First women’s mass anti-nuclear demonstration: 1961
Dagmar Wilson, coordinator for Women’s Strike for Peace, delivers a letter to the White House for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy November 1, 1961 asking her to speak out on nuclear disarmament.
The delivery of the letter was part of nationwide demonstrations for nuclear disarmament that day.
The demonstration was sponsored by the Women’s Strike for Peace, headed by Dagmar Wilson and Bella Abzug, a group that had literally grown up overnight across the country in response to the increasing radiation pollution from nuclear weapons testing and the grim prospects of nuclear war.
Wilson was a housewife in the D.C. area’s Maryland suburbs when she organized the demonstration.
The group held its first demonstration on this day with 1,500 gathering at the Washington Monument grounds to hear Wilson urge a ban on nuclear weapons. President John F. Kennedy reportedly watched the rally from the White House.
Around the country, 50,000 marched in 60 U.S. cities at the height of the Cold War—marking a point in time that began to lead to decreased tensions.
Two years later a partial test ban treaty was signed by the United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain—three of the four nuclear powers at that time. France has never signed the treaty. The treaty banned atmospheric testing but permitted underground testing.
The November 1st demonstration has been marked as the largest women’s peace demonstration of the 20th century.
Women’s Strike for Peace would continue to lead demonstrations against nuclear war, the Vietnam War and other peace issues for the next 30 years.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmw1miEv
For copies of the Women's Strike for Peace newsletter Memo, see washingtonareaspark.com/contributors/periodicals/
Photo by Gus Chinn. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
First women’s mass anti-nuclear demonstration: 1961
Dagmar Wilson, coordinator for Women’s Strike for Peace, delivers a letter to the White House for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy November 1, 1961 asking her to speak out on nuclear disarmament.
The delivery of the letter was part of nationwide demonstrations for nuclear disarmament that day.
The demonstration was sponsored by the Women’s Strike for Peace, headed by Dagmar Wilson and Bella Abzug, a group that had literally grown up overnight across the country in response to the increasing radiation pollution from nuclear weapons testing and the grim prospects of nuclear war.
Wilson was a housewife in the D.C. area’s Maryland suburbs when she organized the demonstration.
The group held its first demonstration on this day with 1,500 gathering at the Washington Monument grounds to hear Wilson urge a ban on nuclear weapons. President John F. Kennedy reportedly watched the rally from the White House.
Around the country, 50,000 marched in 60 U.S. cities at the height of the Cold War—marking a point in time that began to lead to decreased tensions.
Two years later a partial test ban treaty was signed by the United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain—three of the four nuclear powers at that time. France has never signed the treaty. The treaty banned atmospheric testing but permitted underground testing.
The November 1st demonstration has been marked as the largest women’s peace demonstration of the 20th century.
Women’s Strike for Peace would continue to lead demonstrations against nuclear war, the Vietnam War and other peace issues for the next 30 years.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmw1miEv
For copies of the Women's Strike for Peace newsletter Memo, see washingtonareaspark.com/contributors/periodicals/
Photo by Gus Chinn. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.