Violet Oakley

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Overview

Violet Oakley born Jersey City, NJ June 10, 1874 (d. 1962). American artist. First woman to create a major mural, for the Pennsylvania state house, reflecting her own pacifist ideals, 1906. It depicted Quaker founders George Fox and William Penn, the Quaker peace with the Indians, ransoming slaves, and “International Unity and Understanding,” showing swords beaten into plowshares. Made peace mission to the League of Nations, where she painted portraits of founders, Geneva; did same for UN. Wrote tribute to her friend Jane Addams.

Quotations

"[My life is a] pilgrimage of a painter seeking peace."

“Here beginneth the legend of peace. . . Touch not mine anointed.” (caption of mural showing white couple protected from Indian violence; c. 1900 self-portrait explorePAhistory.com)

Jessie Lloyd O'Connor

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Overview

Jessie Lloyd O'Connor born Winnetka, IL February 14, 1904 (d. 1988). Daughter of WILPFfounding member Lola Maverick Lloyd. Journalist; social activist; second-generation WILPF member; lifelong pacifist. Traveled aboard Henry Ford Peace as child, 1915; delegate to People's World Constitutional Convention, 1950. Active and vocal opponent of HUAC, the Vietnam War, and Cold War militarism.

Quotations

On her decision to perform war relief during WWII: "I was torn. I didn’t really believe in war, and on the other hand I wouldn’t really oppose the war against Hitler." (http://bit.ly/IPeHxr)

"We have passed the ball of evil back and forth without a rest;
Love would be a shock absorber, but we have never made the test;
We did everything for Jesus save to follow his behest,
And war goes marching on."
("Hymn for the Atomic Age," to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic," quoted in Harvey and Jessie, p. 211; photo http://bit.ly/IBCWl2)

Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day

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Overview

Caroline Love Goodwin O'Day born Perry, GA June 22, 1869 (d. 1943). Pacifist Representative from New York (Rye) 1934-1943; opposed both World Wars, and draft; member of WILPF; social worker and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Quotations

"As mothers whose sons would be obliged to go to war; as women who, with the children, would remain at home to be the victims of air raids and bombing of cities, we should have the right to vote against it [the draft], and express our desire for peace." (Washington Post, July 15, 1937; photo Wikipedia)

Odetta

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Overview

Odetta (née Holmes) born Birmingham, AL December 31, 1930 (d. 2008). African-American folk musician for peace and civil rights; known as "the voice of the civil rights movement." Opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

"What is there left to be bombed except for civilians, many of which will be children. . . If there is an evil, it's on both sides of power." (Chicago Tribune, March 14, 2003)

Oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me
And before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave.

(photo soulbounce.com wiki)

Kate Richards O'Hare

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Overview

Kate Richards O'Hare born Ada, KS March 26, 1877 (d. 1948). Socialist leader; prison reformer. First major protester against World War I; her antiwar activities resulted in her receiving a 5-year prison term, of which she served 14 months. Organized Children’s Crusade, a march on Washington DC to demand amnesty for war resisters, 1922.

Quotations

“We Socialists knew the relation of profits to war and we insisted on telling the truth about it. We talked war and profits, war and profits, war and profits until the administration was compelled, in sheer self-defense to attempt to squelch us.” (Appeal to Reason, Jul. 24, 1920; photo LibraryThing from Library of Congress)

Margo Okazawa-Rey

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Overview

Margo Okazawa-Rey born Kobe, Japan November 26, 1945. American social worker; professor; co-founded International Network of Women Against Militarism; protested Roxbury killings 1979; co-founded Combalee River Collective of Black feminists.

Quotations

“I am firmly convinced that we—those who care, those who struggle for a just peace—should give the last word to LOVE, understanding that its most generative expression is the struggle for justice. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has told us, justice is what love looks like in practice. As activists struggling for social and ecological justice, we must love as we DO: love the work, love the ideas and values that frame the work, and above all love the people we work with and humanity itself.” (Syracuse Peace Council, May 2015; photo Hamilton college)

Sharon Olds

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Overview

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Sharon Olds born San Francisco, CA November 19, 1942. American poet. Inspired by anti-Vietnam women poets. “May 1968” recreated resistance to Vietnam War; “The Dead and the Living” lamented Armenian genocide, 1983.

Quotations

On refusing the First Lady's dinner invitation: “[T]o speak about my deep feeling that we should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to invade another culture and another country—with the resultant loss of life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their home terrain—did not come out of our democracy but was instead a decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by distorted language, and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism—the opposites of the liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to. . . So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the candles, and I could not stomach it.” (The Nation, Oct. 10, 2005; photo vogue.com)

Louise Olivereau

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Overview

Louise Olivereau born Douglas, WY April 9, 1884 (d. 1963). Seattle stenographer poet, pacifist and philosophical anarchist, opposed to all force and violence; sentenced 1917 to 10 years prison for "espionage" of counseling conscientious objection to World War I, served 28 months.

Quotations

"We do not counsel resistance. . . We counsel one thing—obedience to your own conscience." (Sarah E. Sharbach, "A Woman Acting Alone: Louise Olivereau and the First World War", Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 78, pp. 1-2, January-April 1987)

"Anarchy, then, is a condition without force or violence. Anarchism is the working philosophy of those who desire to bring about a condition of society in which force and violence will have no place. . . I am convinced that violence breeds violence, war breeds hatreds and fears and revengeful desires which lead to other wars." (her trial defense, in Minnie Parkhurst, "The Louise Olivereau Case", p. 23, 1917; photo from prison http://bit.ly/J0YdRL)

Mildred Scott Olmsted

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Overview

Mildred Scott Olmsted born Glenolden, PA December 5, 1890 (d. 1990). Quaker peace activist; delivered Quaker relief in Germany, 1919; WILPF US national organization secretary, 1935; WILPF Executive Director, 1954-66.

Quotations

"I said before I left Germany that I would never again support a war for any cause. People are always exploited." (F. Early interview, July 27, 1985 in Atlantis 12. I: 148; photo Swarthmore.edu)

Kristina Olsen

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Overview

Kristina Olsen born San Francisco, CA May 26, 1957. Folk singer and composer. Joined Sept. 11th Families for a Peaceful Tomorrow after the loss of her sister. Interfaith Peace Delegation to Afghanistan, Iraq.

Quotations

One world; one seed
A little love from time to time. . .
We’ll make it grow, a sheltering tree
And that is all we’ll need
(“The Art of Being Kind”)

“I believe that we have to be able to create peace in our own lives and hearts before we can hope to have peace in the world. When we listen to another without judging, when we listen with patience and tolerance, when we speak truthfully, with a tone of voice that promotes understanding, then we are all peacemakers, capable of healing and transforming the world we all share.” (David Portorti, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, 2003, p. 211; photo kristinaolsen)

Catherine O'Neill

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Overview

Catherine O’Neill (née Vesey) born Queens, NY July 17, 1942 (d. 2012). Founding chair of Women’s Refugee Commission working to aid women in war zones 1989; IMF publicity; director UN office in DC 1999-2005.

Quotations

“I have never stopped being struck by the ability of women from all different parts of the world to bond, connect, understand their shared values, and click with their aspirations. It’s fantastic, and it’s a great sign of hope.” (Easthampton Star, Jan. 10, 1913; photo New York Times)

Ruth Bryan Owen

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Overview

Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde born Jacksonville, IL October 2, 1885 (d. 1954). First female American ambassador, posted to Denmark, 1933; delegate to UN founding San Francisco, 1945; UN representative, 1949; twice US Representative; first woman on US House Foreign Affairs Committee; influential speaker on peace and UN; plan of world government, 1942. Served in Jane Addams's Hull House; administered relief in Belgium; served as nurse in World War I; promoted women as "Mothers of Humanity."

Quotations

"The modern mother considers the world her home." (Women in Congress, p. 91)

"Women should have a place on all councils which decide questions of war and peace between nations." (in Litoff & Smith, What Kind of World Do We Want, p. 131; 1929 photo Wikipedia)