Loretta Filipov

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Overview

Loretta Filipov born May 1, 1936. Wife of 9/11 victim. Founding member of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, 2002.

Quotations

“I was very cognizant that there was enough loss of human life I did not want to see more lives lost in waging an indiscriminate war.  I told that to the powers that be. . . But. . . let’s not go to war.  Enough lives have been lost and you’re not going to help by killing other people who didn’t do anything.” (quote and photo Concord Oral History Project, June 18, 2002)

Isobel Finnerty

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Overview

Isobel Finnerty born Timmins, Ontario, Canada July 15, 1930. Canadian Senator 1999-2005, served on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights committees; activist and international peace trainer in Benin political participation 1994.

Quotations

"Politics, above everything else, is people." (farewell speech, June 22, 2005; photo collectionscanada.gc.ca)

Shulamith Firestone

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Overview

Shulamith Firestone (née Feuerstein) born Ottawa, Canada January 7, 1945 (d. 2012). U.S.leader of second-wave feminism 1968; broke with Jeannette Rankin Brigade antiwar protest DC to bury “Traditional Feminism” in torchlight at Arlington Cemetery, demanded that women resist war as citizens, not women.

Quotations

“We must learn to fight the warmongers on their own terms, though they believe us capable only of rolling bandages. Until we have united into a force to be reckoned with, we will be patronized and ridiculed into total political ineffectiveness. So if you are really sincere about ending this war, join us tonight and in the future.” (invitation, Jan. 15, 1968; “Jeannette Rankin Brigade”; photo inthesetimes.com)

Bernice Fisher

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Overview

Bernice Fisher born Punxsutawney, PA December 8, 1916 (d. 1966). "Godmother of the restaurant 'sit-in' technique." Civil rights activist and labor organizer. Socialist; Baptist pacifist; Gandhian nonviolent resistance advocate. Head of Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Chicago chapter. Founding member of Committee of Racial Equality (CORE), 1942. Took part in one of first American sit-ins at Jack Spratt’s Coffee Shop, Chicago, 1943.

Quotations

On James Farmer’s idea of nonviolent action: “Thank God! At last, we may be able to turn this nation around. It’s the most exciting idea I’ve ever heard!” (Victory without Violence, p.21; photo Wikipedia)

Welthy Honsinger Fisher

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Overview

Welthy Honsinger Fisher born Rome, NY September 18, 1879 (d. 1980). American missionary, friend of Gandhi; established literacy centers in Allahabad, Lucknow at Gandhi’s request 1947; founded World Education 1951 in 50 countries; founded World Literacy Canada 1955, including "The Gandhi Way" about social justice issues that children experience in their everyday life such as violence, poverty, and gender discrimination; "Asian Nobel Prize" Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding 1964; began as headmistress girl’s school Nanchang 1906.

Quotations

"I love the world and I love people." (New York Times, Sept. 19, 1974; photo schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu)

Eleanor Fitzgerald

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Overview

Mary Eleanor “Fitzi” Fitzgerald born Deerfield, WI March 16, 1877 (d. 1955). American theater professional, associate of Emma Goldman; pacifist anarchist opposed to World War I; co-founded No Conscription League 1917; co-founded and managed anarchist magazine The Blast, 1916; Assistant Editor, Mother Earth; member of feminist debate circle Heterodoxy; director Provincetown Players.

Quotations

“The stupidity of law is best illustrated in the fact that all those who dared speak in favor of simple birth control method were jailed and fined; yet the most violent birth control method—War, is being hailed and sanctioned by that very law.” (Mother Earth, Aug. 1917, p. 198; photo uk.pinterest.com)

Lella Secor Florence

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Overview

Lella Secor Florence (née Lella Faye Secor) born Battle Creek, MI February 13, 1887 (d. 1966). Militant pacifist; journalist. Served as reporter aboard Henry Ford Peace Ship, 1915; war resister during World War I; co-founded Emergency Peace Federation, 1917. Member of British chapter of WILPF.

Quotations

"Women are near revolt—The time has come to liberate our slave wives." (Birmingham Sun Mercury, May 26, 1946; late 1920s photo http://bit.ly/JKSm57)

Mary Anne Grady Flores

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Overview

Mary Anne Grady Flores born December 29, 1966. Arrested for repeated drone protests at Hancock AFB, sentenced to one year in prison.

Quotations

"I am going to be fine in jail. I'm going to find wonderful community in there, people of faith. I'm going to be with the poor, and that's where Christ asks us to be, and so with 2 million people that are in prison in the United States, and with that number growing, I will be in solidarity with them." (National Catholic Reporter, July 16, 2014; photo Ithaca Week)

Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

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Overview

Eliza Lee Cabot Follen born Boston, MA August 15, 1787 (d. 1860). Nonviolent abolitionist leader, poet and children's author; opposed Mexican War.

Quotations

On the Mexican War: "[V]ile and vindictive. . . robbery, falsehood and cruelty." ("The Cranberry Pasture." 1846)

"Are not women the greatest sufferers from slavery?" (Liberty Bell, 1842; photo Mass. Hist. Society)

Jane Fonda

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Overview

Jane Fonda born Manhattan, NY December 21, 1937. American actress; Vietnam War protester, 1969; made visit to Hanoi, July 1972; organized G.I. Office, Free the Army troupe, Indo China Peace Campaign; twice arrested, accused of treason.

Quotations

"[American] weapons are illegal and that's not just rhetoric. . . The men who are ordering you to use these weapons are war criminals according to international law, and in the past, in Germany and Japan, men who committed these kinds of crimes were tried and executed." (Hanoi, July 14, 1972; 2007 photo wikicom pd)

Ita Ford

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Overview

Ita Ford born Brooklyn, NY April 23, 1940 (d. 1980). Maryknoll nun active in Bolivia, Chile and El Salvador. Tortured, raped, and murdered by National Guard soldiers, El Salvador, 1980.

Quotations

"The Committee fears that decisive action will be taken by our [American] government under the guise of 'stopping communism'—and that all of Central America will be involved if it happens. It's a heavy scene—but if we have a preferential option for the poor as well as a commitment for justice as a basis for the coming of the Kingdom, we're going to have to take sides in El Salvador—correction—we have." (1980 letter to Maryknoll President; photo Wikipedia)

Shelagh Foreman

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Overview

Shelagh Foreman born September 10, 1934. Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award for co-founding Mass. Peace Action for Nuclear Freeze; opposed Iraq War.

Quotations

"[T]he cost in US, Afghan, and Pakistani lives and in billions of dollars is unacceptable—even more so when measured against the utter lack of results achieved." (Oct. 21, 2010 letter to Sen. Kerry; photo masspeaceaaction.org)

Randall Caroline Forsberg

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Overview

Randall Caroline Forsberg born Hunter, AL July 23, 1943 (d. 2003). Founded Nuclear Freeze movement 1980; MacArthur genius 1983.

Quotations

"If all countries upheld the ethic that the only just war—the only legally, morally acceptable use of force—was for defence, then there would be no war. We wouldn't need military defence. People would use non-violent means of correcting injustices—with protest, with civilian resistance." (Peace Magazine, p. 10, Aug. 1989; photo lewis.armscontrolwonk.com)

Hazel E. Foster

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Overview

Hazel E. Foster born Cleveland, OH February 14, 1885 (d. 1975). Professor; minister; educator. Social activist with organizations including Quaker Fellowship, the League of Women Voters, WCTU, SANE, ACLU, Jane Addams Peace Association, WILPF. Visited Gandhi, 1940-41; supported nonviolence of civil rights movement as teacher at Morehouse College.

Quotations

"I have wondered whether, now Gandhi has died, his ideas and ideals had died with him. You prove to me they have not." (letter to Martin Luther King, Jr., April 26, 1956; photo http://bit.ly/Kuo3ye)

Ursula Franklin

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Overview

Ursula Franklin born Munich, Germany September 16, 1921. Canadian scientist; physics professor and philosopher of science; Quaker pacifist; eighteen months in a Nazi work camp World War II; leader of antiwar CanadianVOW; opposed NATO and Vietnam War; promoted conscientious objection; Pearson Peace Medal.

Quotations

"Peace is not the absence of war—peace is the absence of fear." (The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, p. 32, 2006)

"The struggle for women's rights and the opposition to militarism in all its forms are two sides of the same coin." (The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, p. 102, 2006; photo Wikipedia)

Louise Franklin-Ramirez

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Overview

Louise Franklin-Ramirez born Washington DC September 28, 1905 (d. 2003). Peace activist; teacher; began protests at age 12 against Armenian holocaust; founded Toys for Peace campaign; opened stores without war toys; opposed nuclear weapons; mapped 22,000 US nuclear sites; co-founded D.C. Gray Panthers' "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee 1981 which brought Hibakusha annually; arrested for Vietnam protests; last arrested age 94 at Supreme Court protesting death penalty 2000, arrested Fort Benning, GA, protesting School of Americas; protested Iraq war age 96; Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award 1999.

Quotations

“The future of humanity may well rest on our ability to turn the slogan of 'A Nuclear-Free Future' into reality.” (“Deadly Legacy,” with husband John Steinbach; photo prop1.org)

Marian Franz

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Overview

Marian Franz born Newton, KS October 12, 1930 (d. 2006). Mennonite; tax resister; founder of Peace Tax Fund, 1982; Conscience and Peace Tax International, 1994.

Quotations

"(War taxes) kill twice. First, they directly enable war. . . Second, taxes allocated for war represent a distortion of priorities. Money is taken away from the important work of healing and is spent to destroy and kill." (photo Peace Tax Fund)

Clara Fraser

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Overview

Clara Fraser (née Goodman) born East Los Angeles, CA March 12, 1923 (d. 1998). Radical feminist, socialist, internationalist and opponent of all wars. Founded Radical Women (RW), 1967; opposed Israeli settlements and occupation of West Bank.

Quotations

"What better fate can a person carve out than participation in the emancipation of humanity?" (Freedom Socialist Party, May 1, 2003)

"I am a socialist feminist. I believe we live in a corrupt, ugly, vicious and doomed society, a society that cannot last in its present form because it will go up in nuclear holocaust, if not in annihilation of people in some other horrendous form." (Freedom Socialist Party, April 1998; photo Red Letter Press)