Fanny Baker Ames

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Overview

Fanny Baker Ames born Canandaigua, NY June 14, 1844 (d. 1931). Women’s rights activist; suffragist. Vice-President, Anti-Imperialist League, 1913-21, opposing annexation of Philippines.

Quotations

“We Anglo-Saxons are prone to think that no people is civilized that isn't made after our pattern; and we are peculiarly given to attempts at imposing our civilization upon other peoples. [Our deepest concern] is for our country . . . we long to have it free from the stain of injustice and greed.” (Oct. 5, 1903, AFSC “Resistance in Paradise”)

Katharine Anthony

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Overview

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Katharine Anthony born Roseville, AK November 27, 1877 (d. 1965). Feminist, pacifist biographer of women peacemakers Susan B. Anthony and Louisa May Alcott. Member of Women’s Peace Party; critic of “Sister Susies,” pacifist women who knitted socks for soldiers.

Quotations

On “Sister Susies”: “[It is] a peculiarly infantile form of patriotism.” (Harriet Alonso, Peace as a Woman’s Issue, p. 80; photo Wikipedia)

Helen Elsie Austin

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Overview

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Helen Elsie Austin born Tuskegee, AL May 10, 1906 (d. 2004). African-American lawyer, diplomat, and Bahá’i leader. Teacher, Morocco, 1953. Cultural Affairs Officer to Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Kenya, 1961-68. Chaired Bahá'í delegation at International Women's Conference, Mexico City, 1975; lectured on world peace.

Quotations

“The achievement of effective understanding and cooperation among the diverse nations, races, and classes of mankind is the chief essential for the survival of civilization.” (“World Unity as a Way of Life”, The Bahá'í World, vol. 11; photo wikipedia)

Dore Ashton

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Overview

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Dore Ashton born Newark, NJ May 21, 1928 (d. 2017). Antiwar art professor and critic. Issued public call to artists and writers to “express and stand for your anger against the war,” NO!art, 1966. (McCarthy, American Artists Against War, p. 79)

Quotations

“What could the lessons of a concentration camp have meant, really, when atrocities in the Korean War went on and on. And on and on to Vietnam. And haven't stopped yet. And become more common and more easily accepted every day. . . The postwar period was adding up quickly in the 1950s to a perpetual war. . . Just perpetual carnage.” (“Merde Alors!”, 1969, NO!art; portrait by Alice Neel)

Edith Abbott

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Overview

Edith Abbott born Grand Island, NE September 26, 1876 (d. 1957). PhD economist, daughter of Quaker; lifelong pacifist; Dean of Social Service, U. of Chicago; founded Immigrants' Protective League 1909; co-founded Women's Peace Party 1915; opposed World War II.

Quotations

On opposition to World War II: "It was Nebraska isolationism in part, but it was also Quaker pacifism. We had quite an argument." (Lela Costin, Two Sisters, p. 237, 1983; photo Wikipedia)

Grace Abbott

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Overview

Grace Abbott born Grand Island NB, Canada November 17, 1878 (d. 1939). Quaker; pacifist; internationalist; founder of WILPF; first US delegate to League of Nations, 1923; US representative to ILO, 1935, 1937; decade-long associate of Addams's Hull House, 1908; organized Women's Peace Party Conference of Oppressed for Dependent Nationalities Washington DC, 1916.

Quotations

"To have had a part in the struggle—to have done what one could—is in itself the reward of effort and the comfort in defeat." (bio in Social Welfare History Project; photo 1929 Lib. Cong pd)

Rae Abileah

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Overview

Rae Abileah born Freeport, NY November 3, 1982. National Coordinator, Code Pink. Attempted citizen’s arrest of Karl Rove for war crimes, 2008. Organized Gaza Freedom March, 2009. Led Stolen Beauty boycott campaign against Ahava cosmetics. Beaten and arrested after interrupting Israeli PM Netanyahu's speech to Congress, 2011.

Quotations

“I am in great pain, but this is nothing compared to the pain and suffering that Palestinians go through on a regular basis.” (Mondoweiss, May 26, 2011; photo democratic-republicans.us)

Bella Abzug

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Overview

Bella Abzug (née Savitsky) born Bronx, NY July 24, 1920 (d. 1998). Feminist and civil rights legislator; founded Women Strike for Peace 1961; Democrat member of Congress 1971-7; introduced resolution on Vietnam on first day in Congress Jan. 1971; founded Women, USA opposing draft of women; WILPF representative to UN founded Women's Environment & Development Organization to support UN.

Quotations

"We are here to speak of the thousands of women who have been destroyed through war, who have been raped, battered and butchered." (final speech at UN, March 16, 1998)

Victoria Gray Adams

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Overview

Victoria Almeter Jackson Gray Adams born Hattiesburg, MS November 5, 1926 (d. 2006). Field Secretary for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1962; leader in King's SCLC; Freedom Summer organizer; Mississippi Freedom Dem. Party with Fannie Lou Hamer, 1964.

Quotations

"Effective movements are composed of two basic constituencies: those who are in the movement, and those who have the movement in them. The movement is in me, and I know it always will be." (Brian Johns interview c. 2004; photo Find a Grave)

Marjorie Agosín

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Overview

Marjorie Agosín born Berkeley, CA June 15, 1955. Chilean-American poet, novelist; professor; celebrated nonviolent resistance of women; “Tapestries of Hope: Threads of Love”

Quotations

“I honor each one of the 3000 people that died in the Trade Center and everywhere, but if you think of all the millions of people that have died in wars elsewhere, we are still very blessed, and I don't think retaliation to Afghanistan or Iraq was the answer.” (Blackbird interview, Sept. 27, 2014; photo lanic.utexas)

Lilia Aguilar Gil

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Overview

Lilia Aguilar Gil born Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico August 17, 1977. Mexican congressperson 2012; peacemaker opposing mass killings and violence.

Quotations

“[C]onflict can be directed negatively or positively depending of how you approach it and how you address the situation.” (Internat. Peace & Security Inst., July 13, 2011; photo Wikicommons)

Christina Aguilera

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Overview

Christina Aguilera born Staten Island, NY, United States December 18, 1980. Pop singer; Ambassador of World Food Program, 2010; Amnesty International campaign to stop genocide; song for Darfur.

Quotations

See the nation through the people's eyes,
See tears that flow like rivers from the skies.
Where it seems there are only borderlines
Where others turn and sigh,
You shall rise, You shall rise.

(2010 photo wikicom pd)

Louisa May Alcott

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Overview

Louisa May Alcott born Germantown, PA November 29, 1832 (d. 1888). Author; reformer; nonviolent abolitionist.

Quotations

"When women are the advisers, the lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do. Then they act upon it, and, if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it. If it fails, they generously give her the whole." (Little Women, ch. 41; 1857 photo wikicommons)

Jane Alexander

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Overview

Jane Alexander (née Quigley) born Boston, MA October 28, 1939. Actress; leader of WAND; opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

"The amount of money awarded annually to our Defense Department was overkill by any standard. I thought that if just ten percent of that monstrous budget were dedicated to worldwide peace efforts we would be moving all the nations of the earth toward a more secure future." (Command Performance, p. 13; photo NNDB)

Donna Allen

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Overview

Donna Allen (née Rehkopf) born Petosky, MI August 19, 1920 (d. 1999). Labor economist; author and editor; historian; feminist; peace and civil rights activist; co-founder Women’s Strike for Peace; founded Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) 1972; opposed CIA intervention Guatemala, nuclear weapons, Vietnam War; arrested for protest against NATO Paris 1965; sentenced for contempt of House Un-American Activities 1966, then exonerated.

Quotations

"[W]omen have a particular role in efforts to prevent war because women are naturally more concerned about the next generation." (Nov. 1, 1961 protest; photo WIFP)