Sophonisba Breckinridge

/

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)

Hildegard Breiner

/

Overview

Hildegard Breiner born Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria March 28, 1935. “Grand dame of Austrian grassroots environmental movement”; Anti-nuclear activist; led campaign against first nuclear plant at Zwentendorf, leading to national referendum against nuclear power 1978; major opponent of reprocessing at Wackersdorf, Bavaria; Nuclear-free Future Lifetime Achievement Award 2004.

Quotations

"Endurance is the power of the powerless." (Nuclear-free Future; photo naturschutzbund.at)

Edith Terry Bremer

/

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

/

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)

Fanny Fligelman Brin

/

Overview

Fanny Fligelman Brin born Berlad, Romania October 10, 1884 (d. 1961). Pacifist; suffragist; Jewish peace leader. One of five women consultants to US delegation at founding of UN, 1945, representing Women's Action Committee for Lasting Peace.

Quotations

"War is global, peace is global and prosperity is global." (wartime decl., Litoff & McDonnell, Eur. Immigrant Women, p. 39).

"Peace is a condition of the survival of democracy, therefore democracy must find a way of guaranteeing peace." (Minn. Hist. Soc., Brin bio; 1908 photo U.Minn Alum)

Anna Cox Brinton

/

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

/

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.)

Helene Brion

/

Overview

Hélène Brion born Clermont-Ferrand, France January 27, 1882 (d. 1962). French feminist; socialist. Opposed World War I, for which she was fired from her teaching job and given a 3-year suspended prison sentence by military tribunal for "peace propaganda."

Quotations

"Women want women's rights! And Peace!"

"I am first and foremost a feminist. And it is because of my feminism that I am an enemy of war. . . War represents the triumph of brute strength, while feminism can only triumph through moral strength and intellectual values." (May 1918, K.Offen pp. 262, 481; photo http://bit.ly/GzCUpR)

Jo Bristah

/

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)

Vera Brittain

/

Overview

Vera Brittain born Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England December 29, 1893 (d. 1970). Pacifist author; Socialist; feminist; leader of British Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Quotations

"Pacifism is nothing other than the belief in the ultimate transcendence of love over power." (Humiliation with Honor, p. 9; photo Oxford U.)

Rita Nakashima Brock

/

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)

Birgit Brock-Utne

/

Overview

Birgit Brock-Utne born Oslo, Norway May 4, 1938. Scholar of peace; world authority on women and peace.

Quotations

"As women, we have to believe in ourselves and other women to have the strength, endurance, compassion, and passion to continue our struggle for a better, more humane, and truly peaceful future." (conclusion of Educating for Peace, 1985; photo Oslo Univ.)

Eva von Brockdorff

/

Overview

Erika von Brockdorff (née Schönfeldt) born Kolberg, Germany April 29, 1911 (d. 1943). German resistance leader. Offered her Berlin home as radio headquarters for resistance group. Executed by guillotine, May 1943.

Quotations

"I want to end my life laughing, laughing the way I loved and still love life." (quote & photo Wikipedia)

Frederika Broeksmit

/

Overview

Frederika Henriette Broeksmit born Charlois, Rotterdam, Netherlands August 14, 1875 (d. 1945). Dutch impressionist landscape painter and etcher. Pacifist founder of Si vis Pacem, para Pacem, which she represented at International Women's Congress, The Hague, 1915.

Quotations

“[I]ndependent action in the interest of Peace should be the first motive, and the moral duty incumbent upon those Neutrals who wish to start action, before the occasion for Mediation presents itself openly and fully.” (c. 1915, Si vis Pacem appeal; photo artindex.nl)

Marion Bromley

/

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.)

Angie Brooks

/

Overview

Angie Elizabeth Brooks Randolph born Virginia, Liberia August 24, 1928 (d. 2007). Lawyer; President UN General Assembly 1970; Liberian envoy to UN 1954ff.; President UN Trusteeship Council 1966 which oversaw independence of Togo and Cameroon.

Quotations

"The UN. . . has suffered a decline in prestige in recent years because of its lack of dynamism. Our weakness. . . seems to lie in the fact that we all too often view world affairs somewhat parochially, as if they were being played out at the Headquarters on the East River of New York. We have sometimes failed to realize that neither oratory nor agreements between delegates, nor even resolutions or recommendations, have had much impact on the course of affairs in the world at large." (1970 opening address, in Avy Mallik, "Women Presidents." UN Chronicle, 2006; photo havelshouseofhistory.com)

Gwendolyn Brooks

/

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")