On September 11, 2001, War Resisters League staff person David McReynolds, wrote this from the WRL National Office which was only a mile and half north of the World Trade Towers:
"As we write, Manhattan feels under siege, with all bridges, tunnels, and subways closed, and tens of thousands of people walking slowly north from Lower Manhattan. As we sit in our offices here at War Resisters League, our most immediate thoughts are of the hundreds if not thousands of New Yorkers who have lost their lives in the collapse of the World Trade Center. The day is clear, the sky is blue, but vast clouds billow over the ruins where so many have died, including a great many rescue workers."
In August 1973, the War Resisters League marked its 50th anniversary during the annual conference at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. Over 550 attendees gathered to commemorate the occasion through reflection and rededication over three days. On the first evening, Larry Gara presented a slideshow to a packed hall. He had spent several years bringing together WRL’s history thus far through photos and stories of the individuals who dedicated themselves to nonviolence and pacifism. Titled “A Glimpse at Our Past: Contents and Images of WRL's First 50 Years”, the slideshow is now available online including the complete script with notes accompanying each slide.
August 7th is Linda Thurston’s birthday. She would have turned 65 this year. Linda Marie Thurston, WRL’s much loved Operations Coordinator, passed away suddenly in late May 2021. We held a celebration of her life last August. And we continue to honor and remember Linda in many ways...
During my research of WRL's history, every now and then a little gem pops up, thanks to the continuing digitization of old magazines and newspapers, not to mention new student theses and books by historians. One such item dates to the earliest days of WRL.
In July 1926, when not yet three years old, an attempt was made to smear the League during a congressional hearing. That hearing centered on a bill seeking to prohibit the Army from teaching military courses in public schools.*
...So life went on at The Farm, hosting peace camps, attending public meetings about Pantex, doing lectures about nukes, planting and watering trees, hosting pilgrimages passing through like Pastors for Peace and Bike Aid, following nuclear weapons truck convoys into and out of Pantex as part of a nationwide bomb truck route mapping project, publishing The Farm's news magazine.....
I first heard of War Resisters League some time in the mid to late 1980's as I was getting involved in protesting the Pantex nuclear warhead assembly plant, from whence comes EVERY finished U.S. warhead, located northeast of where I lived: Amarillo, TX......
In the late 1980s it seemed there was no end to the AIDS crisis and increasing homophobia across Reagan-era America. The Supreme Court’s 1986 decision in Bowers v. Harwick upholding Georgia’s sodomy law led more than half a million LGBTQIA+ folks and allies to converge on Washington, DC from October 8-13, 1987 for what would become a series of historic events.....
