Peace Pilgrim
WASHINGTON, D.C. Atlantic County native Peace Pilgrim is among 11 women being honored by the National Women's History Alliance at an awards luncheon being held in Washington, D.C. Saturday, March 30. The theme for this year's event is Celebrating Women's History: Visionary Women, Champions of Peace and Nonviolence.
The NWHA honors women who have acted as peacemakers and peacekeepers and have rejected violence and intimidation, strengthening communities and builing a sustainable society and a more humane way of living. Honorees include women in the Civil Rights Movement, national leaders and individual activists who have led the fight against gun violence, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Throughout this year, we honor 11 outstanding women for their unrelenting and inspirational effort to make our world a more peaceful place. Their lives demonstrate the power of voice, of taking action and of believing that meaningful and lasting change is possible in our democratic society, said, Molly MacGregor, executive director of the NWHA.
Following a period of contemplation, Peace Pilgrim, who was born and raised in Egg Harbor City, embarked on a pilgrimage for peace on Jan. 1, 1953 at the head of the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. She crossed the continent on foot seven times and stopped counting the miles when she reached 25,000 miles for peace. Born Mildred Norman in Egg Harbor City July 7, 2008, she relinquished her past and walked as a penniless pilgrim for 27 years until she died in a head-on collision in Knox, Indiana July 1981 on her way to a speaking engagement. She was the first woman to complete the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail in one season in 1952, which she undertook as preparation for her pilgrimage. She vowed to remain a wanderer until mankind learned the way of peace, speaking to anyone she met along the way about how to obtain peace in their lives. She is internationally recognized for her famous quote, This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.
Other honorees include peace activist Kathy Kelly, coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Zainab Salbi, founder and former DEO of Women for Women International; Graciela Sanchez, cofounder and director of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center; Deborah Tucker, president of the board of directors of the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence; E. Faye Williams, president and CEO of the National Congress of Black Women; and Sister Alice Zachmann, founder and former director of Guatemala Human Rights Commission USA. Other posthumous honorees include Elise Boulding, a Quaker sociologist who developed Peace and Conflict Studies; gun control advocate and Brady Bill author Sarah Brady, whose husband James was permanently disabled in a failed assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan; Civil Rights activist Dorothy Cotton, the only woman in Dr. Martin Luther King's inner circle who developed the Citizen Education Program to teach disenfranchised people the importance of political participation; and anti-lynching activist, orator and suffragist Mary Burnett Talbert.
The organization chooses a unifying theme each year for Women's History Month in March and for Women's Equality Day on Aug. 16. In addition to the luncheon, the alliance will host a VIP Honoree Reception Friday, March 29 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Established in 1980 as the National Women's History Project and expanded in 2018, the alliance led a successful campaign to have Congress recognize the month of March as National Women's History Month. The NWHA has trained thousands of teachers how to include women in curricula. NWHA materials are used across the country in classrooms, government and civic organizations.
More information is available at nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org.
More information about Peace Pilgrim is available at peacepilgrim.org.
