Unita Blackwell born Lula, MS March 18, 1933. Civil rights leader; SNCC organizer; president of US-Chinese Peoples Friendship Association, 1976-83. Co-founded Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1964; awarded MacArthur Genius grant, 1992.
“The best teacher is to observe from other people and learn from other people.” (Mike Garvey interview, Apr. 21, 1977)
Anita Mccormick Blaine born Manchester, VT July 4, 1866 (d. 1954). Chicago philanthropist; internationalist promoter of League of Nations and UN; personally urged world leaders including Hitler and Mussolini to avoid war; founded World Citizens Association to create world unity 1939 Chicago; early promoter of a democratic UN and world federalism; published progressive newspaper Daily Compass 1949-52; financed Foundation for World Government 1950; founded New World Foundation 1954 for peace and progressive causes; progressive education reformer.
On the founding of the UN: "[I]t matters greatly that this first chance for world agreement to prevent war. . . must not be lost to mankind." (Gilbert Harrison, A Timeless Affair, p. 215, 1979; photo ucls.uchicago.edu)
Emily Newell Blair born Joplin, MO January 9, 1877 (d. 1951). Suffragist; feminist; politician. Co-founder of the League of Women Voters, 1920; first female vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, 1921; contributor to Why Wars Must Cease, 1935, though expressed support of both World Wars. (photo Womens Council)
Katherine Devereux Blake born Manhattan, NY July 10, 1858 (d. 1950). Pacifist educator, journalist and suffragist; Principal of Manhattan PS 6.; WILPF leader.
O, say can you see
You who glory in war
All the wounded and dead
of the red battle's reaping?
(Her version of the national anthem sung by NY children, 1914-1917; Swarthmore WILPF)
Lillie Devereux Blake born Raleigh, NC August 12, 1833 (d. 1913). Pacifist suffragist; author and orator; Civil War correspondent; opposed US imperialism and War with Spain; principal of New York Public School 6.
"We women ought to stand by each other, care for each other." (Fettered for Life, 1874)
"Peace was honorable, and war was dishonorable." (Mary Arden Club, New York, March 31, 1898; sketch Wikipedia)
Ta’kaiya Blaney born Sliammon, British Columbia, Canada January 31, 2001. First Nations environmentalist and singer. Began activism at age 10; protested Enbridge pipeline; addressed UN Summit Rio, 2012.
"Sometimes you don’t have the luxury to be diplomatic when you are being oppressed, but it is still always important to show love whenever you can. . . By representing love and inclusivity other people will feel less threatened which makes it easier to find commonality." (Huffington Post, March 2, 2014; photo theagenda.tvo.org)
Harriot Stanton Blatch born Seneca Falls, NY January 20, 1856 (d. 1940). Unitarian suffragist; socialist. Began public protests for vote, 1907; organized Women's Peace Party Parade, 1914.
"My opposition to war was not because of the horrors of war, not because war demands that the race offer up its very best in their full vigor, not because war means economic bankruptcy, domination of races by famine and disease, but because war is so completely ineffective, so stupid. It settles nothing." (A Woman's Point of View; photo Wikipedia)
Ruth Bleier born New Kensington, PA November 17, 1923 (d. 1988). Neurologist. Feminist and peace activist. Chair of Maryland Committee for Peace, which called for end of Korean War and the draft, 1950-51; as chair, promoted a peace ballot calling for nuclear disarmament and an end to the Cold War, 1950. Due to her activism, blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy and lost her hospital privileges. After dissolution of marriage, came out as lesbian and started feminist restaurant “Lysistrata.”
"New attempts must be made to settle the differences between the United States and the Soviet Union—to establish world peace and to strengthen the United Nations. Either we find a way to live together in peace or we shall not live at all.” (Peace ballot, in Baltimore Afro-American, May 20, 1950; photo wikipedia)
Nadine Bloch born Boston, MA July 8, 1961. Nonviolent protest organizer and direct-action trainer. Noted for peace work through puppet theater. Arrested numerous times for civil disobedience. As Greenpeace activist, conducted direct-action interruption of French nuclear tests, Moruroa, 1995. Helped organize anti-trade globalization WTO protests, Seattle, 1999.
“If protest is made illegal, make daily life a protest.” (beautifultrouble.org; photo Corporate Action Network)
Amelia Jenks Bloomer born Homer, NY May 27, 1818 (d. 1894). American leader against domestic violence; temperance leader and dress reformer; first editor of paper wholly edited by women, The Lily, 1849.
"[No wife should be subject to a drunken husband's] blows and curses and submit to his brutish passions and lusts." (Rochester, NY, April 21, 1852; photo Wikipedia)
Ella Reeve Bloor born Staten Island, NY July 8, 1862 (d. 1951). "Mother Bloor"; American Socialist, and Communist party founder who opposed both World Wars, but changed views 1941; led counseling of conscientious objection in first war; nearly arrested for antiwar stand; led US delegation to Women’s International Congress Against War and Fascism Paris 1934.
"We women must take our place consciously by the side of men, dropping any sense of inferiority. . . We must use every ounce of strength that is in us to build the new world in which there will be no wars." (We Are Many, p. 370, 1940; 1910 photo Wikipedia)
Florence Brewer Boeckel born Trenton, NJ October 20, 1886 (d. 1965). Suffragist; Director of National Center for Prevention of War; prolific writer on peace and international organizations; handbook on peacemaking, 1928; delegate to the World Peace Congress in Brussels, 1936.
"The peace movement today is strong enough to have a chance of success not in the remote future, but now." (Between War and Peace, p. 415; photo c. 1913 Nat. Women's Party records)
Grace Lee Boggs born Providence, RI June 27, 1915. Chinese-American philosopher, civil rights and anti-racism activist.
"[H]ow do we achieve reconciliation with the two-thirds of the world that increasingly resents our economic, military, and cultural domination?" (Bill Moyers Journal, June 15, 2007; photo Wikipedia)
Marie Bohlen born Pennsylvania, PA July 4, 1924 (d. 2014). Quaker artist. "A founding mother of Greenpeace." Inspired protest against Amchitka atomic tests, 1971.
"Why the hell doesn’t somebody just sail a boat up there [Amchitka] and park right next to the bomb?" (Nov. 1971, in Paul Wapner, Environmental Activism, 1996, p.45)
Joan Bondurant born Great Bend, KS December 16, 1918 (d. 2006). Professor; pianist; linguist; leading scholar of nonviolence, authority on Gandhi; researcher for OSS during World War II.
"The Gandhian experiment suggests that if we are to free ourselves from fear and threat alike, we pause from our flight from violence to set ourselves to the task of its conquest." (Conquest, last sentence; photo bondurant-family.org)
Mary Lucinda Bonney Rambaut born Hamilton, NY June 8, 1816 (d. 1900). Indian Rights activist; circulated petition to observe treaties; opposed Boer War and Spanish American War.
On 1879 response to US army invasion of Oklahoma: "A moral wrong upon our Government! It took hold of me." (Notable American Women vol. II, p.197; photo beingwoman.blogspot.com)
Lady Borton born Washington DC September 8, 1942. Quaker hospital administrator with American Friends Service Committee rehabilitation center Quang Ngai, Vietnam 1969-71, and with boat refugees Malaysia 1980; postwar aid Vietnam 1993-95.
"There is no tally sheet in the exchange of small kindnesses; but there is shared memory and, from each person, the assurances of good things to come." (Anna Hough, "Lady Borton", Prezi, Sept. 20, 2012; photo PBS)
Jill Ann Boskey born Newark, NJ January 13, 1947 (d. 1999). Antiwar activist; led 5 Women Against Daddy Warbucks shredded draft files at Rockefeller Center 1969, breaking A+1 typewriter keys symbolic of draft status; member Students for Democratic Society; students burned draft cards Central Park; co-founded feminist Diana Press, Baltimore; later attorney for disabled.
“If the destruction we have wrought against the files upsets you-we ask you to think about the destruction of lives which you have helped perpetuate in Vietnam. If you question what we consider our obligation to do this, we ask you to question rather the insidiousness of American 'peace with victory' in Vietnam and of future American counterinsurgency efforts elsewhere.” (Great Speckled Bird, July 14, 1969, p. 15; photo warresisters.org)
Isabelle Alexandrine Bourgeois born Washington DC April 28, 1966. Swiss journalist and Chief Editor of International Red Cross (IRC) journal Avenue of Peace. Delegate of IRC to Kosovo, 2000; Ethiopia, 2002; Iran, 2003; Iraq War, 2003; Libya, 2004-08. Took part in World March for Peace and Nonviolence, 2009.
“The World March is the continuation of my commitment to promote peace, harmony and unity among people beyond races, religions, social and cultural differences.” (World March Base Team; photo ch.linkdin)
Kay Boyle born St. Paul, MN February 19, 1902 (d. 1992). Author of more than 40 books of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, short stories, and children's literature. Nonviolent peace activist. Blacklisted by major periodical publications during McCarthy era. Participated in civil defense protest, New York, 1960. Marched 150 miles with Cesar Chavez, 1964. Went on fact-finding mission to Cambodia, 1966. Twice arrested for protests against Vietnam War, 1967; jailed 31 days for sit-in at Oakland draft center. Refused taxes for war, 1968; fired as professor for her role in student strike, 1968. Protested US bombing of Libya, 1986. Opposed nuclear weapons.
"What did we gain? We—when I say we I mean the younger generation and the stand which older people took—I think we stopped the war in Vietnam." (Kay Mills interview, Oct. 12, 1986; photo Wikipedia)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
