Vera Baker Williams was a longtime War Resisters League activist and designed the covers for seventy-six issues of Liberation – a publication intimately tied with the War Resisters League. Her covers for Liberation varied from direct social commentary and satire to more formal experimentations with color, pattern, and design. The editors’ commitment to Vera B. Williams' visionary cover art posited that creativity, play, and curiosity were essential elements in healthy and liberatory social movements.
Virginia Baron edited the 1997 WRL Peace Calendar, “Womanspirit Moving: ” a collection of profiles, quotations, and stories about women organizing for peace and justice around the world. In a lifetime of activism herself, Virginia worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, traveled the world on peace delegations, and was active with War Resisters League for at least the last 30 years of her life. Virginia died at age 91 in 2022. This is an excerpt from the introduction to the Womanspirit Moving Calendar.
In accord with Jessie Wallace Hughan’s belief that WRL would likely be more effective if led by men, the role of women, and certainly their authority, decreased substantially post WW II.
Twenty years ago, on March 19, 2003, the U.S. launched the disastrous and deadly invasion of Iraq. With great hope and determination, millions around the world joined antiwar protests on February 15, a month before the attack.
In founding and then leading WRL for nearly 20 years, Jessie Wallace Hughan was supported by an impressive group of women, many having previously headed other women’s pacifist, suffragist, anti-conscription, and socialist organizations. Unusually independent for their time, most had graduated from prestigious universities, supported themselves with careers, and were engaged in romantic relationships with like-minded women.
