PHS News Always Had, #Black Lives Matter Had August 2020 Reached Its Peak As a Twitter Hashtag in July 2016

Home , Bertha von Suttner

acquittal to rebut the House vote that impeached Donald Trump. Although patterns of racial injustice continued as they PHS News always had, #Black Lives Matter had August 2020 reached its peak as a Twitter hashtag in July 2016. You could use one hand to count the Newsletter of the Peace History number of Covid cases diagnosed in the Society www.peacehistorysociety.org United States, and many students whom I met in an actual classroom on my university

campus had no idea what “Covid-19” meant. Over the past several months, however, the officers and board members of the Peace

History Society have consulted about what to do in response to the radically altered

circumstances that have arisen just since March. Most recently, Kathleen Kennedy,

Wendy Chmielewski, and Toshihiro Higuchi served on an ad hoc committee that worked with other PHS officers and board members

to produce a statement in support of the President’s Column varied expressions of protest against the

long, deep, unresolved issues of racial injustice occurring not only here in the United States but in solidarity around the

world. You can read the statement published in this issue of the PHS Newsletter or on the PHS website. Presented to the PHS

membership for a vote in July, it passed with 31 Yes votes, 0 No, and 2 abstentions. The

statement reaffirms the Peace History Society's commitment to racial justice in our scholarship, classrooms, institutions, and communities and provides a first step in a Michael Clinton sustained process that requires the active participation of the PHS membership. We Only six months removed, it’s difficult to are now considering how to act in specific recall what the world felt like when the ways on the statement's commitment “to previous issue of the PHS Newsletter analyze the actions and methods of appeared in January. The political, social, movements in the past and present that have and health crises that we currently face, contributed to positive social change by while discernible in the distance or working to undo racism, and emphasize this simmering beneath us, had not yet burst into work in our research and writing....” As PHS the urgent conflagrations that now demand members, you are all encouraged to contact immediate attention and action. The crisis me directly with proposals about how the of American political leadership was PHS might use its resources to act on this approaching its desultory climax in a Senate

commitment as we move forward. My officer positions available for election later thanks go to Kathleen, Wendy, and Toshi, this year. Once a nominating committee has especially, to all those who contributed to formed, members will receive an invitation and offered comments about the statement, to submit their own names or the names of as well as to those who voted. someone else to stand for one of these The statement provides opportunities positions, including my own. for sharpening the focus of the next Peace Although this is my last President’s History Society conference, scheduled to take Column, it will not be the last place at Kennesaw State University in October communication that you receive from me as 2021, even as the Covid-19 pandemic poses PHS president, with critical issues yet to the challenge of how the conference will take address and, if not resolve, at least to move place. Several conferences that I had planned towards some resolution. Still, it is a suitable to attend this year were cancelled, decisions opportunity to extend my thanks to the PHS made in response to conditions that have not membership for affording me the privilege ebbed— here in the United States, at least— of serving this two-year term as president and are likely to get worse before they get and to all those who’ve provided (and better. We don’t know yet whether or how continue to provide) guidance and support in much they will get better by October 2021, many ways throughout my term. and so this autumn the PHS board will explore how to organize next year’s conference. Peace, --Mike Clinton Abrupt and extreme circumstances have forced us to rethink what we do and Peace History Society Officers how we do it, but it’s worth reflecting how so much of what the PHS has done and how and Board Members, 2020 has changed since its founding in 1964, albeit more often more gradually. President: Michael Clinton Fortunately, there always seem to be Gwynedd Mercy University members like Ginger Williams willing to Vice-President: David Hostetter complete the tasks that sustain the PHS, Los Angeles, CA making it the collegial home that so many of Treasurer: Christy Snider us find it to be. I single Ginger out because Berry College this issue marks her first as editor of the Secretary: Gail M. Presbey PHS Newsletter. In previous years, Ginger University of Detroit Mercy has served as PHS president, its treasurer, Board Members: host of two of PHS conferences (2005 and Elizabeth Agnew 2009), and probably some other roles that I Ball State University don’t know or am forgetting. As the ground Scott Bennett shifts, as times change, the PHS manages to Georgian Court University shift and change as needed because a corps Kevin Callahan of old(er) members and a crop of new ones University of St. Joseph, CT are willing to do new things and to do old Toshihiro Higuchi things in new ways. Georgetown University Please give serious consideration, Chuck Howlett then, to nominating yourself for one of the six Molloy College, emeritus positions on the PHS board or one of the Kathleen Kennedy Missouri State University

Erika Kuhlman Idaho State University Interview With Freedom School Head Marian Mollin Staunton Lynd 9 Virginia Tech --Alice and Staunton Lynd Shelley Rose Cleveland State University Book Review 13 Doug Rossinow --Jerry Lembcke Metropolitan State University R. L. Updegrove Teaching Peace History 15 Duluth East H.S., MN --Steve Brady Andy Wilson University of Nebraska-Lincoln Larry Gara Obituary 20 Ex-officio members: -- Wilmington College Past President: Deborah Buffton University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse Editor, Peace & Change: Heather Fryer Peace History Society Statement Creighton University Swarthmore College Peace Collection: in Support of Black Lives Matter Wendy Chmielewski and the Work to Undo Racial Swarthmore College Injustice and Oppression Web Editor: Marc Becker

Truman State University As historians and scholars who study the U.N. Representative: Blanche Weisen dynamics of peace and justice, we recognize Cook, John Jay College & CUNY Graduate that state-sponsored and extrajudicial Center violence has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. We stand in Newsletter Editor: Ginger Williams, solidarity with Black Lives Matter and all Winthrop University [email protected] those currently protesting racist violence in the US and internationally. As scholars, we

Newsletter Associate Editor: Tiffany remain dedicated to analyzing interlocking Owens, Winthrop University systems of violence and seeking solutions [email protected] that can build enduring peace with justice. We are committed to promoting anti-racist

scholarship, teaching and activism as well as TABLE OF CONTENTS fostering inclusive and open discussions about racial privilege and violence in our President’s Column 1 organizations and institutions. We remain --Michael Clinton committed to positive actions that dismantle institutionalized oppression against people PHS Officers and Board Members 3 of color and other marginalized groups. Since the May 25 killing of George Floyd Black Lives Matter Statement 5 and others in Black communities, we have --PHS Board joined our neighbors, our colleagues, and our students to march, protest and demand News about Bertha von Suttner 7 an end to structural racism, lynching, and --Peter van den Dungen police brutality. We abhor the words and

deeds of those in the U.S. government who In Our Institutions have responded to this popular cry for We will work to make our colleges, justice with violence. Federal, state, and universities, and associations diverse and local governments have deployed the inclusive. military, spied on nonviolent demonstrators, In Our Communities and dispersed orderly assemblies with We will share our understanding of the excessive force. Many of these same processes of positive social change so that authorities have ignored white supremacist we can learn and teach about building vigilantes who threaten demonstrators connections with the diverse array of exercising their constitutional rights. groups and individuals working to address The alarming trends in police violence and systemic racism, oppression, and violence. militarization, along with extralegal violence, --Submitted by Michael Clinton, are not limited to the United States. From President Hong Kong to Santiago, Moscow to New Delhi, we have witnessed government authorities, police, and militant groups Suttneriana: News about Bertha brutally suppressing peaceful protesters. The erosion and violation of human rights von Suttner anywhere in the world should be the concern of all. The Peace History Society strongly Anyone familiar with the biography of Bertha condemns violence, whether by governments von Suttner knows that Harmannsdorf (near or paramilitary organizations, and stands in Eggenburg, Lower Austria), is where she solidarity with those seeking liberty, lived and worked for almost two decades in equality, and justice through nonviolent the castle that belonged to the family of her husband. It was mainly from here that she means. As peace historians, we renew our conducted a large correspondence with the commitment and will redouble our efforts to likes of Alfred Nobel and Leo Tolstoi, among explore, analyze and articulate the many others. The castle was in a somewhat conditions for positive, just peace. We will dilapidated state when Dr. Erich Glawischnig, strive to contribute to the process of undoing a professor of veterinary medicine at the racism in the following ways: University of Vienna, became the new proprietor in 1976. Over the years, the In Our Scholarship: We will continue to analyze the actions and Glawischnig family have undertaken methods of movements in the past and extensive restoration works of the castle and present that have contributed to positive the various buildings in the adjoining park. He social change by working to undo racism, was the founder of the International Bertha von Suttner Association, with a seat in the and emphasize this work in our research and castle; the Association aims to promote her writing, as well as in Peace and Change and legacy through the organization of our conferences. conferences, seminars, exhibitions, concerts, In Our Classrooms: plays and other cultural activities. Many take We will strive to build understanding about place in the large and beautifully restored, late racism and oppression in our societies and th introduce students to scholarly examinations 17 century former granary in the grounds of of the processes that can build the trust and the castle. The 2005 travelling exhibition dialogue through which these crises can be Bertha von Suttner: A Life for Peace is addressed. permanently

displayed in the Orangery. In 2005 the of landmines – a gigantic broken chair by Association organized a large international Swiss sculptor Daniel Berset – in front of the conference (with several PHS members as main entrance to the UN’s Palais des invited speakers) to celebrate the centenary Nations. Cf. https://historizon.nl/thema/reis- of the award of the Nobel peace prize to bertha-von-suttner/ and p. 30 at Bertha von Suttner, the first woman peace https://historizon.nl/historizon-magazine/ laureate. The proceedings of the conference were published in 2007. Erich Glawischnig died earlier this year, shortly after celebrating his 90th birthday. He deserves Interview with Freedom School the gratitude of his country, and indeed the Head Staughton Lynd world, for nurturing von Suttner’s legacy and putting her home (where she penned her ORGANIZING, ACCOMPANYING, AND famous novel, Lay Down Your Arms), firmly NOW . . . WHAT? on the map again. The Glawischnig family is committed to continue his work. Information about the castle is at Referring to the events of recent http://www.schlossharmannsdorf.at/?page_i months, our grandson asks us, what changes we think will occur and how long will they d=17; about the Association at last? http://www.berthavonsuttner.at/crbst_15.html The study trip, ‘In the Footsteps of Bertha We recall reading a book by Erica von Suttner in Switzerland’ that was Chenoweth and Maria Stephan suggesting originally scheduled to take place in that if protesters are nonviolent, violence against demonstrators is likely to increase March/April has provisionally been 1 rescheduled for 12-16 October following support for peaceful protests. And, we the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Among the recall Barbara Deming saying, nonviolent cities visited is Lucerne where, in 1902, she action does not mean no one will be hurt; inaugurated, together with Frédéric Passy but fewer people will be hurt. (first co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in Are Chenoweth, Stephan and 1901), the world’s first peace museum, Deming right? We’ll see. created by Jan Bloch. The first in what is Alice: planned to be an annual similar trip to other During these times of contentious countries is organized by Historizon, a forces becoming more and more polarized, I Dutch travel agency specializing in cultural- am reminded of A.J. Muste. Shortly before historical tourism. This peace tourism pilot the birth of our youngest child in 1967, is at the suggestion of, and in close Staughton and I went to see A.J. We were cooperation with, the Bertha von Suttner thinking of naming our baby for him if it Peace Institute in The Hague. The itinerary was a boy. A.J. died six days before our ends in Geneva where her extensive archive baby was born. She was a girl. is preserved in the library of the UN. The A.J. Muste and a couple of other January issue of Historizon Magazine pacifist ministers accompanied 30,000 features the Bertha von Suttner tour on the textile workers of twenty or more nationalities in the 1919 Lawrence, cover, showing the memorial to the victims

1 Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011).

Massachusetts textile workers strike (not the Woolen Company Mills in Lawrence more well-known strike in 1912). Under the wanted to talk with him about settling the pressure of police brutality and adverse strike. At the very moment when the press coverage, local people sought A.J.’s strikers felt they had to give up, help in developing the strikers’ strategy. management too had decided they could not 3 At one point, the police mounted hold out any longer. machine guns at the head of the main This spring, as we watched one streets. The strike committee met. In his episode after another of demonstrators with account, A.J. wrote: their arms in the air, or sitting on the ground, . . . [O]ne after another the local or taking a knee—sometimes with some members of the committee, ordinary policemen joining in—I remembered A.J. workers in the mills, made remarks who, when times were very dangerous, had to this effect: “The guns were put not only won the trust of strikers but had there to provoke us; why play into been able to settle matters with highly the hands of the mill management contentious opponents. and the police? It would only Staughton: discredit the strike.” At age 90½ I think I can say that I It fell to A.J. to explain to the strikers have been present at a good sampling of the policy of refusing to be provoked and demonstrations over the past 75 years, refraining from violence: and that this one, the eruption of emotion I told them, in line with the strike nationwide about the murder of George committee’s decision, that to permit Floyd, was different. ourselves to be provoked into How different? violence would mean defeating To begin with, black and white were ourselves; that our real power was in in the streets together. The coalition that so our solidarity and in our capacity to many had so laboriously tried to create, endure suffering rather than give up happened spontaneously. What makes me so the fight for the right to organize . . . sure that it was leaderless? For one thing, an 2 . article by three reporters for The New York The strike dragged on. Just when the Times was headlined: “Without Clear strike committee decided they had no right to Leadership, the New Activism Emerges call on the workers for further sacrifices and Organically.”4 One simply had the sense A.J. was on his way to explain to other locals that dozens, or maybe hundreds, of that the Lawrence strike had collapsed, he individuals had phoned or e-mailed their noticed a large car in front of the building networks of friends, and that these where the strike committee met. As A.J. multitudes, having mysteriously decided that approached, a man got out of the car and told the event would be “cool” or “awesome,” A.J. that the head of the American showed up.

2 A. J. Muste, “The Lawrence Strike of 1919,” Liberation, February, March April 3 Ibid. 101-102. 1958, reprinted with permission in Staughton 4 John Eligon and Kimiko de Lynd and Alice Lynd, eds., Nonviolence in Freytas-Tamura, “Without Clear Leadership,

America:A Documentary History the New Activism Emerges Organically, The (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 3d ed. New York Times, June 4, 2020, A15. 2018), Doc. 16, 99-100.

According to The Times, at the site of order, joined in these protests. Instead of of the homicide a lone voice called out “Sit calling the policemen “pigs” the protesters down!” and lo, the crowd sat. Not long after approached the police and improvised the same voice said, “Stand up,” and those actions similar to the actions of those in the gathered did that also. But another single ’60s who put flowers in the gun barrels of voice, belonging to a Marine veteran, those sent to restrain them. responded: “Stop barking orders! You’re not The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the police.” such deep and pervasive needs for change At the core, the retrospective that it is becoming impossible to imagine custodian of all the news that’s fit to print that recovery from the pandemic world can continued, “is an egalitarian spirit, a belief return us to business as usual. I have long that everyone has a voice, and that been troubled by use of the term “nonviolent everyone’s voice matters.” revolution.” What on earth could this mean? A second distinguishing feature of Now I think I have seen what the beginning what has been happening around us in the of a nonviolent revolution might be like. streets is that the beginnings of a program of Governments can issue curfews but whether action are apparent. The Occupy movement, anything happens in response depends on it will be recalled, began with a similar spirit the people in the streets. Provided the scene but faded when a specific program of action remains nonviolent as the hour of the curfew on the basis of which people could begin to approaches, there is no way the government take small actions and win small victories can imprison all those who, as Barbara failed to materialize. Deming prescribed, with one hand tell the This time, radical activists in oppressor to advance no further but with the Minneapolis and elsewhere seem to have other hand say, “Join us.” made a transition from words to actions -Submitted by Alice and Staughton more smoothly. Actions include, first, local, Lynd state and national legislation. Choke holds like that which ended George Floyd’s life can be forbidden. Ordinances can be struck Book Review: from the books that seek to insulate police officers from public oversight in the form of Hellfire From Paradise Ranch: fines or jail terms. On the Frontlines of Drone It would be interesting to learn just Warfare (Berkeley: University of how the destruction or removal of statues can be re-evaluated. What may matter most California Press: 2020) is that a movement of this sort, necessarily localized because the statues themselves are Hellfire is new on my best-books list. Joseba widely distributed, seems to have emerged Zulaika, an anthropologist, takes a deep dive in leaderless horizontality as did the initial into the American psyche that has mass response to Floyd’s death. underwritten its most shameful acts of war One could go on. An action that only since its atomic bombings of Japan. His a few years ago seemed necessarily confined subjects are drone pilots at an area of Creech to a few brave individuals became suddenly air base near Las Vegas (and the Nevada imaginable for participants who sat down nuclear test site) nicknamed Paradise Ranch. together or “took a knee” together. In a few Freudian theory informs Zuleika’s probe into instances’ policemen, the custodians the crippled masculinity that enables

their robotic killing of “terrorists” in the the relevance of Greek classics, should put post-9/11 era. But the reality of the pilots’ Hellfire on lots of ‘best” lists. disposition lies deeper still in the Lacanian -Submitted by Jerry Lembcke of the Real-real, the hunter-hunted phantasies College of the Holy Cross hidden within euphemisms of modern warfare such as national defense. The author brings some heavy-duty theorists— Adorno, Foucault, Jung, and Baudrillard Teaching Peace History: among them—to his task, keeping their Tales of an Interloper ideas accessible enough for introductory- level readers. Updating one’s own c.v. can lead to For Zulaika, drone warriors imagine their surprises, even insights, and sometimes in human targets not just as animals but to be the least likely places. Recently, I added The animals, animals to be hunted and killed American Catholic Historical Society to the by remote. His description of using drone obligatory section of the c.v. that lists strikes on civilian Afghanis to draw other professional memberships. I had just joined humans, first responders, into range for the ACHS for the first time. (I will soon get killing—known as a “double tap”—has a to my reason for doing so. Just trust me for sickening resemblance to the use of decoys now that it’s relevant.) What struck me for by duck hunters. the first time was an odd juxtaposition. For But people-hunting is not a postmodern some years, I have been a member of the novelty: Creech air base was once Society for Military History, so no shock to Shoshone land, a tribe killed by an earlier see it listed. But on the line above SMH was generation of human-hunters. The last the Peace History Society, which I had chapter of Hellfire highlights the Catholic joined in 2018. I found myself wondering Worker movement for leading the how many vitae are out there on which these opposition to drone warfare. It’s two organizations are found in such close biographical sketch of Dorothy Day proximity. However many that number is, I provides a moving context for Zulaika’s have come to believe that it’s not enough. own pacifist ruminations inspired while By training, I am a diplomatic attending a 2016 vigil for peace at Creech historian. I have taught military and with Shoshone and peace activists who “military-adjacent” history for a quarter included retired Army colonel Ann Wright. century, including a course on the United Hellfire’s Epilogue, “Obama’s Troy,” is a States and the Indochina Wars, which I first Homerian takedown of Barack Obama taught in 1998. Some years after that, I made through the parallel of Obama’s developed a course on World War II, which assassination by drone of Anwar al-Awlaki I now teach regularly. And though I lack in 2011 with Achilles’s slaying of Hector at formal training as a military historian, the the gates of Troy—the former a prophecy classes have gone well. As we all know, foretelling terrorism’s return in Dzhokhar military historians are a critically- Tsarnaev. endangered species in the American A book with Mike-Davis historical sweep academy these days, with us “diplos” close and enough military techno-talk to interest behind. I had, however, no sense of how Botnics, that ends with the author’s self- peace history was faring in the American reflections on war and peace and a lesson in university. I must admit that I still don’t know for sure. But I knew that peace

history had not been taught at GW before, in touch anytime that I had questions. With and I thought it was time to balance out their enthusiastic, benevolent assistance, I my focus on war with a course on peace. was able to put together a syllabus, a reading In addition, the topic simply interested me. list, and a couple introductory lectures. I was I should confess here that the now ready to launch HIST 2001--“U.S. original idea for the class was not mine; that Peace Movements” in the fall semester of I borrowed it. The late Vincent P. DeSantis this past academic year. had offered a similar course during the time Having somewhat overcome my when our years in the University of Notre anxiety about my lack of preparation, I Dame’s Department of History overlapped. proceeded to the next worry: Would enough Each fall, Vince would take a week to attend students sign up for the class to be a go? As to the Southern Historical Society it turns out, there is a significant demand for conference. A conscientious teacher, he this course at GW. Very early in the regularly asked me to fill in for him during registration process—on the first day or his travels so that the students didn’t miss a registration, actually--I found myself week of class. I was happy to do so. In fact, exempting students into an already full it was in prepping to teach this course that I course. So, with a packed course and a first came across the name Charles syllabus boasting pictures of Martin Luther DeBenedetti. I learned much from my King Jr. and Dorothy Day, I set off to class. reading and enjoyed these weeks As always with a new prep, I was ready for tremendously. It was then that the seed was a semester of surprises. planted. Unfortunately, it took two decades I began by asking the students why to germinate. they had signed up for the course. The I am very lucky. I teach in a answers ranged from the intriguing (“My department that gives faculty the leeway to parents were anti-nuclear activists in the teach classes that interest them. The History ‘80s”) to the inevitable (“I needed a history Department at GW was quite supportive of the credit and this class fit”). So far, so good. It proposed course. So my biggest issue (and got even better: Our first discussion went anxiety) was whether I knew enough to offer a brilliantly. And I mean brilliantly. I had course on U.S. peace movements. To be assigned them Kant’s “Perpetual Peace.” honest, I didn’t. But, like all of us, I have This decision had me a bit apprehensive. I taught in the past on subjects that were new to had majored in philosophy in college, and I me. I knew that I didn’t know, and fortunately recalled thinking that Kant was, along with I knew someone who did. I sent what might Heidegger, the most impenetrable thinker be termed a “plaintive” email to Mike whom I had encountered as an Clinton--who, as they say, will need no undergraduate. But the students had done introduction to the readers of this newsletter. the reading, understood Kant’s points, and Mike and I are friends from graduate school, caught the nuances. In addition, they were and he seemed to be the person to go to. He able to relate his ideas to contemporary immediately sent out a note to eminent issues. We were off to a terrific start. This scholars of peace history, and, equally was clearly evidence of my brilliance as a quickly, they responded. From Wendy teacher! Chmielewski, Scott Bennett, Mitch Hall, and Then came the second discussion. Chuck Howlett I received advice, syllabi, This time, I had assigned relevant sections book chapters, reading suggestions, and most of John Woolman’s journal. Unlike Kant, helpful of all, generous offers to be the majority of the students found Woolman

baffling. One bumptious undergrad even his current research, and, more advised me privately not to use this reading generally, the field of peace history. again--adding gently that he knew this was Mike began his talk by asking why my first time through, and so didn’t blame one should study peace history. He then me for the misfire. Which was nice of him spoke convincingly about creating an when you think about it. (Despite this alternative narrative to the concatenation of student’s “advice,” I plan on bringing wars, and periods between wars, that can Woolman back for a return engagement, tend to dominate the teaching of American but with a more extensive introduction of history. I must thus credit him with giving the reading.) me the prompt for the class’s take-home These were just some of the things final. (I have thought about writing a book that surprised me early on as the students on college teaching, calling it Stuff I’ve met this material for the first time. But I can Stolen. If I ever do, there will be a full also easily identify their greatest surprise. chapter on generous members of the PHS.) Students remarked--both during the semester The topic of borrowing from others and in their course evaluations at the end of brings me back, finally, to my new term--that they had no idea of the deep roots membership in the ACHS. I had structured of American peace movements. The fact that the course around a set of persistent themes, peace history in the U.S. went back to such as the role of women in, and the impact colonial times absolutely astonished them. of religion on, American peace movements. Multiple students remarked that they (Being a great fan of the music of Richard thought we’d “spend most of our time on Wagner, I even called these the “leitmotifs” Vietnam.” The fact that there were objectors of the course.) On the penultimate day of during the War of the American Revolution class, we were discussing how these themes was a revelation. And the presence of such had played out over the course of the people among the “Greatest Generation,” semester. One of my students noted that was nothing short of riveting. I clearly was we’d studied much about Protestants, but teaching them something. was there a book on Catholics and the Vietnam War? I said that I wasn’t aware of a But I wasn’t the only one to do so. book that addressed the topic specifically, One of the most rewarding parts of the class but that I’d check. After some time devoted for me was the connections that I was able to to searching for a title, I had to report to the make. As I have already noted, Mike Clinton student that I had found nothing. That was had put me in touch with some of the leading incorrect, as it turns out. But I didn’t yet scholars in the field. These folks were a realize that what I had found was my next tremendous—indispensable really— help in book project. I checked with my editor to getting the course off the ground. I am see if he could recommend a press to which exceptionally grateful to those scholars. In I might propose the project, and he particular, Scott Bennett of Georgian Court responded that he would be interested in University not only gave me great advice, but acquiring it for a new series. And so I am also ventured all the way down from New currently deep into research for The Jersey—and actually found parking in Foggy Sorrowful War: American Catholics and Bottom!—in order to teach the class one day. Vietnam, 1954-1975. The teacher always Mike Clinton did the same, making the trek hopes that a class will change even one from, appropriately, the City of Brotherly student’s life. In a very important sense, this Love to speak about

one changed mine. As I said before, I am his retirement in 1992. He remained an very lucky. active member of the WC community until --Submitted by Steve Brady of only recently, as his health began to decline. the Department of History at From a very early age, he developed a deep George Washington University love of art, birdwatching, and jazz, all of which became lifelong passions. While still

in high school, he was strongly influenced by the principles of pacifism while Larry Gara Obituary becoming active in the Quaker Church. His

convictions were strengthened over the years, and he never wavered from his principles, which emphasized nonviolence

as a prerequisite for resolving all human conflicts. He spent his entire adult life

devoted to making the world a more just and peaceful place for all. He will continue to live on through all of those who were

influenced by his guidance and wisdom. A memorial service was held 3:00 PM,

Sunday, December 22, 2019 at the Wilmington College Kelly Center McCoy PICTURED: Larry Gara is pictured at WC Room. In lieu of flowers, the family requests in 1968 and 2008. He was a valued member that any memorial gifts be made to the Peace of the campus community for parts of six Resource Center c/o Wilmington College, decades. 1870 Quaker Way, Wilmington, OH 45177

Larry Gara, 97, of Wilmington, passed Article: Wilmington College away peacefully on Saturday, November 23, 2019 at Cape May Nursing Home. He was Icon Larry Gara Dies at 97 born on May 16, 1922 in San Antonio, Texas to Helen Gara and Stanley Stutzman. Gara Leaves Legacy of Peacemaking and He was raised by his mother and maternal Advocacy for Justice and Nonviolence grandparents in Reading, Pennsylvania. Wilmington College lost a true original with He began his college education at Kutztown the passing of Larry Gara Saturday (Nov. State Teachers’ College before earning his 23). Dr. Gara, 97, emeritus professor of bachelor’s degree at William Penn College history, taught at WC from 1962 through in Iowa. His graduate studies focused on 1992, after which he continued part time US History; he received a master’s degree until 2002. Lenna Mae, his wife of 72 years from Penn State and a PhD from the and two children, Brian and Robin, survive University of Wisconsin. He taught at him. Memorial arrangements are pending. A several colleges, including Bluffton (Ohio), Quaker, he was an outspoken advocate for Mexico City, Eureka (Illinois), and Grove peace and social justice who believed — as City (Pennsylvania), before moving to the sign he carried during years of protests Wilmington College (WC) in 1962. His and peace vigils indicated — “War is not career at WC spanned several decades, and the answer.” Even persons whose political he continued teaching part time following views might have been diametrically

opposite to Gara’s respected him as one who He had a lifelong affinity for jazz music and not only talked the talk, but also walked the was an avid bird-watcher. Gara continued as walk. an active member of the College community Gara is the author of what is considered as until only recently when his health began the definitive history of the Underground failing. Railroad titled The Liberty Line: The “One thing I always liked about Wilmington Legend of the Underground Railroad. His College was there were a lot of points of book so impressed President John F. view on the campus, but all were friendly,” Kennedy that he included it in the White Gara said in an interview for WC’s The House’s permanent library collection. LINK in 2008 after the College conferred Not only a teacher and researcher of upon him an Honorary Doctor of Humane history, Gara also was a part of American Letters degree at that year’s history. He went to federal prison for Commencement. resisting the military draft during World “Over the years, there have been a lot of War II and became part of a movement to wonderful, interesting people here on racially integrate correctional institutions. campus, good friends,” he added. “I found In the 1950s, the court case that involved Wilmington College to be about the best his allegedly counseling a college student place anyone could teach — it’s a special not to register for the draft went all the way place. It’s been just amazing!” to the U.S. Supreme Court and was featured in TIME magazine. Upon his arrival at Wilmington College in the early 1960s, Gara initially kept a low profile with regard to politics and protests, but the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement were such flashpoints that he became a natural point of gravitation for socially conscious students. He marched alongside students protesting the Kent State shootings as they demonstrated at the state capital. He continued exercising his right to peacefully protest instances of injustice and violence into his 90s. Implicit in his demonstrations was an insistence of nonviolence. In addition to The Liberty Line, Gara’s other books include The Presidency of Franklin Pierce and Westernized Yankee. He was most proud of the book he and Lenna Mae co-edited in 1999, A Few Small Candles: War Resisters of World War II Tell Their Stories. A subsequent symposium was held at WC featuring many of the book’s contributors, an event that was covered by C-Span Network.

Newsletter Editor Newsletter Assistant Editor

Ginger Williams is the newest PHS Newsletter Editor. She is Professor of Tiffany Owens accepted the position of PHS History and Director of the Peace, Justice, Newsletter Associate Editor. She is a current and Conflict Resolution Studies Program at Graduate student at Winthrop University, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, South Rock Hill, South Carolina. She has a Carolina. She is also a former President of bachelor’s in history and is pursuing her the Peace History Society. Master’s in Education. She is also a member of the Phi Alpha Theta National History Please send announcements about Society. individual achievements (such as awards or publications), upcoming related events, or ideas for possible inclusion in the PHS Newsletter to: Ginger Williams, editor, [email protected]