Archives

AFSC was one of the few national organizations that publicly spoke out against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan—and helped lead the movement opposing war with Iraq. In this video, AFSC Archivist Don Davis looks back at how AFSC supported communities resisting war and militarism.

A Project of the Third World Coalition and the Native People's Work Group

OPENING CLOSED DOORS by Connie Curry
Narrative of the American Friends Service Committee's Work in Prince Edward County, Virginia. 1959-1965
In 1959 Virginia officials defied court orders to desegregate Prince Edward County schools and chose instead to abandon public education. The American Friends Service Committee was there, demonstrating solidarity with the families of the 1,700 black children who were locked out of their schools. A segregated school system was organized for white children with tuition grants from public funds enabling them to attend the hastily organized private academies. AFSC representatives anticipated a crisis of perhaps a semester or two. They were there until 1965, a year after public schools were reopened. Amidst the chronological unfolding, drama and individual stories during these years, several major themes emerge in the full narrative of AFSC involvement in the county.

Testimony in connection with the theory and practice of civil disobedience is offered as part of a larger task of exposing the roots of violence in our society.
The American Friends Service Committee feels qualified to speak on this subject because of our position as an agency of the Religious Society of Friends, which for more than 300 years has regarded civil disobedience as an honorable and appropriate witness for men to make under certain circumstances and with certain safeguards.

This booklet is an introduction to Quaker values and their influence on the work of the American Friends Service Committee. In it we explore
some of the principal testimonies and practices of the Religious Society of Friends.

School districts agree to host Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) programs in their schools, often unaware of the true cost. In this report, we  examine  the hidden factors that cause JROTC to cost far more than is normally claimed by the military.

HIP, or Help Increase the Peace, is a program of the American Friends Service Committee which teaches non-violent approaches to conflict resolution and social change.

The concern of the American Friends Service Committee with the treatment of persons convicted or accused of crimes in this society is rooted in the Quaker opposition to violence and injustice and the Quaker principle that there is that of God in every person. The AFSC views each individual as a person of worth and value who should be treated with dignity, respect, and humanity, regardless of his or her circumstances in life or how offensive his or her behavior to others. We seek through our actions to achieve meaningful communication with all persons-those who victimize others, those who are victims, those who oppress, those who are oppressed-in the  expectation that the measure of goodness and truth in each individual seeks expression and can respond.

Voices from the Community
Everyday thinking people share their views on the Philadelphia-MOVE confrontation and reflect on its meaning for their communities. Reflections one year later from, Linda Wright Avery, Burton Caine, William R. Meek, The Rev. Paul Matthews Washington.

MILITARY SERVICE: QUESTIONS AND CHOICES
Curriculum Materials for High School Students on Registration, the Draft and Military-Related Studies by  Robert Gould April, 1986, Published by the American Friends Service Committee

A Compassionate Peace: A Future for the Middle East

A Report prepared for the American Friends Service Committee

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)-Southeastern Regional Office (SERO)Hurricane Katrina Disaster Assessment Project is intended to provide the foundation for a long-term response to select communities (geographic and diverse cultural groups) within the disaster area: Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The assessment team was directed to:
1. Identify specific communities that will benefit from a focused a significant AFSC presence.
2. Conduct a needs assessment in these areas.
3. Begin laying the groundwork for AFSC involvement by establishing relationships with local agencies, churches and other grassroots/community based organizations.
4. Prepare a report on their findings.

Before You Enlist and After You Say No. A Counter-Recruitment Training Manual

"I Will Never Be Silenced": Testimonies of Hope from Colombian Women was produced by many hands. Fellowship of Reconciliation and AFSC field staff in Colombia conducted the interviews of the women whose testimonies appear here.

What Are We Afraid Of?

An Assessment of the "Communist Threat" in Central America

A NARMIC - American Friends Service Committee Study by John Lamperti

A Study of The Impact of Military Spending on The State

StopMax is a national campaign spearheaded by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) that seeks to end the use of long-term solitary confinement in prisons and jails. This report represents the launch of the StopMax Arizona campaign.

This report documents an incredible example of a grassroots national commitment to hearing and addressing the needs and concerns of LGBT youth. No one group or individual was singularly responsible for making the 1993 Youth Empowerment Speakout (YES) a reality. Only by struggling together were organizers able to effectively bring together LGBT youth and youth supporters from around the country. The result was that on April 24 and 25, 1993, over 2,000 youths gathered to share their joys, frustrations, and visions of new possibilities. It is a testament to the hope and belief that change, while illusive, is feasible.

LGBT Rights

The authors of this report' conclude that police surveillance and record keeping for political reasons exist on a vast scale. Local, state and federal agencies, joined by private and quasi-private groups, coordinate their surveillance and share information, misinformation, and opinions. This "intelligence" activity remains largely uncontrolled, and poses a grave threat to constitutional rights of freedom of expression, due process, and privacy. Police surveillance and dossier-keeping have had a serious impact upon the poor, upon Blacks, Hispanic people, and other ethnic and cultural minorities. Surveillance indeed has been used to inhibit or stifle lawful attempts to seek redress for grievances or to effect social change.

NARMIC

James E. Bristol started working for the AFSC in 1947 after serving time in prison as a conscientious objector. He became director of the Quaker Center in New Deli in 1957 and accompanied the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King when they made their historic trip to India. In this booklet, published in 1972 James Bristol espouses on the concept of nonviolent change/revolution and how, in some modern situations adopting a nonviolent stance is not always a practical position for those who are being oppressed.

During the Spanish Civil War, AFSC joined British Quakers in feeding displaced children on both sides of the conflict. After Franco’s victory, the relief moved to the south of France, where Spanish refugees were soon joined by many others fleeing the Nazis. AFSC staff worked to assist people in these refugee camps and to secretly transport children to safety. Numerous “hostels” were created across Europe, in the U.S., and in Cuba to provide safe haven for tens of thousands of Jews. 

The Friends Ambulance Unit worked to save lives across Europe and in China. They also organized medical care for people trapped inside transit, forced labor, and refugee camps.

According to the committee that awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to AFSC in 1947: “The end of World War II brought a burst of AFSC effort, with Quakers engaged in relief and reconstruction in many of the countries of Europe, as well as in India, China, and Japan. In 1947, the Service Committee helped to resettle refugees who had lost their homes as a result of communal rioting over the partition of India; and in 1948, Quaker workers undertook a program of relief for Arab refugees on the Gaza Strip.

From 1965-70, AFSC helped build the antiwar coalitions that challenged U.S. policy in Vietnam.  Bridging the divide between liberal faith groups and more radical antiwar resisters, we argued for a big tent and broad peace movement. Through our research and communication project NARMIC (National Action/Research on the Military Industrial Complex), we provided critical facts and analysis to help activists confront corporate war profiteers. For years, AFSC and Quakers were also at the center of the draft resistance movement.

After President Nixon announced the “end of war” in 1973, NARMIC and our staff on the ground in Vietnam revealed another story.  Automated weapons were continuing to rain terror from the skies, not only in Vietnam, but also in Cambodia and Laos. From 1973-75, we campaigned and convened stakeholders to help bring a real end to hostilities. By 1978, when few nongovernmental organizations were permitted to remain in the region, AFSC continued to work for peace and reconciliation, having earned trust on all sides.

Learn about AFSC's current work to build Global Peace.

From our origins during WWI, AFSC has been committed to opening hearts and communities to refugees and migrants. Decades of work in regions plagued by war, drought, famine, and economic oppression have given us an up-close view of the “push factors” of migration.

We have also confronted the abuse of those migrating across borders. In the late 1970s, we began work at the U.S.–Mexico border and in 1987 our Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Program (ILEMP) was one of the first efforts to address human-rights abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol. At the same time, AFSC programs in San Diego, Newark, South Florida, Denver, and elsewhere were also becoming active in various immigration issues.

In 2002, this work was united as Project Voice, which laid out a strategy and principles for achieving comprehensive immigration reform. Those ideas influence our work today, as we document abuses, provide legal services, accompany migrant and immigrant movements, and build alliances with others who share our vision.

In 1967, on the occasion of the AFSC's 50th anniversary the Service Committee released a recording of reminiscences from some of its founders.

Henry J. Cadbury: From the album cover:

One could almost fill this record cover with the list of Henry Cadbury's degrees, earned and honorary; the titles of the learned societies to which he belongs; and the colleges and universities where he has taught and lectured. He is perhaps best known as Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard, and for his work with the translators of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Those close to him in his chairmanship of the AFSC value him for the depth of his scholarship which gives him a perspective on the immediacies of crisis, and for the sparkle of his wit which breaks tensions and has enlivened many committee meetings.

In 1967, on the occasion of the AFSC's 50th anniversary the Service Committee released a recording of reminiscences from some of its founders.

Harold Evans: From the album cover:

Harold Evans, a Philadelphia attorney, was chairman of the American Friends Service Committee from 1959 to 1963, but his service spanned a period of 46 years. A member of the Religious Society of Friends, Harold Evans is a graduate of Germantown Friends School and Haverford College, and holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1920-21 he served with AFSC's post-war program in Germany which cooperated with the child-feeding program initiated by Herbert Hoover. At one time over a million German children were fed each day. In 1948 he was appointed by the United Nations to serve as municipal commissioner of Jerusalem. He went there with Count Folke Bernadotte to help bring peace to the ancient Holy city, but the outbreak of hostilities made the mission impossible. Later Bernadotte was assassinated.

In 1967, on the occasion of the AFSC's 50th anniversary the Service Committee released a recording of reminiscences from some of its founders.

Clarence Pickett: From the album cover:

Clarence Pickett came to the AFSC as executive secretary in 1929. One-time pastor of a Friends Meeting, he came to the Committee from the position of professor of Bible at Earlham, a Quaker college in Indiana Clarence Pickett began his service as the AFSC entered a new era in its history. As early as 1924, when post-World War I relief work seemed over, there were special meetings to decide whether to lay down the Committee or to look for new fields of service. The decision was made to continue, and when Clarence Pickett took up his work he headed a Committee that was moving into peace education work, service projects in the United States, and programs in community relations. He and Rufus Jones worked very closely until Rufus' death in 1948, a year after the AFSC had received the Nobel Peace Prize. Clarence Pickett's quiet sensitivity, patience, and gentle humor directed the Committee through the relief work of the Depression years, through the difficult years of the war, and into the trying years of the Cold War. It was during his years of service that the Committee grew to its present size and scope with ten regional offices in the U.S. and programs in 18 countries around the world. Clarence Pickett died in 1965.

Control units, Supermax prisons, and devices of torture

Isolation and lockdown (confining prisoners to their cells for 23 to 24 hours a day) have traditionally been used as temporary measures, to punish individual prisoners or control the prison environment.

However, as these forms of incarceration have grown increasingly common, isolation has become a permanent condition for more and more prisoners. Along with the multiplication of control units, prisoners and their advocates have also begun to report increasingly routine use of devices like stun belts, stun guns, or restraint chairs.

Written in 2003, "The prison inside the prison" looks at the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons.

In 1967, on the occasion of the AFSC's 50th anniversary the Service Committee released a recording of reminiscences from some of its founders.

Rufus Jones:  from the album cover:

"On this record we hear him describe the first work of the Committee in France, bringing alive vividly-and with an occasional touch of his well-known humor-the problems and challenges of the early days. Particularly moving is his first hand account of his visit, with two other Friends, to the dreaded Gestapo in Berlin in 1938 to intercede for Germany's Jews."