The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice

Join us October 24, 2026 for…

The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice: A Retrospective Virtual Event 50 Years Later

When the U. S. Bicentennial was held fifty years ago, WRL and allied organizations launched the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, connecting the demands for disarmament and redirected military spending with movements for social justice. Thousands of people walked throughout the country for nine months, culminating in Washington, DC where for three days we rallied, celebrated and walked to the Pentagon, and the White House.

As the call stated,

“We are walking for an end to the arms race, decent housing, world development, personal disarmament, jobs, racial and sexual justice, and better healthcare – a chance for everyone to live.”

Saturday, October 24, 2026 — 12pm Pacific Time, 1pm Mountain Time, 2 pm Central Time, and 3 pm Eastern Time for an hour and half program, followed by a half hour of informal sharing. Hear reflections from organizers, long distance walkers, and community members on the Walk and its legacy for today

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*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.