, AL March 22, 1950. Youngest participant in 50-mile Selma March, 1965. Arrested for nonviolent protests at age 14; badly beaten on Selma Bridge on “Bloody Sunday,” 1965.
“We were determined to do something, and we did it. If you are determined, you can overcome your fears, and then you can change the world.” (Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom, 2015, p. 103; photo rural intelligence)
Joan C. Browning born Shiloh, GA July 25, 1942. Civil rights leader. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1961-64. Arrested as Freedom Rider, Albany, 1961; took part in nonviolent sit-ins, 1962, antiwar protests, 1964.
"You had to be trained in non-violence and I had been trained by none other than the father on non-violence, the Rev. James Lawson." (quote and photo Stamford Advocate, Jan. 18, 2015)
Aurelia Browder born Montgomery, AL January 29, 1919 (d. 1971). Pioneering civil rights leader. Second arrest for sit-in on Montgomery bus, 1955. Lead plaintiff in suit against transport segregation, Brower v. Gayle, affirmed by US Supreme Court, 1956.
“I had stopped riding because I wanted better treatment. I knew if I would cooperate with my color I would finally get it. . . It is the segregation laws of Alabama that caused all of it.” (court testimony, Washington Post, April 12, 1998; photo mfsasr.com)
Anna Julia Child Bird born Worcester, MA January 13, 1856 (d. 1942). Progressive politician & suffrage leader. Official US delegate to history’s most successful disarmament conference, Washington Naval Treaty, 1922.
“[T]he sooner people understand that the government is just what the people make it, the better for our institutions.” (The Woman Citizen, Oct. 4, 1919, p. 459; photo NY Public Library)
Joan Woolley Bazar born Philadelphia, PA July 25, 1934 (d. 2017). Journalist and peace activist. National WILPF leadership. Director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Palo Alto, 1984-88. US China People’s Friendship Association; Beijing Conference, 1995.
“We’re a team effort. . . You can find the Raging Grannies at all sorts of places, both where they’re invited and where they have something to say.” (Monitor News, Aug. 18, 2007; photo wilpfsanjose)
Antonia Brenner (née Mary Clarke) born Los Angeles, CA December 1, 1926 (d. 2013). “The Prison Angel.” Voluntary inmate of maximum security prison, Tijuana, Mexico, 1977-2007; negotiated end of riot. Founded Order of Eudist Servants.
“There is no one so ugly he does not have beauty within him; no one so weak he does not have great strength and no one so poor he is not endowed with richness. Each person is of invaluable worth.” (Eudist Servants, Apr. 9, 2018; photo eudistservants.com)
Ada C. Bowles (née Adeline Chastina Burpee) born Gloucester, MA August 2,1836 (d. 1928). Universalist minister; abolitionist; suffragist. Feminist author of hymn “Rise Up! Rise Up! O Women!” Recording Secretary, Woman’s Ministerial Conference, 1882. Supported Julia Ward Howe’s Peace Crusade for Mothers Day for peace.
“[If women were given political power], as long as they were the mothers, wives and sisters of these who would be victims of a war’s cruelty, (war) as an argument would carry little weight.” (Bucks County Gazette, Nov. 29, 1877; photo Wikipedia)
Adrienne Maree Brown born El Paso, TX September 6, 1978. African-American feminist and social justice leader. Director of nonviolent direct action Ruckus Society for environmental justice, indigenous rights and migrant aid, 2006-10.
“Nonviolent direct action has been and should be a deeply transformational and spiritual practice—we are warriors in each nonviolent direct action we do—our action is us extending ourselves towards our visions.” (“Deep Change”, Jun. 9, 2009)
“Love reaches over and under the border wall, extending care and compassion and family to those brutalized by the regressive half of our citizenry. . . Love shows us what to move toward to both free and protect what we so deeply care about. And love teaches us who will be by our sides when the terror comes.” (“Let us resolve to organize with Love”, Jan. 2, 2019; photo kresgee arts)
Mabel Janet Byrd born Canonsburg, PA July 3, 1895 (d. 1988). Early African-American civil rights activist; internationalist. Spoke at WILPF congress on peace and racism, Prague, 1927. Worked for ILO Geneva on labor in African mandates, 1927-29. Head of Chicago Women’s Committee Against War and Fascism, 1934; chaired women’s committee against war at International Women’s Conference, Paris, 1934.
“[I]t is difficult to understand how cooperation and be substituted for conflict until those whose rule is dominant are led to change their attitude toward to minority or dominated group.” (Craig LaMay Higher Education for African Americans; photo uoregon.edu)
Virginia “Ginny” Marie Bouvier born New Haven, CT November 9, 1960 (d. 2018). Professor of Latin American literature. Trained peacemakers. U.S. Institute of Peace facilitator of Colombia peace, 2016.
“The quality of women’s engagement and whether or not their voices are heard is essential to the sustainability of peace.” (“Gender and the Role of Women in Colombia’s Peace Process”, Mar. 4, 2016, p. 28; photo dignity memorial)
Judith Ann “Judy” Beaumont born Chicago, IL December 10, 1937 (d. 2018). Benedictine nun and math teacher; ordained priest, 2011. Trident Nein protester; served year in prison for damaging nuclear sub U.S.S. Florida, New London, CT, July 4, 1983; arrested at Pentagon for Hiroshima protest, 1981.
“We long for. . . a good for world with justice for all and compassionate people to prevail. We long for peace and justice to be the order of the day.” (Advent homily, Dec. 6, 2015; photo legacy.com)
Barbara Briggs-Letson born January 22, 1934. American nurse midwife. Worked in Guatemala and Honduras, 1989. Founded What About Peace? essay contest 2002. Protested drones in Pakistan and at US bases, 2012; opposed School of Americas; supported Women’s Boat to Gaza.
"We are not at war with Pakistan and we are within their borders killing people." (quote & photo, Oct. 23, 2012, Press Democrat)
Zonia Baber (née Mary Arizona) born Kansas, IL August 24, 1862 (d. 1956). Geography professor; feminist; pacifist; anti-racist; anti-imperialist; WILPF member of Balch mission to Haiti 1926 leading to end of US military occupation; promoted Puerto Rican suffrage; mapped world peace monuments.
"[A] drift toward imperialism, a movement veiled and therefore more dangerous, dangerous to the liberty of our neighbors, dangerous to our own democracy." (Baber and Balch, Occupied Haiti, p. 149, 1926; 1924 photo Swarthmore Peace Coll. WILPF)
Joan Baez born Staten Island, NY January 9, 1941. Antiwar singer; founded Institute for Nonviolence, 1965.
"Nonviolence is organized love. . . Love thine enemy but confront his evil." (Daybreak, 1968; 2003 photo Wikipedia)
Hannah Johnston Bailey born Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, NY July 5, 1839 (d. 1923). Quaker head of Peace & Arbitration Department of Women's Christian Temperance Union 30 years 1887-1916, the most influential American peace organization of the last quarter of nineteenth century; editor of two peace publications, Pacific Banner and The Acorn 1889-1895; opposed all wars and conscription; suffragist, opposed capital punishment; officer of Universal Peace Union promoting nonviolent resolution of disputes, opposing imperialism; joined Women’s Peace Party opposing World War I, and WILPF.
"The subject of peace is one of vital importance to women. . . It is her mission to bring life, not death, to this world. It is not consistent with this mission that she should bring sons into the world, and in sorrow and self sacrifice bring them to noble manhood to be slain in battle. The life of one boy (if he were my boy) is of more value than the perpetuation of a government." (1887 Lake Mohonk Conference, in John Craig, "Hannah Johnston Bailey." Quaker History, p. 3, Spring 1995; photo Swarthmore Peace Coll.)
Pearl Mae Bailey born Newport News, VA March 29, 1918 (d. 1992). African-American singer and actress. Named as America's "Ambassador of Love" by Richard Nixon, 1970; appointed special ambassador to the UN by Gerald Ford, 1975. Promoted campaign against AIDS.
“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.” (in Weekly World News, Apr. 25, 2005)
Eva-Lee Baird born New York, NY April 29, 1940. Grandmother for Peace; art teacher; photographer; arrested 2005 for protest at New York recruiting station; acquitted; Toys-R-us protest 2006; protested Obama wars 2009.
“We’ve been involved in social justice and civil rights all our adult lives.” (The Daily Beast, Dec. 4, 2014)
"The merchants of war are putting tremendous pressure on President Obama to lead the country down a path of destruction. We the people must pressure him to choose the path of peace." (March 17, 2009, Joan Wile blog; photo the epoch times)
Elizabeth Evans Baker born Montclair, NJ February 25, 1902 (d. 1990). Peace advocate; philanthropist. Sponsored peace programs at Juniata College, 1971, and Ohio State University, 1981.
Ella Baker born Norfolk, VA December 13, 1903 (d. 1986). Nonviolent human rights activist; founder of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1960; Southern Christian Leadership Council, 1957; Director NAACP, 1943-6; protested Ethiopian War, 1936; WILPF.
"We are not fighting for the freedom of the Negro alone, but for the freedom of the human spirit, a larger freedom that encompasses all mankind." (Zinn SNCC 106; photo Ella Baker Ctr. wikicommons pd)
Sara Josephine Baker born Poughkeepsie, NY November 15, 1873 (d. 1945). Physician; first US woman to serve in League of Nations, as representative to Health Committee, 1922-4; pioneer in public health, esp. for immigrants.
"Women could force the world to abandon war as a national policy if they would simply refuse to bear children until governments came to their senses, or realized that there would be no future soldiers." (Fighting for Life, p. 243; photo pd Wiki)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
