Ruth Bleier

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Overview

Ruth Bleier born New Kensington, PA November 17, 1923 (d. 1988). Neurologist. Feminist and peace activist. Chair of Maryland Committee for Peace, which called for end of Korean War and the draft, 1950-51; as chair, promoted a peace ballot calling for nuclear disarmament and an end to the Cold War, 1950. Due to her activism, blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy and lost her hospital privileges. After dissolution of marriage, came out as lesbian and started feminist restaurant “Lysistrata.”

Quotations

"New attempts must be made to settle the differences between the United States and the Soviet Union—to establish world peace and to strengthen the United Nations. Either we find a way to live together in peace or we shall not live at all.” (Peace ballot, in Baltimore Afro-American, May 20, 1950; photo wikipedia)

Nadine Bloch

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Overview

Nadine Bloch born Boston, MA July 8, 1961. Nonviolent protest organizer and direct-action trainer. Noted for peace work through puppet theater. Arrested numerous times for civil disobedience. As Greenpeace activist, conducted direct-action interruption of French nuclear tests, Moruroa, 1995. Helped organize anti-trade globalization WTO protests, Seattle, 1999.

Quotations

“If protest is made illegal, make daily life a protest.” (beautifultrouble.org; photo Corporate Action Network)

Amelia Bloomer

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Overview

Amelia Jenks Bloomer born Homer, NY May 27, 1818 (d. 1894). American leader against domestic violence; temperance leader and dress reformer; first editor of paper wholly edited by women, The Lily, 1849.

Quotations

"[No wife should be subject to a drunken husband's] blows and curses and submit to his brutish passions and lusts." (Rochester, NY, April 21, 1852; photo Wikipedia)

Ella Reeve Bloor

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Overview

Ella Reeve Bloor born Staten Island, NY July 8, 1862 (d. 1951). "Mother Bloor"; American Socialist, and Communist party founder who opposed both World Wars, but changed views 1941; led counseling of conscientious objection in first war; nearly arrested for antiwar stand; led US delegation to Women’s International Congress Against War and Fascism Paris 1934.

Quotations

"We women must take our place consciously by the side of men, dropping any sense of inferiority. . . We must use every ounce of strength that is in us to build the new world in which there will be no wars." (We Are Many, p. 370, 1940; 1910 photo Wikipedia)

Florence Brewer Boeckel

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Overview

Florence Brewer Boeckel born Trenton, NJ October 20, 1886 (d. 1965). Suffragist; Director of National Center for Prevention of War; prolific writer on peace and international organizations; handbook on peacemaking, 1928; delegate to the World Peace Congress in Brussels, 1936.

Quotations

"The peace movement today is strong enough to have a chance of success not in the remote future, but now." (Between War and Peace, p. 415; photo c. 1913 Nat. Women's Party records)

Joan Bondurant

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Overview

Joan Bondurant born Great Bend, KS December 16, 1918 (d. 2006). Professor; pianist; linguist; leading scholar of nonviolence, authority on Gandhi; researcher for OSS during World War II.

Quotations

"The Gandhian experiment suggests that if we are to free ourselves from fear and threat alike, we pause from our flight from violence to set ourselves to the task of its conquest." (Conquest, last sentence; photo bondurant-family.org)

Mary Lucinda Bonney

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Overview

Mary Lucinda Bonney Rambaut born Hamilton, NY June 8, 1816 (d. 1900). Indian Rights activist; circulated petition to observe treaties; opposed Boer War and Spanish American War.

Quotations

On 1879 response to US army invasion of Oklahoma: "A moral wrong upon our Government! It took hold of me." (Notable American Women vol. II, p.197; photo beingwoman.blogspot.com)

Lady Borton

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Overview

Lady Borton born Washington DC September 8, 1942. Quaker hospital administrator with American Friends Service Committee rehabilitation center Quang Ngai, Vietnam 1969-71, and with boat refugees Malaysia 1980; postwar aid Vietnam 1993-95.

Quotations

"There is no tally sheet in the exchange of small kindnesses; but there is shared memory and, from each person, the assurances of good things to come." (Anna Hough, "Lady Borton", Prezi, Sept. 20, 2012; photo PBS)

Jill Ann Boskey

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Overview

Jill Ann Boskey born Newark, NJ January 13, 1947 (d. 1999). Antiwar activist; led 5 Women Against Daddy Warbucks shredded draft files at Rockefeller Center 1969, breaking A+1 typewriter keys symbolic of draft status; member Students for Democratic Society; students burned draft cards Central Park; co-founded feminist Diana Press, Baltimore; later attorney for disabled.

Quotations

“If the destruction we have wrought against the files upsets you-we ask you to think about the destruction of lives which you have helped perpetuate in Vietnam. If you question what we consider our obligation to do this, we ask you to question rather the insidiousness of American 'peace with victory' in Vietnam and of future American counterinsurgency efforts elsewhere.” (Great Speckled Bird, July 14, 1969, p. 15; photo warresisters.org)

Isabelle Bourgeois

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Overview

Isabelle Alexandrine Bourgeois born Washington DC April 28, 1966. Swiss journalist and Chief Editor of International Red Cross (IRC) journal Avenue of Peace. Delegate of IRC to Kosovo, 2000; Ethiopia, 2002; Iran, 2003; Iraq War, 2003; Libya, 2004-08. Took part in World March for Peace and Nonviolence, 2009.

Quotations

“The World March is the continuation of my commitment to promote peace, harmony and unity among people beyond races, religions, social and cultural differences.” (World March Base Team; photo ch.linkdin)

Kay Boyle

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Overview

Kay Boyle born St. Paul, MN February 19, 1902 (d. 1992). Author of more than 40 books of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, short stories, and children's literature. Nonviolent peace activist. Blacklisted by major periodical publications during McCarthy era. Participated in civil defense protest, New York, 1960. Marched 150 miles with Cesar Chavez, 1964. Went on fact-finding mission to Cambodia, 1966. Twice arrested for protests against Vietnam War, 1967; jailed 31 days for sit-in at Oakland draft center. Refused taxes for war, 1968; fired as professor for her role in student strike, 1968. Protested US bombing of Libya, 1986. Opposed nuclear weapons.

Quotations

"What did we gain? We—when I say we I mean the younger generation and the stand which older people took—I think we stopped the war in Vietnam." (Kay Mills interview, Oct. 12, 1986; photo Wikipedia)

Amelia Boynton Robinson

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Overview

Amelia Boynton Robinson (née Platts) born Savannah, GA August 18, 1911 (d. 2015). Nonviolence advocate and civil rights activist. Key figure in planning of Selma marches, 1965. During first Selma to Montgomery march, beaten unconscious by police at Edmund Pettus Bridge, March 7, 1965.

Quotations

"I was not afraid." (Moni Basu interview, cnn.com, Jan. 9, 2015)

"Only until all human beings begin to recognize themselves as human beings will prejudice be gone forever. . . People ask me what race I am, but there is no such thing as race. I just answer: 'I'm a member of the human race.'" (Jane Ridley interview, New York Post, Dec. 1, 2014; photo lipstickalley.com)

Selma Brackman

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Overview

Selma Brackman born Far Rockaway, NY October 27, 1922 (d. 2010). Organized Peace Worker Women's Strike for Peace, 1968; organized the National Teach-In on World Community, Columbia University, 1969; director of the First International Exhibit for Peace, 1971; founded War & Peace Foundation, 1981.

Quotations

"Armed conflict for any nation is a public health hazard and the use of child soldiers has become a feature of armed conflict in every region of the world." (The Child Soldier, Montreal, May 2002).

Anne Braden

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Overview

Anne Braden born Louisville, KY July 28, 1924 (d. 2006). Peace and justice journalist; anti-racism leader; first arrested 1951 in protest against execution of Willie McGee, a black convicted of rape; convicted and exonerated of dynamiting Wade house Louisville 1954.

Quotations

"In every age, no matter how cruel the oppression carried on by those in power, there have been those who struggled for a different world. I believe this is the genius of humankind, the thing that makes us half divine: the fact that some human beings can envision a world that has never existed." (Fellowship, Jan/Feb. 2005; photo walkimgbutterfly.com)

Heloise Brainerd

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Overview

Heloise Brainerd born Wallingford, VT April 30, 1881 (d. 1969). Bilingual Latin American expert, semi-official envoy with Pan American Union 1909-35; promoted WILPF (LIMPAL) expansion in Latin America.

Quotations

On her trip to Latin America: "I was most impressed with the splendid enthusiasm which was expressed by these countries for the newer phases of education, and by the interest shown in fostering friendship and good understanding between these countries with each other and the United States." (New York Times, Nov. 22, 1928; photo LIMPAL)

References

http://bit.ly/1rXAcj2

Gayle Brandeis

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Overview

Gayle Brandeis born Chicago, IL April 14, 1968. Author and poet. Founding member of Code Pink, 2002, Women Creating Peace, 2003.

Quotations

On the Iraq War: "You wonder how we ever could have started such a tragic and unnecessary war." (Toronto, Nov. 2008; photo codepinkalert.org)

“Code Pink works hard to keep the human cost of war visible; we can’t give our elected officials the luxury of looking away, of pretending that we are waging a humane and compassionate war.” (Toronto, Pink Tank, Nov. 17, 2008; photo codepinkalert.org)

This is what the body says:
release the peace

that lives within your skin.
("The Body Politic of Peace")

Sophonisba Breckinridge

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Overview

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge born Lexington, KY April 1, 1866 (d. 1948). Lawyer and social worker; Hull House associate of Jane Addams; WILPF founding member ; active in international organizations including first Child Welfare Congress 1925, first International Social Work Congress 1928; U.S. delegate of Pan American Conference 1933; first woman PhD in political science.

Quotations

On admission to the bar: "[I] had never borne a challenge and had never fought a duel with deadly weapons." (1892, Cathy Coghlan thesis; photo Wikipedia)