Jessica Lange

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Overview

Jessica Lange born Cloquet, MN April 20, 1949. Actress who opposed Iraq War; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador 2003, with mission to Congo to oppose violence to women.

Quotations

"I do not want my children to inherit the legacy of this war. . . We must remain hopeful that for our children and our children's children, that we are not a warring nation, but we will embrace and practice true compassion and honor the ideals of peace and freedom, and we will not give up. Peace!" (Democracy Now!, Sept. 26, 2005; photo UNICEF)

Esther Lape

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Overview

Esther Everett Lape born Wilmington, DE October 8, 1881 (d. 1981). Visionary journalist; publicist; professor; peace researcher; activist. Founding member of League of Women Voters; administered Bok Peace Prize, 1923; author of Ways to Peace, 1924; informal presidential envoy to Europe on World Court, 1927; collaborator and mentor of Eleanor Roosevelt on international affairs; led campaign for World Court, 1923-35; promoted universal health care.

Quotations

"There is a profound realization that there must be a better way than war and that we must help find it." (Ways to Peace, p. 6; photo Eleanor Roosevelt papers)

Frances Moore Lappe

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Overview

Frances Moore Lappé born Pendleton, OR February 10, 1944. Author; activist; advocate for social change and sustainable living. Graduate of Quaker Earlham College, 1966. Wrote best-selling book Diet for a Small Planet, 1971. Recipient of Right Livelihood Award, 1987.

Quotations

“I had supported the U.S. position on the Vietnam War for years, finally I became too uncomfortable merely accepting the government's word. I set out to discover the facts for myself. Why were we fighting? I read everything I could find on U.S. government policy in Vietnam. Within a few weeks, my world began to turn upside down. I was in shock. I functioned, but in a daze. I had grown up believing my government represented me—my basic ideals. Now I was learning that 'my' government was not mine at all.” (Diet for a Small Planet, 1971)

“What an extraordinary time to be alive. We’re the first people on our planet to have real choice: We can choose death; or we can choose life.” (Robert Shetterly, Americans Who Tell The Truth, 2005; 2009 photo Wikipedia)

Rita Lasar

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Overview

Rita Lasar (née Rabecca Zelmanowitz) born Cleveland, OH September 16, 1931 (d. 2017). As sister of 9/11 victim, co-founded September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, opposing violent response to 9/11, 2002. Opposed Iraq War, Guantanamo, and the bombing of Afghanistan.

Quotations

“I realized that my government was going to use my brother as justification for killing other people, and that had a tremendous impact on me. I didn’t want that to happen, not in my brother’s name.” (Democracy Now, Sept. 12, 2011; photo peacefultomorrows)

Julia C. Lathrop

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Overview

Julia Clifford Lathrop born Rockford, IL June 29, 1858 (d. 1932). Social reformer; associate of Jane Addams at Hull House; co-founded Immigrants' Protective League 1912; first head of U.S. Children's Bureau; worked with League of Nations Child Welfare Committee of 1925-31.

Quotations

"The least a democratic nation can do, when it sends men into war, is to give solemn assurance that their families will be cared for." (Ida Clarke, American Women and the World War, p.75, 1918; photo socialwelfarehistory.com)

Margaret Morgan Lawrence

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Overview

Margaret Morgan Lawrence born New York, NY August 19, 1914. African-American child psychiatrist. Daughter of Episcopal minister. Pacifist in World War II and Cold War. Active member of Fellowship of Reconciliation. Oldest pilgrim on Anglican Peace Fellowship 85-mile pilgrimage from London to Canterbury, 1988. Received Fellowship of Reconciliation Martin Luther King Jr Award, 2005.

Quotations

“The Peace of the Lord be with you!” (her greeting on pilgrimage; photo cumc.columbia.edu)

Ursula Le Guin

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Overview

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin born Berkeley, CA October 21, 1929. Novelist; organized protests against nuclear bomb and Vietnam War.

Quotations

"[Armies are] a coercive mechanism of extraordinary inefficiency. . . the purpose was to enable men with machine-guns to kill unarmed men and women. . . he could not see where courage, or manliness, or fitness entered in." (Dispossessed, p. 253, 1974; photo 3 River Tech Review)

Meridel Le Sueur

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Overview

Meridel Le Sueur (née Wharton) born Murray, IA February 22, 1900 (d. 1996). Socialist; feminist; author and poet; defender of poor and Native Americans. Opposed Vietnam War, particularly the Honeywell Project.

Quotations

“Survival is the form of resistance.” (Civil disobedience, 1983)

“I think that every person has a responsibility of creating the image of the choice between death and life. Do we have to have inventions that threaten the human being? Aren't we here on this earth, this great green earth to create a human society?” (Sitting Around the Volcano, Jan. 1984; 1980 photo Wikipedia)

Mary Elizabeth Lease

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Overview

Mary Elizabeth Lease (née Clyens) Ridgway, PA September 11, 1850 (d. 1933). Populist lawyer, orator, suffragist, pacifist; Vice President World Peace Congress 1893; opposed militarism.

Quotations

"If men can not get along without the shedding of blood and putting the knife to the throat of a brother, let them no longer set themselves up as guides and rulers, but confess their self-evident inefficiency and turn the management of affairs over to the mothers, who will temper their justice with love and enthrone mercy on the highways." (synopsis of 'Peace', in Mary Engle, The Congress of Women, p. 413, 1893; photo Kansas Hist. Society)

Barbara Lee

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Overview

Barbara Lee born El Paso, TX July 16, 1946. Only member of Congress to vote against Iraq War; US Representative for Bay Area 1998 led aid to Caribbean, global fight on AIDS; won Sean MacBride Peace Prize 2002.

Quotations

"A rush to launch precipitous military counterattacks runs too great a risk that more innocent men, women, children will be killed. I could not vote for a resolution that I believe could lead to such an outcome." (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 23, 2001)

Muna Lee

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Overview

Muna Lee born Raymond, MS January 29, 1895 (d. 1965). “Poet of the Americas.” Promoter of inter-american cultural ties; lyric poet, translator and mystery writer; international feminist; first woman to address Pan-American Congress 1928; co-founder the first international organization for women’s rights, Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) 1928.

Quotations

“We, the women of the Americas, ask for a treaty granting us equal rights before the law. We ask this not for one woman, not for one country, not for one race, but for the women of Pan America.” (1928 speech to PAU, Jonathan Cohen bio; photo Wikipedia)

Mildred Robbins Leet

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Overview

Mildred Robbins Leet (née Elowsky) born Brooklyn, NY August 9, 1922 (d. 2011). Co-founded UNIFEM 1976; co-founded Trickle-Up against poverty 1979; founded African Action on Aids 1998; promoted International Peace Academy; Theodore Kheel Award of Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution 1985.

Quotations

"Every human being, no matter how beaten down, dreams of a better life and will work like a champion for it if given the opportunity." (African Action on AIDS; photo Wikipedia)

Clara Lemlich

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Overview

Clara Lemlich Shavelson born Gorodok, Ukraine March 26, 1896 (d. 1982). American labor leader, noted for Uprising of 20,000 shirtwaist workers 1909; suffragist; pacifist Communist; organized American League Against War and Fascism in 1930s; protested nuclear weapons; promoted UN Genocide Convention; opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

On 1951 trip to Europe: "Peace was the most important issue to all those European workers. We heard that everywhere we went. If any of us had thought that there was a danger of war from the Soviet Union or anywhere in Europe, we were convinced now we had been wrong. We were convinced that our job was to go back and tell American workers that if they too would struggle for peace, there could be no war.” (Jewish Life, Nov. 1954, p. 11; photo activists with attitude)

Katharine F. Lenroot

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Overview

Katharine F. Lenroot born Superior, WI March 8, 1891 (d. 1982). Internationalist; child welfare expert. Head of US Children's Bureau; adviser to League of Nations on white slave traffic; president of 8th Pan-American Children's Conference, 1942. Aided European children in WWII; co-founded UNICEF, 1946; planned International Youth Charter, 1946.

Quotations

“We cannot put aside until after the war our concern for children. . . Ours is the twofold task of assuring a future for our children and rearing children fit for a future which shall be built upon foundations of justice, security and mercy for all.” (May 2, 1942, 8th Pan-Am. Child Congress; photo Social Welfare History)

Shirley Lens

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Overview

Shirley Lens (née Ruben) born Chicago, IL January 4, 1921 (d. 2005). Labor leader, teacher and peace activist; leader of Women Strike for Peace 1961; member of women’s peace delegation to Jakarta conference with Vietnamese women 1965; opposed WWII, advocating economic boycott.

Quotations

“We’re here to alert the American people to the horrors of the arms race. In the long run, we will change the minds of the people.” (Mother’s Day for Peace, Lodi News-Sentinel, May 9, 1983)