The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice

Columbia, Missouri, July 31, 1976. Photo: Jim De Mian.

During the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial, WRL along with other organizations created an ambitious project to initiate the peace movement’s post-Vietnam War era. This project — The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice — demanded the United States begin the process of unilaterally disarming and reallocating tax dollars to fund programs providing inexpensive housing, guaranteed jobs, free education, accessible medical care for all, while combating blatant discrimination against women, people of color, immigrants, and other victims of wars and militarism. 

*The three main routes are shown in red. There were many more than the 22 routes pictured on the map because of several walks through downtowns that were unconnected to any routes. People from all 50 states expressed interest in The Walk and, in the end, these 34 were crossed.

The Walk was a complex and massive project (the organizing of which lasted 23 months, including a year before the walking began) and not only because of the estimated 20,000 people who participated, whether for a day or the entire nine months. The three main routes converging on Washington DC — starting from San Francisco, New Orleans, and Boston — along with 19 other routes that fed into them covered 34 states and 8,000 miles before ending in Washington DC.

Though initiated by the War Resisters League, the project grew into a broad coalition of a couple dozen national organizations, notably the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Friends Service Committee, Women Strike for Peace, Catholic Peace Fellowship, as well as a half dozen international organizations, especially Japan Buddha Sangha and the Japan Council Against A & H Bombs (Gensuikyo). But, crucially, most of the day-to-day organizing was carried out by dozens (if not hundreds) of regional and local groups throughout the country.

To learn more about this project:

Wikipedia page about The Continental Walk has been created and is currently pending approval

Recent blogs about The Continental Walk
Continental Walk Blog #1: Origins
Continental Walk Blog #2: Crisscrossing the Country
Continental Walk Blog #3: Convergence in Washington
Continental Walk Blog #4: The Organizing Begins
Continental Walk Blog #5: Walking, Walking, Walking
Continental Walk Blog #6: National Office and Organizing
Continental Walk Blog #7: The Pentagon

List of articles (WIN, WRL News, among other publications) about the Walk

Join a Virtual 50th Anniversary Commemorative Event

Whether or not you were involved in 1976, we are planning a virtual 50th anniversary commemorative event on Saturday October 24, 2026 to which all are invited. If interested, please contact us at wrlhistory@warresisters.org.

If you were a walker, organizer, or other participant in the Continental Walk 50 years ago, we want to add your name to our list of participants, so please fill out this form.

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