Anna Garlin Spencer

Overview

Anna Garlin Spencer born Attleborough, MA April 17, 1851 (d. 1931). Unitarian minister; suffragist. Co-founded American Anti-imperialist League, opposing Spanish American War, 1898. Co-founded American School Peace League for peace education, 1908. Early supporter of NAACP, 1909. Vice-chair and co-founder of Women's Peace Party against World War I, 1915. Opposed “Star Spangled Banner” on the grounds that it promoted war. Founding member and National Chair of WILPF, 1919-20.

Quotations

“As women, we feel a peculiar moral passion of revolt against both the cruelty and the waste of war.” (preamble to Women’s Peace Party Program for peace, Jan. 11, 1915, in Carrie Foster, Women and the Warriors, 1995, p. 12)

“[T]he time has come when women are tired of producing cheap cannon food. No man has a right to speak for himself and a woman on the question of peace. He can speak for himself, but he must let the woman speak for herself." (feminism101.com; photo bellstreetchapel.org)