Amelia Boynton Robinson

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Overview

Amelia Boynton Robinson (née Platts) born Savannah, GA August 18, 1911 (d. 2015). Nonviolence advocate and civil rights activist. Key figure in planning of Selma marches, 1965. During first Selma to Montgomery march, beaten unconscious by police at Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 7, 1965.

Quotations

"I was not afraid." (Moni Basu interview, cnn.com, Jan. 9, 2015)

"Only until all human beings begin to recognize themselves as human beings will prejudice be gone forever. . . People ask me what race I am, but there is no such thing as race. I just answer: 'I'm a member of the human race.'" (Jane Ridley interview, New York Post, Dec. 1, 2014; photo lipstickalley.com)

Selma Brackman

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Overview

Selma Brackman born Far Rockaway, NY October 27, 1922 (d. 2010). Organized Peace Worker Women's Strike for Peace, 1968; organized the National Teach-In on World Community, Columbia University, 1969; director of the First International Exhibit for Peace, 1971; founded War & Peace Foundation, 1981.

Quotations

"Armed conflict for any nation is a public health hazard and the use of child soldiers has become a feature of armed conflict in every region of the world." (The Child Soldier, Montreal, May 2002).

Anne Braden

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Overview

Anne Braden born Louisville, KY July 28, 1924 (d. 2006). Peace and justice journalist; anti-racism leader; first arrested 1951 in protest against execution of Willie McGee, a black convicted of rape; convicted and exonerated of dynamiting Wade house Louisville 1954.

Quotations

"In every age, no matter how cruel the oppression carried on by those in power, there have been those who struggled for a different world. I believe this is the genius of humankind, the thing that makes us half divine: the fact that some human beings can envision a world that has never existed." (Fellowship, Jan/Feb. 2005; photo walkimgbutterfly.com)

Heloise Brainerd

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Overview

Heloise Brainerd born Wallingford, VT April 30, 1881 (d. 1969). Bilingual Latin American expert, semi-official envoy with Pan American Union 1909-35; promoted WILPF (LIMPAL) expansion in Latin America.

Quotations

On her trip to Latin America: "I was most impressed with the splendid enthusiasm which was expressed by these countries for the newer phases of education, and by the interest shown in fostering friendship and good understanding between these countries with each other and the United States." (New York Times, Nov. 22, 1928; photo LIMPAL)

References

http://bit.ly/1rXAcj2

Gayle Brandeis

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Overview

Gayle Brandeis born Chicago, IL April 14, 1968. Author and poet. Founding member of Code Pink, 2002, Women Creating Peace, 2003.

Quotations

On the Iraq War: "You wonder how we ever could have started such a tragic and unnecessary war." (Toronto, Nov. 2008; photo codepinkalert.org)

“Code Pink works hard to keep the human cost of war visible; we can’t give our elected officials the luxury of looking away, of pretending that we are waging a humane and compassionate war.” (Toronto, Pink Tank, Nov. 17, 2008; photo codepinkalert.org)

This is what the body says:
release the peace

that lives within your skin.
("The Body Politic of Peace")

Sophonisba Breckinridge

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Overview

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge born Lexington, KY April 1, 1866 (d. 1948). Lawyer and social worker; Hull House associate of Jane Addams; WILPF founding member ; active in international organizations including first Child Welfare Congress 1925, first International Social Work Congress 1928; U.S. delegate of Pan American Conference 1933; first woman PhD in political science.

Quotations

On admission to the bar: "[I] had never borne a challenge and had never fought a duel with deadly weapons." (1892, Cathy Coghlan thesis; photo Wikipedia)

Edith Terry Bremer

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Overview

Edith Terry Bremer born Hamilton, NY October 9, 1885 (d. 1964). Immigration expert; founded International Institute, a movement for cultural pluralism with efforts towards protection of immigrant girls, 1910. (photo Quillen's Cues to Community Organizing)

Quotations

On the Americanization Movement: “There was ignorance in it; there was the arrogant assumption that everything American was intrinsically superior to anything foreign. There was fear in it. There were the germs of hate in it. None of these things make for anything but a sharp division, a deeper separation between peoples.” (C. Ullman, “The Connections among Immigration, Nation Building”, Adult Learning, 2010, p. 6, in arbrown.wordpress.com; photo facebook.com)

Beatrice Brigden

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Overview

Beatrice Brigden born Belleville, Ontario, Canada January 20, 1888 (d. 1977). Radical Canadian social reformer; peace activist; Socialist feminist; daughter of Quaker mother, she became a Quaker after WWII; critic of Methodist church support for war following WWI; delegate to First Interamerican Congress of Women, Guatemala 1947 which opposed nuclear weapons and asked for pacifist women at UN; Voice of Women (VOW) peace mission to USSR 1963; first women to seek federal office, frequently defeated.

Quotations

"[M]en won't run where there is no chance, while women are willing to run for principle." (brandon.com, Jan. 30, 2012; photo Wikipedia)

Anna Cox Brinton

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Overview

Anna Cox Brinton born San Jose, CA October 19, 1887 (d. 1969). Quaker pacifist; AFSC Commissioner for Asia, 1946; AFSC International Program director. (Photo 1920 Imogen Cunningham)

Quotations

“The blight on American character today is hardness of heart. We older people could, if we would, do something about it. We could help to train conscience.
Why are Americans believed to be cruel? For two very visible reasons: (l) We are the only nation that has used the atomic bomb, and we do not hesitate to prepare for full-scale nuclear war. (2) We are thought to be cruel to our little children. Thousands of American families,military and civilian, are living abroad. Soft-spoken foreign people hear American mothers talk unpolitely, and often in a loud voice, to their toddlers. They even threaten them.” (Friends Journal, Aug. 23, 1958, p. 481; photo 1920 Imogen Cunningham)

Ellen Starr Brinton

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Overview

Ellen Starr Brinton born West Chester, PA March 16, 1886 (d. 1954). Quaker; internationalist; feminist; early leader of WILPF. Founded Swarthmore Peace Collection, 1935.

Quotations

“We cannot see how to make a division between her [Jane Addams's] interest in peace and her interest in other subjects, as her whole life was devoted to various causes, all of them connected with friendship and good will toward all people, and this is the basis of the Peace Movement.” (Apr. 19, 1940 to Eliz. Allen; photo Swarthmore peace col.)

Jo Bristah

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Overview

Jo Bristah (née Emily Josip) born Moulmein, Burma March 7, 1924 (d. 2011). Daughter of missionaries. Founded the second American peace studio, the Swords into Plowshares (SIP) Peace Center, Detroit, 1985.

Quotations

"The arts reach people's emotions and attract some people not previously relating their lives to peace work. . . Art requires the artist to take a 'creative initiative,' which each person must do in her or his own way in working for peace and justice." (War Resisters League 1991 Peace Calendar, June 16; photo obits.mlive.com)

Rita Nakashima Brock

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Overview

Rita Nakashima Brock born Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan April 29, 1950. American theologian; daughter of American soldier who served in Korean War. First Asian-American woman doctor of theology. Presided over Truth Commission on Conscience in War, 2010; founding co-director of Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity School dealing with trauma of war, 2012. Opposed Iraq and Afghan wars.

Quotations

“Regardless of our personal positions on a war, a society that engaged in warfare must come to terms with its responsibilities for its effects and with its own moral injury.” (Huffington Post, Jan. 7, 2015; photo umcnic.org)

Marion Bromley

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Overview

Marion Bromley (née Coddington) born Akron, OH October 10, 1912 (d. 1996). Quaker pacifist; pioneering war tax resister; founder of CORE, 1941; founder of Peacemakers, 1948; first Freedom Ride, 1947; arrested in New York Easter parade, 1947.

Quotations

"Decide that you're not going to pay, and then figure how to do it." (Cincinnati Mag. June 1987; photo c. 1982 Swarth. Peace Col.)

Gwendolyn Brooks

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Overview

Gwendolyn Brooks born Topeka, KS June 7, 1917 (d. 2000). Poet, first Black Pulitzer Prize winner; early antiwar poems after World War II, linking war to racism.

Quotations

He had come down, He said, to clean the earth
Of the dirtiness of war.
Now tell of why His power failed Him there?
His power did not fail. It was that, simply,
He found how much the people wanted war.

("In Emanuel's Nightmare")

Gertrude Foster Brown

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Overview

Gertrude Foster Brown born Morrison, IL January 29, 1867 (d. 1956). Concert pianist; suffragist; editor; active promoter of League of Nations; representative of Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace at UN founding San Francisco, 1945.

Quotations

"The protection and care of human life has always been woman's great business in life." (Your Vote, 1918, pref.; photo http://bit.ly/GJHCEf)