From the Vault: The Peace Walkers

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Episode Title:
From the Vault: The Peace Walkers
Series Title:
PRA Archive #: 
PZ0673.028
Description: 

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

~Peace Pilgrim (Mildred Lisette Norman)(1908 – 1981)

We know Mildred Lisette Norman was born July 18, 1908 in Egg Harbor City, NJ, we know she was married and divorced, and we know she dabbled in business for a bit. But this history seems irrelevant when you compare it to the enormity of the last 28 years of her life, a period in which she became known around the world as Peace Pilgrim. This week on the From the Vault, we pay homage to this gentle old woman who walked 25,000 miles for peace.

Peace Pilgrim was never far from an audience, for word always spread quick through town that this woman was about to pass through. And Peace Pilgrim was never short for words — as a prolific public speaker, she used her public stature to speak about everything peace, from world to inner. Here at the Pacifica Radio Archives, we’re fortunate to preserve a very respectable collection of Peace Pilgrim in her own voice, and this week, on the first half of From the Vault, we present these special recordings for your review.

Seven years after Peace Pilgrim began her 28 year odyssey, members of Committe for NonViolent Action came up with their own Walk for Peace; specifically, they wanted to bring about disarmament. Walking from San Francisco to Moscow, they were met with sincere support and with outright hostility, and in both the US and in Western Europe, they were often heckled and called “Commies!”

Once inside the Soviet Union and in Moscow in October 1961, the marchers met with Premier Khruschev’s wife as well as students at the Moscow University and discussed the need for disarmament.

Members of the walk spoke with legendary Pacifica reporter Elsa Knight Thompson in the KPFA studios in November 1961. For the second half of this week’s program, we will hear excerpts from the interview, which gives a wonderful impression of what the tme was like – the tension in the air, the hostility and dread of the Red Curtain advancing across western Europe and of the build up of nuclear weapons.

Date Recorded on: 
2006-00-00 00:00:00
Date Broadcast on: 
2006-11-03 00:00:00
Total duration (All reels): 
59
Distributor: 
Los Angeles : Pacifica Radio Archive, 1975.
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