Olympia Brown born Prairie Ronde, MI January 5 1835 (d. 1926). Universalist minister; suffragist; member of WILPF.
"He who never sacrificed a present to a future good or a personal to a general one can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors." (Sermon c. 13 Jan. 1895, Mukwonago WI; 1919 photo Wikipedia)
Rosemary Brown (née Wedderburn) born Kingston, Jamaica June 17, 1930 (d. 2003). Canadian Black human rights leader, first Black in provincial legislature, served 15 years 1972-86; professor of women's studies; Chief of Ontario Human Rights Commission; early member of pacifist Voice of Women.
"Unless all of us are free, none of us will be free. . . Until all of us have made it, none of us have made it." (photo collectionscanada.gc.ca)
Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell born Henrietta, NY May 20, 1825 (d. 1921). Feminist, abolitionist, suffrage orator; author of books on science and philosophy; first woman Congregational Minister; mobbed at World's Temperance Convention 1843.
"The struggle for existence is but a perfected system of cooperations in which all sentient and unsentient forces mutually co-work in securing the highest ultimate for good." (Studies in General Science, 1869; photo Unit.-Universalists)
Minnijean Brown-Trickey born Little Rock, AR September 11, 1941. Civil rights activist. At age 16 one of Little Rock Nine who desegregated Central High School; expelled for calling girl "white trash" who hit her with her purse, and spilling chili onto floor in front of harassing boys; exiled during Vietnam War to Canada where she supported First Nation issues; Interior Dept. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity under Clinton 1999-2001; Congressional Gold Medal 1999.
"The general feeling was if she [Rosa Parks] could do it, we could do it. . . She was really a heroine to us. She was an ordinary woman and we were ordinary kids and it seems we had a relationship." ("Little Rock Nine member calls Parks an inspiration", Associated Press, Oct. 26, 2005; photo thirteen.org)
Carrie Brownstein born Redmond, WA September 27, 1974. Antiwar guitarist.
On Iraq war: "[T]he goal of this rhetoric is so that people will forget what we are actually doing over there. No one wants to think about the fact that people are dying." (March 3, 2004)
The good old boys are back on top again
And if we let them lead us blindly
The past becomes the future once again
("Combat Rock" 2003)
Janet Bruin born Philadelphia, PA January 23, 1945 (d. 1996). Swiss-American; second generation WILPF member; editor of WILPF publication Pax et Libertas.
"[WILPF is] a remarkable organization. . . a real tribute to women—to our vision, to our stubbornness, and our love." (Women for All Seasons, p. 171).
"I'm in the peace movement because I love life. I refuse to sit back and let this precious planet be destroyed." ("Black Movements," WILPF, Sept. 1985)
Esther Caukin Brunauer born Jackson, CA July 7, 1901 (d. 1959). American internationalist, expert on establishing international organizations: Dumbarton Oaks for UN and UNESCO 1946, with rank of Minister; expert on Nazi Germany; Exec. Secretary Am. Assn. University Women; fired from State Dept. 1952 after McCarthy attacks.
"The nations of the world must work together for the betterment of human life and must develop such strong ties among their peoples that war will eventually become unthinkable." (UNESCO AAUP Bulletin, p. 32, Spring 1947; photo UN)
Louise Bruyn (née Muenzer) born Chicago, IL May 23, 1931. Quaker peace activist. Walked 450 miles from Newton, MA to Washington DC in 45 days to protest expansion of Vietnam War to Laos, 1971. Published memoir She Walked for All of Us: One Woman’s 1971 Protest Against an Illegal War, 2013.
“I felt that I must break my own routine in order to make my protest heard. For me, this is what my action means. I am speaking as strongly as I know how. It is my deep hope that others will be moved to take some action which for them is right-as strongly as they know how-to end the war. . . I am asking them to look for alternatives, to actively say no to the death machine which is war, in their own way." (Boston College, The Heights, March 2, 1971; photo dennispubliclibrary)
Alice Franklin Bryant born Fredericktown, MO May 1, 1899 (d. 1977). Lifelong peace activist; human rights advocate; critic of Cold War; early public opponent of Vietnam War; ran against Senator Scoop Jackson’s militarist policies 1958, 1964 on slogan "Military strength will not win world peace."; teacher in Philippines 1927 imprisoned by Japanese 2½ years 1941; forgave Japan 1946; WILPF, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends Service Committee; children’s writer.
"Wild horses couldn't stop me working for peace." (Tributes to Peacemakers of Seattle First Baptist Church)
Dorothea Dutcher Buck born Milwaukee, WI July 31, 1887. Internationalist President of General Association of Women's Clubs 1947-50 who promoted UN.
"Woman power is a force for peace." (UN World, Oct. 1947; photo Gen. Fed. Women’s Clubs)
Pearl S. Buck born Hillsboro, WV June 26, 1892 (d. 1973). Humanitarian; author; critic of US Cold War militarism. Founded adoption agency for Asian children, 1949. Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 1938.
"[T]he test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members." (My Several Worlds, 1954)
"Unless women realize their responsibility for the kind of world we must have. . . we shall simply go on having these devastating, heart-breaking, ruinous wars." (New York Times, April 8, 1943; photo Nobel Prize)
Betty Bumpers (née Elizabeth Flanagan) born Grand Prairie, AK January 11, 1925. First Lady of Arkansas; child immunization leader; founded Peace Links as women’s network for peace and to avoid nuclear war, 1982.
“Why should we go to all the trouble of protecting the health of our children if we are going to incinerate them?” (Colleen Kelley, Women Who Speak for Peace, p. 131; photo littlerocksoiree.com)
Charlotte Bunch born Artesia, NM October 13, 1944. Feminist; opponent of Vietnam War; founder of Center for Women's Global Leadership, 1989; Human rights advocate at UN.
"As a human rights issue, the effort to end violence against women becomes a government's obligation, not just a good idea." (photo wikicom)
Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (née Perle Yvonne Watson) born Los Angeles, CA October 5, 1932. Lawyer; three-term Congresswoman, 1973-9; County Commissioner; marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.; opposed Vietnam war.
"Today, women are on the march again. Our impact is being felt in all segments of society. I believe this time our participation in government will be permanent." (Wash. Afro-American, July 27, 1976; photo Wikipedia)
Betty Burkes born Malvern, OH March 24, 1942. Teacher of peace and nonviolence. Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Ethiopia; Chair of American WILPF, 1997-99; Peace Education Program Coordinator at Hague Appeal for Peace, 2002-05.
”Love is a great teacher.” (2007)
“If we don't address what's in other people's hearts and minds, if we don't engage each other in a dialogue, then all the declarations on human rights will not matter. . . If we don't address the things that separate us, we will not deliver what we're after. What we're really after is creating communities that sustain life and do not promote war and death.” (Dec. 8, 2001; Robert Shetterly portrait in Americans Who Tell the Truth)
Catherine Burks-Brooks born Birmingham, AL October 8, 1940. One of the first nonviolent Freedom Riders, May, 1961; imprisoned at Parchman Prison, Jackson, MS, 1961.
"I didn’t want to die, now, but I didn’t have any fear of doing what I had to do. I knew what was happening was wrong. And I had an opportunity to do something about it." (May 4, 2011, Tennessean; mug shot PBS)
Dorothy Burnham (née Challoner) born Brooklyn, NY March 22, 1915. Civil rights leader with Southern Negro Youth Congress, Birmingham 1940-49; communist; Sisters Against South African Apartheid; WILPF.
“[The Secretary of State] cannot expect to lead the world in democracy if there is no democracy in his own country. . . it is about time that he [do] something to stamp out the Ku Klux Klan and the lynchings in the United States.” (Paris, Aug. 1946, World Federation of Democratic Youth, Sara Haviland, James and Esther Cooper Jackson; photo Labor Arts)
Linda Burnham born Brooklyn, NY January 9, 1948. Second-generation communist peace activist; Dorothy Burnham’s daughter; active in CORE; friendship with Cuba in Venceremos Brigade 1971; opposed nuclear weapons, Vietnam War, Central American wars, Iraq War; sponsored Redesigning Peace fashion show opposing militarization of fashion.
“[The U.S. functions in the world that is a more or less permanent feature, is to throw its weight around militarily, and to be a disrupter of peace in the world. And that because of that, we women have a special responsibility in relationship to the issue of peace.” (Loretta Ross interview, March 18, 2005, in Smith College Feminism Oral History, p. 44; photo Linda Burnham blog)
Lucy Burns born Brooklyn, NY July 28, 1879 (d. 1966). Most arrested suffrage leader, co-leader with Alice Paul; opposed World War I; co-founded Women's Peace Society 1917; organized Washington suffrage parade; held first peace vigil at White House; beaten and force-fed in Occoquan prison.
"Help us make this nation really free. Tell our government that it must liberate its people before it can claim free Russia as an ally." (famous Russian banner after Russia gave women the vote, July 20, 1917; photo Wikipedia from Library of Congress)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
