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....

It was a few minutes before midnight on August 27, 1963, when I arrived by train from my home in Scarsdale, NY, at the 125^th Street train station in New York City and walked half a dozen blocks to the Harlem office of the Congress of Racial Equality, known as “CORE,” with a ticket to board a bus bound for Washington, D.C., and the much anticipated and widely publicized March on Washington

WRL'S Continental Walk took place during the U.S. bicentennial year. WRL was also active with the anti-establishment July 4th Coalition, which highlighted the American Revolution's unfinished business to create a just and equal society.

How can you portray 100 years of nonviolent resistance to war and the causes of war? If you’re the 100-year-old War Resisters League, you create a traveling exhibit and book chock-full of photos and stories reflecting that century of activism. Arnie Alpert gives a taste of the book and exhibit and shares some of his own experiences with WRL in an essay in "Waging Nonviolence."