 From the summer of 1963 up through the rest of the year and into the next one, the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) and various other peace groups across the North American East Coast sponsored the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace. This extended action spread its message of disarmament, reconciliation, and antiracism to dozens of cities along the multiple routes. But the group never actually made it to Cuba. Not only were their requests to the State Department denied, but one large group was arrested and jailed in Albany, Georgia — not for their antiwar agitating, but for violating local Jim Crow regulations in defiance of the Chief of Police. Barbara Deming, noted civil rights and antiwar activist involved with the New England CNVA, was one of the participants of the Walk who was held in prison for a month in Albany. A couple of years later, Barbara Deming published a book documenting the experience in Albany called Prison Notes. (Read about how the CNVA organized the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk here Read about how the Walk’s purpose shifted once they reached the South here) In the following excerpt from the book, Deming reflects on some moments earlier in the Walk, and then connects the violence and explicit segregationist motivations of the Police Chief Laurie Prichett with the quiet and unself-conscious racism of the more civil and outwardly pleasant white Southerners she had met. In the pages before this excerpt, Deming had included descriptions of scenes within the prison — the abysmal conditions of her cell, the even worse conditions on the “Blacks” part of the segregated prison, and the near-constant wild yelling and random harassment from one specific white “noisy prisoner.” Content Warning: the quote in the following excerpt attributed to the “noisy prisoner” is rather tame compared to the other horribly racist things he was quoted saying earlier in the book — in this quote, there are swears but no slurs — but despite that, some readers may still be disturbed by the racism on display.    This past Monday, January 23, we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of the international prohibition of nuclear weapons — an amazing international achievement that undoubtedly owes much to the efforts of those 1960s peace activists.
See the photos from our local demonstration here. Check out the photos and reports from all around the world here. Moreover, we at VPT are already starting to plan some summer events, including the arrival of the Golden Rule in New London, CT in July. As the world’s first modern protest ship and a vessel originally operated by the CNVA, the Golden Rule has strong historical ties to VPT. We at VPT will put on some public events related to the ship in the months before it arrives as well as when the ship is here. To stay in the loop about these events, sign up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Oqf99 — Support Us We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Sources Deming, Barbara, and Jane Meyerding. “Chapter Three of Prison Notes.” We Are All Part of One Another: A Barbara Deming Reader, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, 1984.  What does racism have to do with war? How was Jim Crow related to the Cold War nuclear arms race? Why did over a dozen peace activists in the mid-1960s — in the middle of a months-long walk down the East Coast focused on nuclear disarmament and reconciliation between Cuba and the United States — intentionally and brazenly defy local segregation laws with their racially integrated walks? In December 1963, after walking more than halfway through the planned route and having avoided serious trouble in the South thus far, the main group of the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace and Disarmament were finally arrested in Albany (“al-BANE-ee”), Georgia. While officially the initial charge was the group’s open defiance of the Police Chief’s approved route, it was obvious to everyone that the actual issue was racial integration. Upon arrest, the group suffered even more than the usual indignities of jail — especially Ray Robinson, a Black former-boxer who had joined the Walk with some suspicion, but who had also come to trust the other white participants after they had repeatedly joined him in risking their own physical safety openly defying Southern segregation. (Read about how the CNVA organized the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk here) In the following issue of the New England CNVA newsletter Direct Action for a Nonviolent World was both the initial article about the Walk’s arrest, as well as a brief analysis of the evolving meaning of the Walk. Some overgeneralizations of “the Southern Negro” notwithstanding, the analysis refers to a common source for both war and racism — even if it doesn’t explicitly state what that common source is. Perhaps it is this: the misguided certainty that some people naturally ought to lead, make decisions for themselves, and live with privilege, while others ought to be put in their place and stay there. Words and ideas alone rarely convince people out of prejudice, feelings of superiority, or whatever they consider the “natural order of things” — a challenge that these antiwar activists understood. Of course, they tried anyway (and succeeded with mere words more often than one might expect), but the true value for the participants was the actual act of civil disobedience. Through the direct action of performing the integrated Walk, the participants physically embodied their double defiance against war and racism — proving their commitments to justice not only to the Southern racists, Northern critics, and skeptics among the oppressed, but also to themselves. — On Monday, January 23, we will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the international prohibition of nuclear weapons — an amazing international achievement that undoubtedly owes much to the efforts of those 1960s peace activists. To join us or to learn more, see the event page here: https://fb.me/e/2frWLbKeX Moreover, we at VPT are already starting to plan some summer events, including the arrival of the Golden Rule in New London, CT in July. As the world’s first modern protest ship and a vessel originally operated by the CNVA, the Golden Rule has strong historical ties to VPT. We at VPT will put on some public events related to the ship in the months before it arrives as well as when the ship is here. To stay in the loop about these events, sign up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Oqf99  —
Support Us We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Sources “Q-W-G Walk,” “Thoughts on Freedom,” & “The Role of The Walk.” Direct Action for a Nonviolent World. 3 January 1964 (Bulletin #47), page 6.  In the summer of 1963, less than a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis and just two years after the failed US invasion of Cuba, the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA) organized the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace, a months-long journey down the North American east coast, calling for “compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and mutual aid” between the United States and Cuba. Peace activists started the walk as far north as Quebec City, converged in Rome, NY, and then walked all the way down to Key West. From there, they planned to take small boats to Cuba itself in order to walk across the great island with the same message. The project was not without its risks. Many of the participants had done similar walks in the recent past — the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace had been completed in 1961, which inspired several shorter walks in the following years. So, many of the participants were prepared for the day-to-day difficulties of walking every day for months straight. Most were also accustomed to the occasional ridicule and hostility that arose in some places — part of the point of walking was to be able to stop and talk to locals at any time. Many had been arrested before and knew what to expect in jail. But on this walk, the activists would also have to contend with violent anti-communist Cuban immigrants as well as Jim Crow. Several activists were arrested in Albany, Georgia for challenging Jim Crow laws, as the walk was always planned to be racially integrated. For some participants, these experiences with such hatred illustrated just how these social justice issues are related to each other. Barbara Deming, New England CNVA member who was jailed at Albany, famously discussed this exact topic in her book Prison Notes. Indeed, several members of the New England CNVA at VPT (then called Polaris Action Farm) served as lead organizers of this project, and the Polaris Action Farm itself played an important role in the logistics. Intending to kick off at the end of May 1963, organizing efforts began several months earlier. In fact, the whole length of the walk actually started as three separate walks organized by regional groups — the New England CNVA’s newsletter Polaris Action Bulletin was promoting the walk to Rome, NY as far back as December 1962. But within the first couple of months of the new year, the regional groups had stitched the three routes together to form one of the biggest US peace actions of the early 1960s. On Monday, January 23, we will celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the international prohibition of nuclear weapons — an amazing international achievement that undoubtedly owes much to the efforts of those 1960s peace activists. To join us or to learn more, see the event page here: https://fb.me/e/2frWLbKeX Moreover, we at VPT are already starting to plan some summer events, including the arrival of the Golden Rule in New London, CT in July. Coincidentally, the Golden Rule just left Cuba a few days ago. As the world’s first modern protest ship and a vessel originally operated by the CNVA, the Golden Rule has strong historical ties to VPT. We at VPT will put on some public events related to the ship in the months before it arrives as well as when the ship is here. To stay in the loop about these events, sign up for our newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Oqf99  —
Support Us We commit a significant amount of research and writing to produce A Peace of History each week. If you like our weekly posts, please consider supporting this project with a one-time or recurring donation. Your gift will be used to continue producing more A Peace of History posts as well as the greater mission of VPT. You may type in however much you would like to give; contributions of all sizes are appreciated. Click this link to learn more about what we do and how you can donate: https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Voluntown-Peace-Trust — Source Lyttle, Bradford. “Cuba Peace Walk.” Polaris Action Bulletin. 3 March 1963 (Bulletin #39), page 1. |
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