Author: Ed Hedemann

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WRL Exhibit on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Nuclear Terror

WRL Exhibit on Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Nuclear Terror

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In 1995 on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum unveiled a radically scaled back exhibition that glorified the bombings, prominently presenting Enola Gay (the Hiroshima bomber) as if it were a holy relic.

The original draft text of the exhibit had been an even-handed history and evaluation of the August 6 and 9, 1945 bombings. But caving to howls of the American Legion and conservative members of Congress, the Smithsonian deleted all criticisms of the bombings and presented a sanitized version without graphic images of the destruction. Instead, they highlighted how the plane was restored, showed photos of machinery, interviews of the Enola Gay crew, and stressed how “the bombings were necessary” to save American lives.

Consequently, WRL with other peace groups formed the Enola Gay Action Coalition to prepare for protests at the opening, as well as to create our own exhibit “Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and 50 Years of Nuclear Terror”—as an answer to the Smithsonian’s crude attempt at censorship and historical revisionism….

The 1971 May Day Actions

The 1971 May Day Actions

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With the slogan “If the government won’t stop the war [in Vietnam], we’ll stop the government,” the largest mass arrests in U.S. history – 13,500 – occurred in May 1971 as hundreds of autonomous affinity groups from around the country converged on Washington, DC. On May 1, a couple days before the action, more than…

Timeless Tax Day Readings

Timeless Tax Day Readings

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April 20, 1971To the Editor of the Boston Globe:For thirty years, as religious pacifists and advocates of the way of love and nonviolence in all human relationships, my husband and I have been active in the search for peace. It is, therefore, with special dismay that we watch the increase in lawlessness and violence in…

The WRL Pie Chart

The WRL Pie Chart

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Today, March 14, is Pi Day (3.14), which brings to mind WRL’s annual pie chart. With millions of copies distributed, it is the most disseminated piece of literature in WRL’s history, reaching far beyond its membership to emphasize — obvious to many* beyond peace circles — that it’s military spending and war that bloats federal…

Bayard Rustin Receives 1965 WRL Peace Award

Bayard Rustin Receives 1965 WRL Peace Award

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On April 27, 1965, Bayard Rustin was presented with the seventh annual War Resisters League Peace Award at WRL’s 42nd annual dinner. In making the presentation A.J. Muste noting that Bayard “suffered for his convictions and held firmly and courageously to them… [A] tireless seeker for more effective ways to advance the cause of freedom, peace, and humanity throughout the world.”

Hear the recording and read an annotated transcript of Rustin’s remarks in this blog entry…

First U.S. Demonstration Against the War in Vietnam War

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Sixty years ago, the United States had 16,000 military personnel in Vietnam propping up the increasingly brutal South Vietnamese regime headed by Ngô Đình Diệm. Within six years the number of U.S. troops would escalate to over a half million, resulting in almost 60,000 U.S. combat deaths and more than a million Vietnamese, Cambodian, and…

Annual Tax Day Protests

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“[T]he customary band of pickets” was how a 1953 New York Times article dismissively termed Tax Day demonstrators from WRL, Catholic Worker, and the Peacemakers outside the Manhattan IRS. The article went on to report “they either refused to pay Federal income taxes or sympathized with those who did not because ‘the huge program of…

Early WRL Demonstration

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One of WRL’s earliest known street actions was a demonstration marking the 10th anniversary of the World War I armistice. On November 10, 1928, 27 pacifists and socialists — including the Youth Division of the War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Union Theological Seminary, Young People’s Socialist League, Bronx Free Fellowship – marched from Bowling…

Jessie Wallace Hughan and the Founding of WRL

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Up until the first world war, peace and antiwar groups tended to be either religious (such as, AFSC and FOR) or women-only (Women’s Peace Society, Women’s Peace Union, Woman’s Peace Party, WILPF). Hughan sought to change that with the 1915 founding of the Anti-Enlistment League and its pledge to be “against enlistment” for war and…

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