Peace Pilgrim honored as Visionary Champion of Peace and Nonviolence

We might not know them. And we rarely get a chance to truly understand or appreciate their courage, conviction and compassion. But visionary women have been behind centuries of work toward nonviolent change, from women’s rights and racial justice to disarmament and gun control. Peace Pilgrim was among 12 of these remarkable people honored by the National Women’s History Alliance as Visionary Women: Champions of Peace and Nonviolence at a special program in Washington, D.C. on March 30.

Friends of Peace Pilgrim Board member Bruce Nichols was thrilled to accept the award from Martha Wheelock, an NWHA board member who actually met Peace Pilgrim in the 1970’s and happily held up one of the last navy blue tunics that Peace wore during her 28-year pilgrimage. Although no longer able to attend these kinds of events, Peace’s 104-year-old sister, Helene Young, expressed deep gratitude through Bruce for the posthumous recognition of her sister’s life and work towards a more peaceful world. in addition, Bruce shared a few words of Peace Pilgrim’s wisdom and also offered deep appreciation to all the extraordinary women recognized that day.

Other posthumous honorees were:
Elise Boulding, a Quaker sociologist and author who was a major contributor to the development of the field of Peace and Conflict Studies.
Sarah Brady, a leading gun control advocate who helped pass important legislation after her husband was permanently disabled in the failed assassination attempt on President Reagan.
Dorothy Cotton, the only woman in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle and one of the most influential women in the civil rights movement.
Mary Burnett Talbert, a founder of both the Niagara Movement in 1905 and its successor the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910.  

Living honorees, who all attended the event, were:
Kathy Kelly, a dedicated peace worker in international conflict zones, a founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and currently co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence.  
Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization dedicated to serving women survivors of wars.
Graciela Sanchez, a neighborhood activist and cultural worker who co-founded the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in San Antonio, TX.
Deborah Tucker helped write and pass the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and is currently President of the Board of Directors of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Dr. E. Faye Williams, an active civil and human rights leader who is National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women.
Sister Alice Zachmann, founder and former director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission USA.

Beautiful new audio of Peace Pilgrim

Peace Pilgrim in Buffalo New York 1972

Here at Friends of Peace Pilgrim we recently received a link to an interview with Peace Pilgrim made in Seattle at radio station KRAB. It was sent to us by Charles Reinsch, the KRAB archivist, who said, “Peace Pilgrim visited KRAB on July 20, 1973. She was interviewed for about 60 minutes, and the interview was aired the next day, again on Aug 30, 1973, July 8, 1975, and on Aug 4, 1978”.

The interview was particularly interesting to me because I first met Peace Pilgrim in Seattle in 1973, during her visit to that city when she did this interview. At the time I was an attender of the University Friends Meeting (Quaker) and on one Sunday it was announced that there would be a speaker after the meeting. I remember after hearing a description of this "wandering pilgrim" who went around wearing a tunic and talking about peace, wondering just what kind of person she was. Immediately upon hearing her, however, it was clear to me that she was a very genuine person. I can honestly say that this meeting with Peace Pilgrim in Seattle in 1974 profoundly changed my life. But that is another story.

Anyway here is a link to Peace Pilgrim's interview at KRAB - enjoy!

Link directly to Peace Pilgrim interview:

Peace Pilgrim talk

Link to KRAB archive page that has some information about the interview, along with two other interesting links related to Peace Pilgrim:

KRAB Peace Pilgrim archive page

Peace Pilgrim in Her Own Words - Free to Those Who Ask

 Peace Pilgrim started her pilgrimage journey on January 1 of 1953 and continued on the road, homeless, without accepting money or asking for food or shelter, for over 28 years. After her passing there was a memorial gathering to remember and celebrate her life and witness. Five attenders of that gathering stayed afterwards to compile her words into a book.

When the question came up about how to distribute the book, these five people made a decision that they would offer Peace Pilgrim -- Her Life and Work in Her Own Words in the spirit of Peace Pilgrim, free to those who ask. One of the five compilers donated enough money for the first printing and together they made the decision that they would distribute the book freely, without charging  for it or ever soliciting donations, and that when they ran out of books if there were not enough funds for the next printing, they would cease publishing the book.

Well, that was about 35 years ago and, after offering over 2 1/2 million pieces of Peace Pilgrim literature: books, booklets VHS video tapes, DVDs, audiocassettes etc. there has always been enough money for the next printing.

John and Ann Rush with their three children: Heath, Pamela and Erica

The non-profit foundation that these five compilers of the Peace Pilgrim book formed is an all volunteer organization and to this day, we operate without a paid staff or ever soliciting donations. How do we manage to pull that off? The Friends of Peace Pilgrim Foundation and its operations and efforts is one of the three areas to be covered by this blog. The other two are: Peace Pilgrim, her life, pilgrimage and witness, and what people are doing who are inspired by Peace Pilgrim.

We will leave you with a photograph of two people who can in a sense be considered the founders of Friends of Peace Pilgrim, John and Ann Rush, a Quaker couple. For years after the book came out, Friends of Peace Pilgrim operated out of their home, first in Whittier and later in Hemet, California and finally in Somerset, California. Their extraordinary life is a subject in itself. More about them in future posts in this blog.