Women reclaim Mother’s Day for peace: 1981
Benjamin Spock speaks to a crowd under umbrellas on a rainy Mother’s Day May 10, 1981 in Lafayette Park to advocate for nuclear disarmament and against an increase in military spending.
The rally of 1,000 women was sponsored by the Mother’s Day Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament, composed of 22 groups that sought to reclaim the original purpose of Mother’s Day as an antiwar day.
The group gathered near the U.S. Capitol and marched to the White House on a day filled with spring showers.
Speakers blasted the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Barry Commoner, an environmentalist and antiwar leader, told the crowd, “There is no survivor in a nuclear war.” The only war citizens need to fight “is against Reagan and his Democratic allies,” Commoner continued.
Beulah Sanders, a former chair of the National Welfare Rights Organization loudly proclaimed, “We do not want money spent for nuclear weapons. That money needs to be spent right here so our people can survive.”
Sanders also took aim at Nancy Reagan.
“And I wish Nancy a happy Mother’s Day. She doesn’t have to worry about a decent house, heat or hot water. She doesn’t have to worry about a job or food. But here on Mother’s Day a lot of us are sad because we don’t have it,” said Sanders.
Spock was a pediatrician who wrote Baby and Child Care in 1946, which became a best seller for more than two decades. He later joined the Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy in 1962 and afterward became an anti-Vietnam War activist who was charged with four others in 1967 in a conspiracy to aid and abet draft resistance.
He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, but his conviction and those the other three men were overturned on appeal. He continued his activism for peace and social justice until his death in 1998.
Mother’s Day was selected for the protest to reclaim the history of Mother's Day, which was first organized in America in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe, a poet and women's suffragist, as a day dedicated to peace.
The "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world" (later known as "Mother's Day Proclamation") was written by Howe in 1870 and was an appeal for women to unite for peace in the world.
Howe's "Appeal to womanhood" was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the six-month Franco-Prussian War. The appeal was tied to Howe's feminist conviction that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
In 1872 Howe asked for the celebration of a "Mother's Day for Peace" on 2 June of every year, but she was unsuccessful.
Laura Hepner, a participant in the 1981 demonstration, explained, “The woman felt that mothers had a particular responsibility to speak out against the war.”
The modern Mother's Day, was established by Anna Jarvis 36 years later. While the day she established was different in significance from what Howe had proposed, Anna Jarvis was reportedly inspired by her mother's work with Howe.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskgYwm9D
Photo by Walter Oates. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
Women reclaim Mother’s Day for peace: 1981
Benjamin Spock speaks to a crowd under umbrellas on a rainy Mother’s Day May 10, 1981 in Lafayette Park to advocate for nuclear disarmament and against an increase in military spending.
The rally of 1,000 women was sponsored by the Mother’s Day Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament, composed of 22 groups that sought to reclaim the original purpose of Mother’s Day as an antiwar day.
The group gathered near the U.S. Capitol and marched to the White House on a day filled with spring showers.
Speakers blasted the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Barry Commoner, an environmentalist and antiwar leader, told the crowd, “There is no survivor in a nuclear war.” The only war citizens need to fight “is against Reagan and his Democratic allies,” Commoner continued.
Beulah Sanders, a former chair of the National Welfare Rights Organization loudly proclaimed, “We do not want money spent for nuclear weapons. That money needs to be spent right here so our people can survive.”
Sanders also took aim at Nancy Reagan.
“And I wish Nancy a happy Mother’s Day. She doesn’t have to worry about a decent house, heat or hot water. She doesn’t have to worry about a job or food. But here on Mother’s Day a lot of us are sad because we don’t have it,” said Sanders.
Spock was a pediatrician who wrote Baby and Child Care in 1946, which became a best seller for more than two decades. He later joined the Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy in 1962 and afterward became an anti-Vietnam War activist who was charged with four others in 1967 in a conspiracy to aid and abet draft resistance.
He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, but his conviction and those the other three men were overturned on appeal. He continued his activism for peace and social justice until his death in 1998.
Mother’s Day was selected for the protest to reclaim the history of Mother's Day, which was first organized in America in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe, a poet and women's suffragist, as a day dedicated to peace.
The "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world" (later known as "Mother's Day Proclamation") was written by Howe in 1870 and was an appeal for women to unite for peace in the world.
Howe's "Appeal to womanhood" was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the six-month Franco-Prussian War. The appeal was tied to Howe's feminist conviction that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
In 1872 Howe asked for the celebration of a "Mother's Day for Peace" on 2 June of every year, but she was unsuccessful.
Laura Hepner, a participant in the 1981 demonstration, explained, “The woman felt that mothers had a particular responsibility to speak out against the war.”
The modern Mother's Day, was established by Anna Jarvis 36 years later. While the day she established was different in significance from what Howe had proposed, Anna Jarvis was reportedly inspired by her mother's work with Howe.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskgYwm9D
Photo by Walter Oates. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.