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War Resisters League Records

 Collection
Identifier: SCPC-DG-040

Scope and Contents

SCPC became the official repository for the War Resisters League in 1947. War Resisters League records in DG 40 included scattered minutes of the Executive Committee (1925- ), the National Committee (1974- ), and a small amount of scattered financial records. There is correspondence from 1926 forward. War Resisters League literature and releases (1931- ) include fund appeals, flyers, pamphlets, brochures, and memoranda. There are also annual Peace Calendars (1956-2013). Numerous War Resisters League periodicals (1942- ), including War Resisters League News, can be found in the SCPC stacks. A list of these periodicals is available in Series B, Subseries III.

There are significant amounts of material documenting War Resisters League's work in publishing The Conscientious Objector, a newspaper produced from 1939 to 1946, the work of the Conscientious Objectors Problems Committee (1940-1946), preparation of the annual Peace Calendar, and the work of the Literature Committee (mostly 1960s) which created peace bibliographies. Records about War Resisters League's civilian defense protest project (1955-1963) and its efforts to help political prisoners in Vietnam following the Indochinese War, are significant parts of this collection.

The administrative files of Executive Secretaries Abe Kaufman, Roy Kepler, and Sidney Aberman span the years 1948 to 1953. Other administrative files are those of Executive Secretary Ralph DiGia (1955-1961), Field Secretary David McReynolds (1960-1977), Chairman Ed Gottlieb (1962-1967), staff member Wendy Schwartz (1970-1971), Special Project Secretary Grace Hedemann (1974-1978), and staff member Ed Hedemann.

War Resisters League correspondents include Sidney Aberman, Devere Allen, Allen H. Barr, R. Boland Brooks, H. Runham Brown, Julius Eichel, Harrop Freeman, Edward P. Gottlieb, Kenneth Greenawalt, George W. Hartmann, Alfred Hassler, Grace Hedemann, Ammon A. Hennacy, John Haynes Holmes, Jessie Wallace Hughan, Abraham Kaufman, Roy Kepler, Frieda Langer Lazarus, David McReynolds, Charles Macintosh, A.J. Muste, Tracy D. Mygatt, Frank Olmstead, Frances Rose Ransom, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Winifred W. Schaum, Wendy Schwartz, Evan W. Thomas, Olivia Dunbar Torrence, Lydia G. Wentworth, and Frances Witherspoon.

Dates

  • Creation: 1923-2013

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

None.

Historical

Although the War Resisters League declares its official birthday year as 1923, its roots go back to 1915 when Jessie Wallace Hughan, Tracy D. Mygatt, and John Haynes Holmes founded the Anti-Enlistment League to solidify protest against U.South participation in World War I. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for an organization where war resisters of all persuasions, regardless of gender or religious convictions, could join together, Dr. Hughan formed the Committee for Enrollment Against War under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1923, Hughan established the War Resisters League as an independent organization.

The War Resisters League membership pledge, which has remained essentially unchanged since its inception, reads: "The War Resisters League affirms that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war."

During World War II, War Resisters League especially supported absolutist conscientious objectors who protested any form of military support, including alternative service. In 1948, it helped found the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors to further aid all Conscientious Objectors. It has continually lent its resources to the causes of war tax protest, draft resistance, and civil rights.

War Resisters League encouraged civil disobedience against civil defense drills in the early 1960s by sponsoring the Civil Defense Protest Committee. It encouraged tax resistance as the Indochinese conflict escalated, and formed War Tax Resistance in 1969 to protest all taxes that benefited the military. In the 1970s, War Resisters League supported Campaign Freedom and the United Campaign for Peace in Indochina, both efforts to help improve conditions and free political prisoners in Vietnam. It helped focus nationwide attention on nuclear protest and civil liberties by organizing the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice in 1976.

War Resisters League is affiliated with War Resisters' International and the International Peace Bureau. Throughout its existence, it has worked closely with many other peace organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the American Friends Service Committee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1958, it helped start the Committee for Nonviolent Action (CNVA), which shared its headquarters and finally merged with War Resisters League in 1968.

The League has sought to promote pacifist and nonviolent tactics through various periodicals. In 1956, War Resisters League helped start Liberation, an independent monthly dealing with nuclear testing, civil rights, socialism, and nonviolent direct action. it was discontinued in 1977. WIN, a widely read peace periodical begun by the New York Workshop in Nonviolence, has received War Resisters League support. The League publishes its own bimonthly magazine, War Resisters League News. Its annual Peace Calendar reached annual sales of 20,000 in 1980.

War Resisters League is presently headquartered at 339 Lafayette Street in New York City with one regional office in Norwich, CT. There are or have been three branch offices, located in San Francisco, CA (War Resisters League-West), Austin, TX (War Resisters League South Central), and Chapel Hill, NC (War Resisters League Southeastern), with numerous local War Resisters League groups across the country.

A more complete history of War Resisters League, produced for its 1950th Anniversary, can by found in Series B, Subseries I, History.

Extent

35.4 linear ft. (Series A = 37 boxes and 15.22 linear feet; Series B = 49 boxes and 20.22 linear feet)

Abstract

The War Resisters League is a pacifist organization whose members are against all war. Witnessing the establishment of the War Resisters' International in Europe in 1921, and sensing a need for a similar organization in the United States, Dr. Jessie Wallace Hughan established the War Resisters League as an independent organization. The War Resisters League membership pledge, which has remained essentially unchanged since its inception, reads: "The War Resisters League affirms that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive non-violently for the removal of all causes of war." The League seeks to end war and social injustice through pacifist and nonviolent tactics.

Arrangement

The War Resisters League records held by SCPC are divided into two series: 1) Series A (1923-1949) contains material processed in 1954. Similar records, such as minutes, correspondence, committee files, etc. were placed together, as found in the checklist; and 2) Series B (1948-1989) contains material processed in 1983 and 1995, as well as material that War Resisters League routinely mails to SCPC, its official depository. Most subseries are arranged similarly to those in Series A. The administrative files were left in the order in which they were received. Where a considerable amount of loose material was found, an imposed order was created.

Correspondence in Series A is sorted by individuals, groups, and subjects. In Series B, rather than being placed together, correspondence is left in original folders and is found mostly in the Administrative Files.

Two separate document groups were created from War Resisters League records received in the 1969 and 1979 accessions. One is DG 134, the papers of David McReynolds, Field Secretary for War Resisters League. While some of McReynolds' papers in DG 134 are of a personal nature, there is a significant amount of information pertaining to his work with War Resisters League There is a large file of McReynolds' material in DG 40 as well. The second document group created from the War Resisters League records, DG 135, contains the records of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice whose principal sponsor was War Resisters League.

Unprocessed World Peace Brigade material mentioned in the 1981 SCPC Guide was moved to DG 050 (A.J. Muste).

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of War Resisters League 1949, 1950, 1952, 1969, 1979, 1985, 1990, 1994-1999, 2001, 2004, 2005

Existence and Location of Copies

Microfilm Reels 20 and 21 (War Resisters League News 1967 and 1968)

Related Materials

For related materials, search the library's online catalog

Separated Materials

Scrapbook: See Oversize Collection Photographs: See Photograph Collection (4x5, 5x7) Buttons: See Button Collection Bumperstickers: See Stamp Collection Magazines/Newsletters: See Periodicals Collection

Bibliographic References

Guide to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 2nd ed., p. 72.

Legal Status

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Processing Information

A partial checklist for this collection was prepared by Martha Shane in September 1983, and updated by Anne Yoder in March 1995. Updates on later accessions were made by Wendy Chmielewski in August 2007, and updated by Kathy Sun in April 2013. The Photographs series was arranged and added to the finding aid by Laura Melbourne in 2023.

Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Find It at the Library

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