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AFSC

Quaker action for a just world

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About

History

Since 1917, AFSC has been on the forefront of some the most important social movements in working for a more just, peaceful world. Explore some of the major events in our history over the past century.

The founding of AFSC

1917

The founding of AFSC

In 1917, AFSC was founded in Philadelphia in response to an urgent need for conscientious objectors to find alternatives to military service during World War I.

Feeding children after World War I

1919

Feeding children after World War I

AFSC created a program to feed thousands of children in Austria, Germany, and Poland. In the postwar era, AFSC was willing to do what others would not—to house, feed, and train people scorned as “enemies.”

Supporting West Virginia coalminers

1922

Supporting West Virginia coalminers

AFSC established a feeding program that would help thousands of Appalachian coal miners and their families as the need grew in the years ahead. This work moved AFSC to focus more on domestic issues and economic justice.

Image of archival pamphlet cover

1924

Opposing xenophobia

AFSC spoke out against the racist U.S. Immigration Act of 1924, which barred immigration from Japan. Our publication “Exclusion: Its Cause and Cure” outlined the roots of racism and noted the contributions that Japanese Americans had made to the U.S. economy.

Race relations in the U.S.

1927

Race relations in the U.S.

AFSC hired Crystal Bird, a young Black woman, to speak around the U.S. on racial equality. This effort to bridge the racial divide preceded decades of work to stop lynching, integrate public schools, and foster equity in jobs and housing

Assisting Jewish refugees

1934

Assisting Jewish refugees

In the years prior to and during World War II, AFSC secured the release of persecuted Jews throughout Europe. Our efforts helped more than 20,000 individuals and families—including thousands of children—make their way to safety.

Volunteer opportunities for youth

1934

Volunteer opportunities for youth

After World War I, AFSC engaged young people in voluntary service projects to rebuild what war destroyed. In the following decades, we coordinated volunteer work camps to support communities worldwide through work camps and international service programs.

Black and white photo of truck being loaded with supplies during world war 2

1937

Humanitarian relief during wartime

Beginning with the Spanish Civil War and continuing throughout World War II, AFSC set up milk stations and fed tens of thousands of people at orphanages, prisons, refugee camps, and homes for the elderly.

Black and white photo of busses being loaded during Japanese internment

1942

Standing against Japanese internment

AFSC was one of the few U.S. organizations to oppose the internment of Japanese Americans—while visiting and providing aid to people interned. We established two programs to get people out of camps, eventually securing the release of more than 4,000 individuals.

Support for incarcerated people

1944

Support for incarcerated people

AFSC operated halfway houses and pre-trial programs for incarcerated people who couldn’t afford bail, seeing firsthand how the criminal justice system inflicted disproportionate harm on the poor and people of color.

Nobel Peace Prize

1947

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to AFSC and the British Friends Service Council, in recognition of the work of all Friends worldwide to heal rifts, tend to the wounded, and oppose war.

Black and white photo showing material distribution to a crowd in Gaza

1948

The start of AFSC’s work in Gaza

In response to a United Nations request, AFSC led relief for refugees in Gaza. We set up clinics in refugee camps, supported local hospitals, and started a midwifery program to train dozens of women.

Organizing with farmworkers

1953

Organizing with farmworkers

AFSC’s partnership with migrant farmworkers began with the demand to eliminate tin-shack housing and improve basic services. Later, AFSC helped create the United Farm Workers, providing meeting places, collecting funds for strikers, and paying the chief union negotiator’s salary.

Desegregating schools

1954

Desegregating schools

Following the Brown decision, AFSC helped Black families enroll their children in formerly white-only schools. In Prince Edward County, Virginia, where the school board closed their schools rather than integrate, we placed dozens of Black students in Northern schools.

Cover of a book titled Speak Truth to Power

1955

Speaking truth to power

AFSC published “Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence,” which called for peaceful solutions to end the Cold War.

Dr. King in India

1959

Dr. King in India

AFSC sponsored Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King’s visit to India. That connected them with Gandhi’s legacy, strengthening their commitment to nonviolent action. In 1963, AFSC would publish Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail.”

Man cheering in a crowd at a protest

1964

Resisting the Vietnam War

AFSC was a vital part of the Vietnam-era peace movement. AFSC shared first-hand information from Vietnam to build support to end the war. AFSC provided medical aid to civilians in Vietnam and offered draft counseling to thousands in the U.S.

Black and white photo of a protest outside the U.S. capitol

1968

Poor People’s Campaign

AFSC played a prominent role in the Poor People’s Campaign, raising issues of economic and racial equality.

Exposing the Military Industrial Complex

1969

Exposing the Military Industrial Complex

AFSC researchers formed NARMIC (National Action/Research on the Military Industrial Complex). They researched military industries and civilian companies complicit in the Vietnam War and in South African apartheid—and created books, fliers, and presentations for activist campaigns nationwide.

Standing with Indigenous people

1970

Standing with Indigenous people

As Indigenous people organized for self-determination, AFSC has stood with them. From the Pacific Northwest to the Plains to Maine, we partnered with tribes and nations in advocating for recognition of fishing rights, land claims, and several other issues.

Black and white LGBTQ protest photo

1975

LGBTQ rights and recognition

In 1975, AFSC established a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Rights Task Force. In 1986, AFSC created our first LGBTQ program in Seattle. In 1992 the office created the Bridges Project, an informational clearinghouse for LGBTQ youth and the organizations that served them.

South Africa Summer pamphlet

1978

Ending apartheid

AFSC launched a successful nationwide boycott of Coca-Cola. We brought organizing expertise to the cause, connecting D.C. policy groups, students, unions, churches, and municipalities. Ultimately, the campaign contributed to the downfall of apartheid in 1994.

Solidarity with Latin America

1978

Solidarity with Latin America

When popular movements rose up in Central America in the 1970s and ‘80s, governments responded with brutality. AFSC’s staff on the ground brought the brutality to light, along with U.S. involvement. We coordinated with U.S. faith communities offer refugees sanctuary.

Four people crouching together in a field

1980

Agricultural assistance in North Korea

In 1980, AFSC sent its first delegation to North Korea, and we have continued promoting peace between the U.S. and DPRK since. AFSC has helped Korean farmers increase food production, which has helped in a country facing food shortages.

Black and white photo of a nuclear freeze march

1982

Anti-nuclear campaigns

AFSC played a lead role in the Nuclear Freeze Campaign, a nationwide movement that demanded an to end to nuclear weapons. The movement mobilized millions and moved government officials, including President Ronald Reagan, to call for arms control.

Convening peacebuilders

1989

Convening peacebuilders

Our Dialogue and Exchange Program launched, bringing together Global South leaders—from the grassroots, civil society, and government—to share insights and collectively solve problems. Since then, hundreds have participated to address election violence, climate and conflict, and more.

Showing the human cost of war

2004

Showing the human cost of war

AFSC launched “Eyes Wide Open,” a traveling exhibit that featured one pair of empty boots for every U.S. military member killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Millions of people across the U.S. came to look, grieve, and think.

Woman speaking at a microphone during a protest

2013

Opposing solitary confinement

For decades, AFSC has called for an end to solitary confinement. When 30,000 prisoners in California went on a hunger strike to protest solitary confinement, AFSC negotiated on their behalf. The strikes led to improvements at state prisons.

Economic activism

2016

Economic activism

AFSC launches the Investigate project, which exposes corporate complicity in state violence and human rights violations to guide investors toward ethical alternatives. Engaging independent research and shareholder activism, the project has seen investments and company policies change.

Man holding a sign in front of armed guards at the U.S. Mexico border

2018

Supporting migrant caravans

As caravans of migrants traveled north from Central America, AFSC provided them with humanitarian support and human rights monitoring. We rallied 400 people to the U.S.-Mexico border, an action named “the most valuable protest of the year” by The Nation.

youth in a rec center listening to a presenter speak next to a virtual blackboard

2021

Setting a course toward abolition

Following years of research and community work on prisons and policing, AFSC published “North Star,” which identifies seven guideposts on the path toward the abolition of prisons, jails, detention centers, and all forms of incarceration.

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