Audrey Brown Burton born New Orleans, LA December 31, 1939. African-American peacemaker; founded Institute for Inner Development for ex-cons, New York; Unity Walk, Richmond, VA, 1993.
"When I practice standards of honesty, unselfishness, love and purity, then I can be around almost anyone and it doesn't set off a time bomb." (Michael Henderson, All Her Paths to Peace, p. 73)
Mary Burton (née Ingouville) born Buenos Aires, Argentina January 19, 1940. Commissioner of South African Truth & Human Rights, 1995; Head of Black Sash, 1986-90. Established Register of Reconciliation to aid people not heard by Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 1997. Founded Home for All Campaign for whites to acknowledge the damage of apartheid and to eliminate racism, 2000.
“The right to be heard and acknowledged, with respect and empathy, did contribute to a process of healing.” (Brandeis University, Nov. 2011; photo blacksash.org)
Gertrude Carman Bussey born New York, NY January 13, 1888 (d. 1961). Philosophy professor; WILPF international president, 1949-52; author of WILPF organizational history, 1965.
"Wars on a small scale, whether civil or international, carry within themselves the seeds of world war. A world war, even if begun with so-called conventional weapons, would almost certainly end as a nuclear war." (1955, Catia Confortini dissertation, Imaginative Identification, p. 82; photo http://bit.ly/FOhuBJ)
Goler Teal Butcher born Philadelphia, PA July 13, 1925 (d. 1993). Black international law professor; Africa AID administrator; advocate of ending global hunger; fought against Apartheid; one of first arrests in Free Africa Movement 1984; honored by medal for human rights.
“These are sobering times when the challenges of natural calamities as well as the crises of human uncaring, political miscalculations, military and economic opportunism cry out to us for our input. . . [L]awyers must step forward in the effort to address the challenge of the earth itself.” (“The Immediacy of International Law for Howard Students”, 1988)
Francelia Butler (née McWilliams) born Cleveland, OH April 25, 1913 (d. 1998). Literature professor at Univ. of Connecticut; journalist and children's writer. Founded International Peace Games, 1990.
"People are beginning to have hope now that peace can be a reality after centuries of conflict. . . They're beginning to see maybe there are ways of negotiating solutions." (New York Times, May 20, 1990; photo Hollins Univ.)
Mary Frances Butts born Parkstone, Dorset, England December 13, 1890 (d. 1937). British modernist author. Socialist, pacifist, social worker. Opposed first World War in National Council Against Conscription and National Council for Civil Liberties.
On World War I: "[This is a] collective insanity that has come over the world…Not till the end of the war will there be any time for art or love or magic again. Perhaps never again." (from her diary, in Nathalie Blondel, “Mary Butts: Scenes from the Life”, New York Times, “Speed the Plough” 1923 story of shell-shocked soldier.)
“For watching death, and above all, after death; not death in battle, but death after battle, brings one to certain indifferences that are also a form of death.” (photo Treadwell’s)
Dorothy Buxton (née Jebb) born Ellesmere, Shropshire, England March 3, 1881 (d. 1963). British humanitarian; Christian Socialist; Quaker pacifist. Denied exit to Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915; founding member of WILPF. Opposed WWI with publication of news from the continent. Opposed postwar blockade of Germany with Fight Famine Committee, 1918, leading to co-founding of Save the Children, 1919. Protested about mistreatment of German civilians to Nazi leaders, 1935.
On the food blockade of Germany: “[It is] dreadfully suggestive of the practice of placing women and children in front of the firing line. . . Our spurious patriotism, our moral indolence, all that tissue of pretenses which we call ‘civilisation’, has passed the death sentence on the child, but the child in its feebleness and its pain has passed sentence on our ‘civilisation.’” (Union of Democratic Control, May 1919 in Patrick Wright, Iron Curtain, p. 323; 1939 portrait by Arnold Gersti, BBC)
Winnie Byanyima born Mbarara, Uganda January 13, 1957. Aeronautical engineer; Ugandan diplomat to France and UNESCO; UNDP Gender Team leader. African Union expert on gender and peacebuilding; UNIFEM advisor on women in war and peacemaking. Appointed head of Oxfam International, 2013. (photo unescofoum.blog)
Elinor Byrns born Lafayette, IN June 14, 1876 (d. 1957). American peace leader and lawyer; feminist suffragist and absolute pacifist. Co-founded Women’s Peace Society, 1919; Women’s Peace Union, 1921. The Women's Peace Union successfully advocated for the passage of the Kellogg-Briand Pact to outlaw war, 1928. Opposed World War I and capital punishment.
“A government which learns to respect life will be a sane government, realizing the folly and wickedness of permitting, much less of forcing, its citizens to indulge in the abnormality of war. It will know that life, in itself valuable, can be made rich and beautiful. It will understand that its citizens can never reach the highest point of development unless they abandon such ugly practices as killing, and the violation of the personality of others, and concentrate rather on creative, constructive activities.” (Senate Hearing, 1927, Wikipedia from Alonso)
Women in Peace
is dedicated to highlighting the achievements of extraordinary, peacemaking women from around the world.
