Friends in Peace, Friends in Protest: The American Friends Service Committee

Co-curated by Don Davis (AFSC), David Hostetter (PHS), and James Davey and Ines Monsalve (GMercyU), with special thanks to Cindy Casey (GMercyU).

Introduction

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, AFSC has worked both in the United States and around the world to promote the value of peace in a world full of oppression and struggle. Through their relief services to immigrants, Germans, Vietnamese, and many others, AFSC's work has become a impactful community to those in need. AFSC was originally founded in 1917 in response to an urgent need for conscientious objectors in relation to military service in WWI. After WWI, many of theseconscientious objectors remained to provide additional support to Germans and Austrians suffering from the effects of war. From these efforts, AFSC's community grew further and continued to work with those around the world to promote lasting peace.

This exhibit explores AFSC's work throughout the last 105 years. From the trenches of the Great War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the AFSC's work is seen throughout. This exhibit walks the viewer through AFSC's history through the use of artifacts, pictures, and documents. Through these artifacts, we hope to walk the viewer through each time period of the AFSC, and for the totality of the organization to be understood.


World War 1

Where Shall a Conscientious Objector to Military Service Draw the Line? written by Earlham College alumnus, Vincent D. Nicholson, summarizes the AFSC's opposition to war. Nicholson was a Young Friends Board member and later became the first Executive Secretary of AFSC. He argued that AFSC's main objection was to the act of killing that is fundamental to military service. He explained that objectors could not participate in military service because it was wholly or chiefly dominated by the war purpose. and therefore should not be considered by a conscientious objector.

During WWI, a significant minority of men objected to being drafted. With the help of AFSC, these men had support for alternative service. This uniform was donated to one of those conscientious objectors.

Conscientious Objectors serving in France during WWI in 1918

Pictured is Dr. William E. Haigh, A. Ruth Fry, and William R. Fogg in Poland during WWI.

This sign, from the Anglo-American Society of Friends, highlights a relief hospital for civilians who were wounded in the fighting.


Interwar Period

Lady Eleanor Roosevelt presented this photo to Clarence Pickett, then Executive Secretary of the AFSC. Roosevelt worked with Pickett and AFSC on projects, including a program for coal miners in West Virginia. Roosevelt maintained a friendly relationship with Pickett and AFSC for many years.

Equipped with a sturdy Brim, this miner's helmet is a remnant of AFSC's work in the Appalachian. Starting in the Great Depression era, in West Virginia, Clarence Pickett and Eleanor Roosevelt met with the miners and their families. The AFSC worked to improve the Appalachian region by encouraging economic diversification and self-reliance as an alternative to its heavy dependence on coal mining. The organization encouraged families to participate in crafts and handwork, especially furniture making, which led to the creation of the Mountaineer Craftsman Cooperative Association.


World War 2

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the British Friends Service Council and AFSC in 1947. Quaker-led relief efforts around the world earned them the Nobel Peace Prize which AFSC Chair, Henry J. Cadbury, accepted on behalf of all Quakers. The Peace Prize medal displayed here is a reproduction.

In Miskolc, Hungary post-WWII, the AFSC provided food and clothing to iron workers. As a token of their gratitude, iron apprentices sculpted this iron statue of a malnourished 15-year-old boy presenting the clothes he received.

Gunnar Jahn (Nobel Committee chair), Margaret A. Backhouse (Friends Service Council representative), and Henry J. Cadbury (AFSC representative)

Picture taken in Poland in 1948, The AFSC helped children in Poland after WWII through a relief program that provided them with warm clothes.


Civil Rights Movement/MLK

Composed during his imprisonment, Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, called for nonviolent protest against racial segregation. AFSC was the first group to publish and distribute the controversial Letter in May of 1963. That same year, the AFSC nominated MLK for the Nobel Peace Prize. King won the Prize the following year.

AFSC's North Shore Summer Project distributed this flyer to promote a speech by MLK in which he called for a peaceful protest against racism.

The AFSC worked in coalition to help the injured, both Vietnamese and American, and to put a stop to the Vietnam War. MLK supported Vietnam Summer and called for people to volunteer.


The Cold War

Written in 1955 as a response to the Cold War, the AFSC crafted Speak Truth to Power, to promote nonviolent methods for resolving conflict between the US and USSR. The booklet described moral ways to end global conflicts without violence. The booklet gained global attention and sparked debate in both secular and religious publications.

Presented in the style of a comic strip that depicts the fear of nuclear annihilation, this poster conveys the daily horror of the Cold War. Illustrated by Len Munik, the AFSC poster included text from Martin Luther King's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Speech, regarding the arms race, and the dichotomy between co-existence and co-annihilation.


Vietnam War

During the Vietnam War, AFSC worked in places like Quang Ngai, to provide medical assistance, such as building prosthetic legs for those who lost their limbs. This artifact consists of the remains of a prosthetic leg that was found in April of 1970 in a refugee settlement. Thousands of Vietnamese in the city of Quang Ngai lost limbs during the fighting. Unfortunately, the man to whom the prosthetic leg belonged was never found.

Looking Through a Hole Hell tells two stories about AFSC volunteers in Vietnam during the war and depicts the horrors they experienced. One tells of a Mennonite doctor who witnessed the effects of a bombing of a Vietnamese village who was working without sterile instruments and adequate anesthesia. AFSC medical staff treated wounds, burns, and severed limbs. Another story tells of a Quaker volunteer in Quang Ngai who witnessed children who suffered gunshot wounds, missing limbs, and burns.


Conflicts in the Middle East

The 2004 Eyes Wide Open campaign used a display of empty combat boots to educate the public about the human cost of the invasion of Iraq. Over 500 boots were placed in columns to represent each life lost. The display moved to Philadelphia, including 100 boots that depicted the portion of Iraqi civilian deaths. The exhibit continued touring through the United States for an additional 4 years.

Eyes Wide Open Candlelight Vigil: With the soft glow of candles illuminating their faces, visitors of the 2005 Eyes Wide Open exhibit at Philadelphia’s Independence Visitor Center stand solemnly in remembrance of the lives lost in the Iraq War. (Photo by Terry Foss)

No War with Iran:In January of 2020, the AFSC protested the assassination of Iranian General, Qasem Soleimani, by joining a march from the White House to the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.


Current AFSC

Throughout the 2010’s and 2020’s, AFSC called for better prison conditions in the United States while emphasizing restorative justice and community-based responses to crime. This poster states a related demand: Abolish prisons.

In 2006, AFSC protested at the US Capitol against harmful immigration policies. AFSC has continued to improve conditions for immigrants and to advocate against anti-immigration laws. AFSC has begun a push for ending border militarization through an online letter writing campaign that is sent to the Biden administration, and congress. (Photo: Terry Foss)


AFSC Memorabilia

AFSC Pins: During the last four decades, AFSC has presented buttons like these to its workers around the world as a symbol of its’ longtime commitment to global peace.

As a part of its 2009 Windows and Mirrors Campaign, AFSC publicized its traveling exhibit to show the human cost of war in Afghanistan during this time. Shown in 13 cities, the artwork shown in this exhibit drew from both American and Afghan artists of the time. This ad appeared in a Philadelphia subway station in October of 2009.

The AFSC star, found on this paperweight, was first adopted by the organization in 1917. The symbol, which is a star made up of 8 red and black points, was chosen as a way to be easily identifiable to those the organization was helping.

In the aftermath of the Great War, AFSC provided relief and assistance to many Germans suffering from the effects of the war. In recognition of AFSC's efforts, the Weimar Republic printed AFSC's symbol, a black and red star, on its paper currency.


Videos

The following videos represent just a small part of the AFSC's work throughout the last 105 years. To learn more about the AFSC and their work, visit their website and YouTube channel.