June 1
/Women peacemakers born today
1881 Isabel Longworth born Temora, Australia (d.1961). Australian dentist. Peace activist; WILPF leader; lifelong socialist. Militant opponent of conscription during World War I. Secretary of Women’s Peace Army, 1915-19. Published pamphlet An Open Road to International Order, 1938.
1893 Bertha Bracey born Bournville, Birmingham, England (d. 1989). English humanitarian. Quaker teacher and relief worker in Austria, 1921; fed children and worked for reconciliation with Germans, Nuremberg, 1921; Berlin, 1926. Founding Secretary of German Emergency Committee to help Jewish refugees, London, 1933. Set up Quaker school for 100 Jewish children in Ommen, Holland, 1934; organized Children’s Transport of Jewish children to England, 1938-39. Flew out 300 children from Theresienstadt camp, 1945. Led Allied refugee effort, 1946; Women’s Affairs for Occupation, 1946-53. Honored as “Righteous Among the Nations.”
1925 Ginetta Sagan born San Colombano al Lambro, Milan, Italy (d. 2000). Human rights advocate and peace activist. Played instrumental role in growth of Amnesty International USA; founded first West Coast chapter, Palo Alto, 1969, and 75 more local chapters, 1971-74.
Women's peacemaking on this day
1660 Mary Dyer hanged on Boston Neck for Quaker witness.
1915 In Christiania, Emily Balch, Chrystal Macmillan, Cornelia Ramondt-Hirschmann, and Rosika Schwimmer personally appealed to Danish Parliament leaders to intervene for peace.
1975 International Feminist Planning Conference organized Cambridge MA by Patricia Burnett; through June 4.
2010 Q'orianka Kilcher and mother Saskia were arrested at White House for protesting Amazon oil drilling.
2010 Institute for Nonviolence & Peace Kenya and Institute for Inclusive Security to training workshop for women from the Eastern Africa.
2014 Offering bread and appealing to the commander of Whiteman AFB against drones, Kathy Kelly and Georgia Walker arrested for trespassing; both given prison sentences.