Rockland County Peace Association Records

The Rockland County Peace Association was a small local peace group which began in 1930 in New York state. The purpose of the group was "to stimulate popular education and public opinion with a view to the prevention of war." Leadership of the Association was provided by McCarrell H. Leiper and Dr. Walter B. MacKellar, each of whom served ten years as president, and by Kathleen Whitaker Sayre (wife of John Nevin Sayre), who was executive secretary from 1930 until the organization's dissolution.

Before World War II, the Association's activities included sponsorship of public dinner meetings with prominent peace speakers, sending peace literature to schools, churches and synagogues, holding essay contests, and sending resolutions to government leaders. The Association also sent delegates to peace conferences and sponsored a Youth Peace Group, which existed from 1933 until 1937. In 1937, the Association was admitted to the National Peace Conference and a strong relationship was maintained thereafter. During the war years, the Association carried on relief work through the American Friends Service Committee, and continued to distribute educational peace propaganda. Despite Sayre's continued interest and dedicated efforts, dwindling membership in the late 1940s led to the decision in 1950 to disband the group.

It is unlikely that this collection comprises the entire records of the Rockland County Peace Association, but it is unknown if more records are still in existence elsewhere.