Bill Sutherland (1918-2010) : A Pan-African and Pacifist Life
New York NY 10037

Bill Sutherland (1918-2010):
A Pan-African and Pacifist Life
Saturday, November 13th, 2010
6:00 pm
at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY 10037
Including video by Rick Tejada-Flores (producer of The Good War & Those who Refused to Fight It)
and remarks by Horace Campbell and many other special guests
Join in a commemorative tribute celebrating Bill Sutherland’s unwavering dedication to justice through his life and achievements. African-American Bill Sutherland left the United States for West Africa in 1953 as an ardent pacifist, becoming an equally committed life-long Pan-Africanist who acted as a human bridge for all African peoples throughout the Diaspora for over fifty years. A World War Two conscientious objector, he served time in Lewisburg with life-long friends Ralph DiGia and Dave Dellinger, engaging in hunger strikes against prison segregation and injustice. Once out at the end of the war, Sutherland, DiGia, and Dellinger–along with Quaker C.O. Art Emory–initiated the Peacemakers project, bicycling across Europe (including behind the “iron curtain”) for an end to the arms race. As a representative of WRI, he first traveled to Africa in the early 1950s, finally deciding to move to the continent in 1953. Making his home in Ghana and later Tanzania, Sutherland worked with the leaders of the anti-colonial liberation movements across the African continent, in the United States and Europe, maintaining connections from the grassroots through to the highest levels of government.
This event is co-sponsored by family and friends of Bill Sutherland in conjunction with Africa World Press, Freedom House, the Kirwan Institute, TransAfrica Forum and the War Resisters League.