The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Millions of Americans fought for the liberation of Europe from Hitler's grip during World War II.
Yet 40,000 Americans refused to shoulder weapons in 'the good war' because their conscience would not allow them to kill another human being.
In the face of criticism and scorn, the men challenged the limits of democracy in wartime. Many participated in the social movements that transformed America in the generations that followed. This is their story.
Those featured are:
DAVE DELLINGER, a well-known anti-war activist from World War II until his recent death in 2004. He was a member of the Chicago Seven. At the trial Dave and his co-defendants turned the tables on their accusers and put the government on trial.
STEPHEN CARY became commissioner for European Relief for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) after the war. This work resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize for the Quaker group. He later became President of Haverford College. He died in 2002.
BILL SUTHERLAND has lived in Africa for the past five decades. A co-founder of Americans for South African Resistance, The American Committee on Africa, and World Peace Brigades, he has been fostering Pan-African relations for all of his adult life.
CARLOS CORTEZ has been a construction laborer, factory worker, janitor, journalist, salesman, curator, printmaker and poet. He is actively involved in Chicago's Mexican community, and his art work includes homages to Cesar Chavez.
ASA WATKINS worked in a mental hospital and became a reformer of the Virginia mental health system. Watkins was a lifetime activist and artist who taught special education for decades. He died in 2001.
GEORGE HOUSER was a founder of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) with James Farmer and Bayard Rustin during the war. In 1947 he and Rustin organized the first Freedom Ride for integration of interstate buses, the Journey of Reconciliation. Houser served as President of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
'For its skill in uncovering a long-forgotten history, its effectiveness in tracing continuities from World War II to the sixties, its skill in using history to raise moral questions, this is a superb example of film history.' Organization of American Historians' citation for the Erik Barnouw Film of the Year Award
'Fascinating...It is a story of personal courage, idealism, and nonconformity based on both ethical and religious beliefs--about men whose love of country could not extend to killing their fellow man.' The Objector
'In a time when it's again easy to endorse any military response to the savagery of terrorists, The Good War provides a necessary reminder that pacifists also can be heroic and patriotic.' Christianity Today
'Highly recommended for public, school, and academic libraries.' Library Journal
'This high quality program will be useful in media collections which support courses in contemporary issues and history.' School Library Journal
'A fascinating compelling look at WWII conscientious objectors...Highly Recommended. Editor's Choice.' * * * * Video Librarian
Citation
Main credits
Tejada-Flores, Rick (Director)
Tejada-Flores, Rick (Producer)
Tejada-Flores, Rick (aut)
Ehrlich, Judith (Director)
Ehrlich, Judith (Producer)
Ehrlich, Judith (aut)
Asner, Edward (Narrator)
Other credits
Editor, Ken Schneider; camera, Vicente Franco; sound, Nick Bertoni.
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Citizenship and Civics; Conflict Resolution; Ethics; History; Human Rights; Humanities; Military; Social Justice; Social Psychology; War and Peace; World War IIKeywords
WEBVTT
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[music]
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There are many times and places
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where this American story could begin.
It could begin in the Revolutionary War,
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the Civil War or the Vietnam War.
In all of these wars,
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there have been men who refused to fight because conscience
would not allow them to kill another human being.
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We called them \"Conscientious Objectors.\"
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Sometimes I think those of us who believe in
nonviolence, feel ourselves to be a separate breed
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and we’re wondering if somehow
or other, we are, you know,
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not fully human beings as
nothing (inaudible) rather.
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[music] Of all the wars
that America has fought,
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World War II, pose the greatest
challenge to conscientious objectors.
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To most Americans, the choice was clear,
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democracy or fascism. For instance,
I was asked, \"What’s the matter,
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you like Hitler? \" He says, \" Look, if
you guaranteed me a shot at Hitler,
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you wouldn’t have to draft me.\"
But to shoot at another draftee,
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one who I don’t even know, one who
I don’t have nothing against,
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no, the heck with that.
When their country called,
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over 16 million Americans
served in the armed forces.
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A small number, only 42,000 men
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decided that the menace of Hitler was not enough
for them to betray their most fundamental value,
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\"Thou shalt not kill.\"
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People say, \"What would happen if everybody would do what
you did?\" Well, I said, \"If everybody would do that,
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we… there’d be no problem.\"
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Pack the attack. Let nobody say there’s been
a delay because of our home front lack.
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Let’s all, let’s all be good
soldiers and pack… pack the attack.
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The… the… the problem Hitler was infinitely more difficult
then the problem of Vietnam for a… for a person who was…
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who was wondering about what to do. And
in a certain degree, real degree in 1941,
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you were a CEO, knowing it you
didn’t have another answer.
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Not all heroes fight on the battlefield.
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In the face of criticism and scorn, these men
challenge the limits of democracy in the wartime
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and went on to lead the social
movements, the transformed America
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in the years that followed.
This is their story.
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[music]
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I was 3 years old,
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when World War I ended.
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I remember
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the sigh of relief in my town because
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uh… umm… they wouldn’t
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have to go to war and kill people.
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And you take a picture of history in 1939,
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you say to me \"Steve Cary, what are you
gonna do about it marching into Poland?\"
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And I say, \"Well, I don’t have an answer.\"
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I’ll take my photograph in
1919, and the Quakers in 1919
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were… were pressing for a generous peace
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towards the Germans. But there
was a vindictive peace made.
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Uh… Out of that… that resentment,
that soil Hitler emerged.
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[music]
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And I would argue that if we had followed a
more generous policy towards the Germans,
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as indeed, we did in 1946 and 1947,
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Hitler would never have (inaudible)
to risen. But Hitler did,
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and others like him committed
to force and conquest.
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As the 1930s drew to an end, the fragile
peace in Europe and Asia was crumbling.
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[music]
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Day one, million American students
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strive for peace, today
we stand out and declare
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that we will not be fooled again.
We want a world of peace,
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we want a world of freedom.
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There are some timid ones among us,
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who say that we must preserve
peace at any price. To them,
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I say this, \"Our freedom
has shown it’s ability
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to survive war, but our freedom
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would never survive surrender.\"
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For pacifists, it wasn’t a
question of victory or surrender.
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Their faith in the power of nonviolence
and it was a form of faith
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had (inaudible) evolved from
many different experiences.
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We felt that if violence and killing
was a way to solve the problem
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that those of us who were African-Americans
or black as we called ourselves
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and would go to Mississippi and fight or we would
go to Alabama or Georgia to fight because,
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our experience of fear and humiliation and…
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and totalitarianism really
uh… and… and… and hatred
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was in this country. But
we felt that there must be
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another way to… come to a… a society
where everybody could live with dignity.
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In the Gandhian concept,
there is a spiritual power
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which men can use in political
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and social ways, which is…
which uh… can overcome
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any kind of uh… weaponry
that man can devise.
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[music]
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Presbyterian were fighting
people, believe me.
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But my father, when I was very young
didn’t seem to be interested in guns.
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All my buddies, (inaudible) think if you were a guy in the
South, you had to have a gun, you had to shoot rabbits
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and squirrels and things, you
know, and go frog gigging.
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And umm… so I was a little concerned about this and I
asked my father one day, \"Papa, do you have a gun?\"
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And my father said, \"Son, I never had
a gun and I never will own a gun.\"
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And I… you know, I was both pleased
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and a little disturbed because then I’d have to
tell my friends that my father didn’t have a gun.
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[music]
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There were others in America’s heartland
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who drew their pacifism from the Christian
tradition. Their voices were not loud,
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but their convictions were strong.
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You see Amish and Mennonites, come
from a long history of pacifism.
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In fact, 400 years or more.
In the New Testament,
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you have in the Romans Chapter 12,
it says, \"Be ye not conformed
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to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind.\"
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In fact, Amish and Mennonites,
came to America, mainly
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uh… to escape military service.
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War resistance, like war itself, has been
with us since our nation’s founding.
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In 1776,
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George Washington exempted those
with scruples against war
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from the revolutionary army. In 1863,
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Quaker pacifists who escaped the firing squad, were
forced to sit through the Battle of Gettysburg
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with soldiers dying all around them.
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In 1918, 17 resisters through World
War I died in Alcatraz Prison
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from these treatments.
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Now, in 1939,
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as war began in Europe,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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would also have to balance the rights of
pacifists against the needs of the nation.
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In July, 1940, after a heated debate,
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Congress passed America’s
first peacetime draft
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by just one vote.
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Number day, and America first peace time
compulsory military service program.
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The first number
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is serial number 158.
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The first number and a mother scream flash
cross the nation, in every walk of live,
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the master has began, number 158 in
Oakland, California, laundry worker,
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Kwen Quang Fu(ph), and also John Kennedy
ambassador son got the 18th drawn.
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It was on the Saturday night,
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when the moon was shining
bright, that day passed
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uh… conscription Bill. And
for many miles around,
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
the people they would say, \"It’s
Franklin and his boys on Capitol Hill.\"
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Well, President Roosevelt
told the people how he felt
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and they damn near believe what he’d say,
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he says, \"I hate war so does Eleanor
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and the farmer hold another load away.\"
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With the safety of America
threatened, all Americans
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the humble and the mighty willingly
embrace Selective Service.
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And my father said after dinner that, the
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last week we were given a contract to
uh… develop a particular component
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of the Norden bomb site, which was
the one of the great advances
00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
in bombing technique of the World War II.
And he said, \"I really don’t feel
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that I want to stay with the company\"
and, of course, we told him he should do
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what he ought to do, but the thing that really
grabbed me was that here was a man whose whole life
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where that’s coming, remember that’s coming for 35 years and
he was been risen with it and it was his meat and drink
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
and yet, he didn’t hesitate one
minute to quit cold, because
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
of his own conscience and I said to myself,
\"Steve Cary, where is your conscience?\"
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In previous wars,
00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
there had only been two choices for
pacifists, join the army or go to jail.
00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
Now, there was a third option that would
allow many to serve their country
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and still follow their principles,
the traditional peace churches,
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the Quakers, Brethren and Mennonites
had negotiated an historic provision
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in the Draft Law that would allow conscientious
objectors to perform work of national importance
00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
in Civilian Public Service Camps
to be run by the churches.
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
Most Americans
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
cooperated with the new law, but
a group of seminary students
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
in New York refused to register, even
though as ministers they were exempt
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
from the draft.
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
It was still peacetime, this was a year and… it’s a
months before Pearl Harbor. Possibility of war was there
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
but this was a peacetime Conscription Act and
the most effective way, many of us figured
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
of protesting against it, was to
refuse to register under the law.
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
It was an act of civil disobedience.
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
The seminary sent telegrams
to all of our folks
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saying, \"Your son, despite
all of our efforts
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has decided that he will disobey of
the law, can you stop this tragedy?\"
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Immediately, I got a call from my father
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saying that I was ruining my future
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
that I had to register, if I did not
assure him that I would register,
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
umm… he were hang up immediately
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and commit suicide.
00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
Dear sir, I have never been more shocked
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and amazed in my life as when I read about the rebellion
you are leading in your school against the draft.
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
Mr. Lovell, you and your followers are
a disgrace, not only to your school
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
and calling but to America as well.
I am ashamed that my country
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has produced such men if
you can be called Man.
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I certainly hope you don’t call yourselves
Americans, because you are not Americans, angrily
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and Sincerely, Mrs. John Hayes.\"
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
In New York, registration, they found some protests, but
they attracted little noticed as the nation 17 million
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registrants signed up. A
group of divinity students
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who’ve refused to register have a hearing
at federal court in the white building.
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
I was nervous uh… and I think
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
I… probably had a shaky hand, as I washed
my face and shaved in the morning.
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
Outside the courtroom,
there were picket lines.
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Benedict told me, somebody spat in his face
as we were going up the steps there at
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Foley Square.
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
The union eight as they were now known
would serve their year sentence
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
in the federal prison at
Danbury, Connecticut.
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
You can hurt yourself by giving up,
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
you can hurt yourself by saying,
\"Oh, I don’t want to go to prison
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
or I don’t want to be killed,\" but
is there a worse things than death
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and there are a worse things than getting
beaten up. The worst thing is if you can’t
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
respect yourself
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
because you are not really expressing
the love that you feel for other human
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
beings including both the oppressors
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
and the oppressed.
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:33.000
[music]
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
The following April came along the
annual peace strike against war.
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
So we decided, we’re going to
participate in that student strike,
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
and of course, this is something which
the prison authorities cannot abide by.
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
Prisoners going on strike, \"No,
no, no you can’t do that.\"
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
So we were given 30 days in isolation.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
But during that period, it being April,
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
the softball season started. The prison
softball team was tied for first place
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
going into a crucial game and one
of the Union eight, Don Benedict
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
was one of the best pitchers in the country.
And the prisoners started putting up a chant,
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
\"We want Benedict, we want
Benedict.\" So they came to him
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
and wanted to release him from solitary
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
to pitch uh… in that game, but he refused
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
unless the rest of us got out too.
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
So we were all let out. Benedict
pitched the game, Danbury won.
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
The warden then lifted
the penalty against us.
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
And it was the loudest ovation
I’ve ever gotten in my life
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from all the other prisoners.
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
In Europe, the war was entering
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
its third year, still Americans
hope to avoid being drawn
00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
into the conflict. The latest Gallup poll, I
think showed 83% of the people against war,
00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
just at the time that Pearl Harbor came.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
I was so upset
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
that I actually started to cry uh… about
this and I was home with my mother
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
and my mother kind of laughed at
me, and she said, uh… you know,
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
\"Did you think that you could
stop the war all by yourself?
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
Uh… Did you really think that uh… your
efforts would be the decisive factor?\"
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
In one moment,
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
the mood of the country had
shifted to total support for war.
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
\"The facts speak for themselves
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
with confidence in Armed forces
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
with the unbounding
determination of our people.
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
We will gain the inevitable triumph,
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
so help us God.\"
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
This isn’t just a war, this is the
free people’s live and death struggle
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
against those who would put
them back into slavery.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
That is cause in which we fight,
we lose it and we lose everything.
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
Our homes, the books we read,
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
the hopes we have for our
kids, the kids themselves
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
that’s what’s at stake, it’s us or them.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
Hitler was running in the wild in
Europe and Pearl Harbor came along
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
what do you do? Well, in this community
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
and with my background, and when
you bring 400 years of pacifism,
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
do you throw it overboard? World War II
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
was a hard-war to be a seal in, yeah.
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:23.000
[music]
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
Leaving to serve their country,
each in their own way,
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
most as warriors.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
And some who could not kill.
Twelve thousand draftees
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
agreed to serve their country in
CPS, Civilian public service.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
We had PhDs,
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
we had winners that have full by prizes, (inaudible)
we had guys who had 3rd grade education.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
We had stockbrokers, we had
belly dancers, we had atheists,
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
we had fundamentalists, every possible
kind of human being was there.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
[music]
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
About the only thing
these men have in common
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
is their intense conviction that
it is wrong to kill a fellow man,
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
and they are building for themselves
in a Chinese wall of the human spirit,
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
what to most Americans must seem a never-never
land and impossible mirage of peace
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
and brotherly love, in a
world of war and hate.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
That teachings of Christ and
my own believes that pacifism
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
can bring about an enduring peace have caused
me to become a conscientious objector to war.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Dear Dwight and Rene, it disturbs all of us
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
to know that there are men out in the ocean,
a thousand miles away ready to die for us
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
but we are helpless with
things as they are.
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
We are ready and willing to meet the enemy
in our way but the nation and the world
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
is not prepared to believe
in our method, love Bill\"
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
I was inducted
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
two days after Pearl Harbor,
there were five of us, uh…
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
that left our community on the same
day, all of us who were Amish.
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
We entered these camps that not knowing
clearly what lay in the future.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
But in a such a camp
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
where you have some time to study and
you have some interaction with others,
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
your horizons broaden
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
and your convictions deepen.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
If you’re in something for 4
years, you haven’t got any money,
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
you can’t do anything, only thing I can do is argue.
Uh… And we would discuss every possible angle.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
Sometimes, we’d argue about the uh… Hitler’s, sometimes we
would argue that you should put a lock on the refrigerator.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
Uh… What you doing when somebody is
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
uh… gonna rape your grandmother, you know?
Umm… These… these…
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
these kinds of questions come up
all the time. And out of that,
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
uh… crucible camp, people who really
knew why they were pacifists.
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:58.000
[music]
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
Dear, Danny, Danny please, \"Why
did you desert this country,
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
when it has given you everything.
Danny, it’s not wrong to kill a few,
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
so that many may live in peace and freedom.
Sincerely, yours in Friendship, Kitty.\"
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
To Bill, before Pearl Harbor anyone had
the right to be an objector or pacifist.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
But on that day, we all were bound in
duty and conscience to relinquish it.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
You profess to have
brotherly love, but I say
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
\"You have not any compared with the love you
would have if you were on the battlefields,\"
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
affectionately yours…\"
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
As the war dragged on, with no meaningful work,
no pay, and no support for their families,
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
frustration was building.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
The Churches paid all the
bills, amended all the work
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
and selective service call all the shots. Yes,
they can have alternative service, it’s in the law
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
and where perfectly going to provided work for
them, but uh… we ought to get them out of sight
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
and keep them out of sight.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
[music]
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
You have half the camp, who are guys
like me, trying to do a good job.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
You don’t wanna press the government, so we’d get something
better to do and so we’d work hard. The other half of the camp,
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
were guys who was said that
you can’t make a slave work
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
and we’re gonna do it a little as we can do. And
like, Penelope and… and… this is, you know, where
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
she knitted all day and unravel all
night, uh… that’s what we were doing,
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
we were knitting all day, and unravel
all night and nobody was happy.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:53.000
[music]
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
I want my witness to be more than a negative stand,
I want my witnesses not only to be against war
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
but to stand for a constructive aggressive witness
to the non-resistant overcoming position.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
Sincerely yours, Atlee Begee(ph)\"
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:18.000
[music]
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
On the battlefield and on the home front,
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
Americans were doing their part. COs’ wanted
to prove their courage and patriotism as well.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
They competed for dangerous jobs like
smoke jumping and fire fighting.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
And volunteered for risky
medical experiments,
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
the most dramatic of these was
the starvation experiment.
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
A severe diet and continuous exercise
would make the conscientious objectors
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
resemble the starving survivors of war.
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
The experiment would contribute
to post war relief efforts.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
[music]
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
Most dreaded and hated
of all testing routine
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
was the treadmill walking, the endless grinding
of the mill and the rubbery feeling in their leg
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
stretched the minutes into
hours of mental torture.
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
They became more and more depressed,
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
they were inclined to become hysterical over many
things and they grew more and more concerned
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
over every little ache and pain.
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:58.000
[music]
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
Overseas, casualties remounting. The combat
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
was not the only cause of death, many
soldiers were dying from diseases
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
like typhus and hepatitis.
Conscientious objectors volunteered
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
to be infected with live hepatitis
virus to develop new treatments
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
for the disease.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
We were very concerned, of course, that we had been called
all kinds of name, yellow bellies and things like that.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
I’d volunteered for an ambulance driver and
got turned down in an American field service,
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
they said \"They didn’t want anymore CO’s, they
had too many,\" but I was young and I wanted to
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
show that I was not a coward.
So when they offer me
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
this chance of being a Guinea pig,
it fit right in with my scheme
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
of things have proven that I was willing
to take risks on my own body, but I just
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
did not want to kill someone else.
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
And the first that night, I was introduced to this whole process…
program when I as a young surgeon was asked to do serial biopsies
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
on their livers to see what
the effect of the virus was
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
in the production of the changes in the liver. And in
that way I got to know that a lot of these young men
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
had no idea that the risks they
were taking, also included death
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
and some of those youngsters did die and
it was a very difficult thing for me to…
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
to be part of because umm… you know, I… you’re
powerless too when you’re part of a big team.
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
Just recently, Koop
Brody’s(ph) autobiography
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
and I read it. And was rather
surprised that he only mentioned
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
this project I think one sentence.
I wrote him a fan letter
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
and it said, \"He had given me a scar.\"
He answered right away and said
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
that \"Scars probably not only thing I get from him, but he
also went on to tell me something that rather surprised me.\"
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
He said, \"The reason he didn’t
talk about that in his book
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
is one thing he was not proud of.\" It
couldn’t happen today, internal review boards
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
would not permit uh… the use of
a live virus in human subjects
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
unless they really understood
what was going to happen to them
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
and I doubt that even if they knew what the risk was that
an internal review board in any academic institution
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
would consent to that kind of experimental
work. All those who participated
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
in the experiments, it was a
chance to do something important
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
but most COs were still in work camps.
Finally, in late 1942,
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
they would be offered a new way to serve.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
We were so disturbed about what we were doing that it would
seem to us as irrelevant, and we told selective service too,
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
we said, you know, \"We don’t feel that we’re doing anything it’s
helpful to the country this way, so we’d like to do something else.\"
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
And that’s when, they opened up Lynchburg Hospital,
it was the first mental hospital to be opened up
00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:00.000
in the United States for
conscientious objectors to work at.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
[music]
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
Over 3,000 conscientious objectors
volunteered to work in mental hospitals,
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
to replace staff who had left for
better jobs on the Home Front.
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
The COs found a brutal system of care
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
in which beatings and neglect were common.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
October 14th, 1942
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
it is sort of like a perpetual bad dream, the
smells, the sounds of the insane voices,
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
bad equipment, the long dark corridors.
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
I’d tell you it is all very much
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
like a medieval fairy tale
of the nether regions.
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
We heard about how these patients are
being treated by the… the attendants,
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
beat with the rods and, you know,
this dog (inaudible) things.
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
We took a vow before we left the camp.
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
We decided that we would not assault
or in any way strike a patient.
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
I opened one of those rooms
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
and there was a man lying on the
floor, I leaned over to try to uh…
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
see what I could do to minister to him
in some way, do something for him,
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
he’s on… I think on a… he may have been on a mattress, so he
may have been on the bare floor, no, he was on the bare floor.
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Because when I tried to move
him, his skin came off,
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
his skin was bloody and stuck to the
floor and when I tried lift him up,
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
it just peeled his skin off. He was
in the last stages of syphilis.
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
He died less than a week afterwards.
Now that was my first
00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
umm… sort of introduction
to what wasn’t that…
00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
that in needed in that institution.
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
[music]
00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
Many women joined their CO husbands
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
in the mental hospitals. Hundreds
of other young women Cog(ph)
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
or conscientious objector girls also
volunteered for this difficult work.
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
[music]
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
Cos’ documented abuses
and contacted the press.
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
The governor came in,
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
they cleaned out the hospital, I mean, they had hearings.
We all had to appear in court, you know, that kind of stuff
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
and within a month or so, the hospital was
completely changed then superintendent
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
was fired and new superintendent was put in. And not only did they do to
our hospital, they did all the hospital, mental hospitals in Virginia.
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Cos contributed to a Life
magazine exposé after the war,
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
would found the National
Association for Mental Health
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
and build a successful movement to
reform the care of the mentally ill.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
[sil.]
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
There are a number of cases
where the guys just walked out
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
of the conscientious objector camps because
they couldn’t stand it any longer.
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
And because many of these
camps were located
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
in a small, rural area where some would
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
prove their patriotism by
harassing or even beating up
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
on the guys from CPS and I realized it.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
Well, at the time of war, the
only place for a draft resister
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
is to be in prison.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
Over 7,000
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
conscientious objectors were
jailed during World War II,
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
some because they refused alternative
service in CPS, and some because
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
they opposed the very idea of the draft.
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
In Newark, New Jersey there happened to be a
visiting federal judge from Tallahassee, Florida.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
Then he said, \"Young man, What is more important then fighting
for your country?\" And then they looked at my record,
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
against race segregation, against uh…
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
against war and then he just said, \"Well,
you know, young man your education
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
has been your undoing. I give you 4 years.\"
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
Federal Judge said to me,
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
\"Have more respect for a murder. He can pay
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
his debt to society. But your debt
to society will never be paid.\"
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
Of the Selective Service Act of violators,
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
who claim conscientious objections
to war the most difficult group
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
is the political or philosophical objector.
He is primarily the reformer
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
with a zeal for changing the social,
political, economic and cultural order.
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
His motivation frequently stems
from an overly protective home
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
or a mother fixation. He is a problem
child, whether at home, at school
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
or in prison.
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
AJ Muste who was known
as number one pacifist
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
of the United States had said,
\"There is no way to peace,
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
peace is the way\" and on that philosophy,
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
no matter where you were, if you found
out that there was something wrong,
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
you took a position against it.
And we started off
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
our protest against the racial
segregation in the prison system
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
simply by refusing to eat in
a segregated dining hall.
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
He was joined by Dave Dellinger, now
serving a second prison sentence
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
for war resistance.
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
And when I arrived there was
already a strike in procedure.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Bill Sutherland had sat down
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
with some of his white comrades.
I asked to see them
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
and uh… the warden said,
\"No, I can’t uh… see them.\"
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
And so I immediately went on strike
and then I was put in with them.
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
We who were on strike who were COs
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
filled up the home punishment block and
they had to do something else with this,
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
I don’t know what to do with the
other recalcitrance. So then they…
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
they decided that what they would
do with those, was to actually umm…
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
uh… put us in a dormitory together
so that in a sense we did integrate
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
the uh… prison system by
being in this… in this
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
uh… dormitory together, black and white.
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
Their example led to other strikes, in other
prisons. And eventually to the desegregation
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
of the federal prison system.
I was in solitary confinement
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
and I felt
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
scared that uh…
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
not just that I would
be killed, but that uh…
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
if I went on with that day…
a way of life that I was
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
uh… trying to live up to, in
the non-violent action that
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
uh… I would be in trouble all… always.
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
I went through some agony
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
for how… I don’t know how long and then
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
I felt like, I was facing my own death
and that I should triumph over it
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
and in a sense I died.
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
For years after that, I
called it, \"My bonus years\"
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
then any months that I lived uh…
after that were just bonus years
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
because I’d already faced my death.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
The captain of the guards
came into our dormitory
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
and he came over to Levett’s(ph) bed
and then the sternness man who said,
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
\"What are you doing here?\" and Levett said, \"Well, I have a
head ache and a fever, I don’t feel like going out there.\"
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
So, and captain (inaudible)
looked at him from moment
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
and then he took office hat.
And he sat down on the bed.
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
And he said, \"Bill, you
know, I’ll be so glad
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
when this war is over.\" And we
have here some genuine murderers,
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
and bank robbers, and kidnappers,
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
and people I really understand, he said because
you guys are driving me out of my mind.
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
If you are like I am,
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
if you had the same reactions
that have bothered me,
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
this war is so big that
you have had a hard time
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
finding your personal place in the picture.
Here’s a very personal question,
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
have you killed a catch solider today?
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Every tank kills a jab. Every truck
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
kills a jab. Every plane kills a jab.
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:58.000
[music]
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
If you want you’re country
free, don’t be an absentee.
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
Just in democratic America
everybody is doing his bit.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
They goes Jimmy Stuart on his way to enlist.
Today, he’s Lieutenant Stewart, USA.
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
Hollywood went to war in a big way
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
but producing soldiers and propaganda.
But one movie star
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
went against the tide and became the most
famous conscientious objector of World War II.
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
(inaudible) it started all quiet
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
on the western front. The powerful
anti-war film that influenced
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
a generation of pacifists.
(inaudible) Paul,
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
a young German Soldier.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
I tell you, I didn’t wanna kill
you, I will keep you alive.
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
If you jumped in here again, I wouldn’t do it.
You see when you jumped if you were my enemy,
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
and I was afraid of you. But
you were just a man like me
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
and I killed you. Forgive me, comrade.
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
Say that for me, say you forgive me.
By the time
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
the US entered the war, Ayres was the
star of the popular Dr. Kildare film.
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
When he received his induction
notice, a man who America knew
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
as Dr. Kildare announced that he
was a conscientious objector.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
I came to the conclusion that I
couldn’t kill things, I just,
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
couldn’t do that. We don’t know
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
what is behind Ayres sudden impulsive decision not to
serve his country. Movies in which Lew Ayres appears
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
were banned yesterday in 100 theaters… …which
just ruined him. His film life is dead
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
because a fellow can’t live down the fact that he
refuses to bear arms in defense of his country.
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
I thought, \"Well, this may
mean the end of a career.\"
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
As far as I was concerned that was all right, I was
ready. I said, \"I don’t mind working with the Army
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
because I think you do have
a tremendous problem with
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
The Hitler situation now, I
can’t deny these things.\"
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
But as I said, \"As far as I’m concerned I
couldn’t kill\" and I couldn’t go into the army
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
even on your side, unless I did what I
considered to be constructive work.
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
They said, \"No, you may not make
that choice, you have to go where
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
we would put you.\" And then I
said, \"Well, I won’t go at all.\"
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
Finally, the army relented and
Ayres was inducted as a medic.
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
From then on other conscientious objectors
would be allowed to make that choice.
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
Most World War II COs, 25,000 in all,
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
would enter the armed
forces as noncombatants.
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
Ayres and his friend Louis Markewich
were both assigned to a field hospital
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
unit in the South Pacific.
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
The only difference between he and
every other person in the unit.
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
When we are overseas, he is the only
one didn’t… didn’t carry a weapon.
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Areas where they had
Japanese wounded soldiers,
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
he was the first one to attend to
see what kind of help they needed,
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
although they were their enemy and
although they would have killed him
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
had then been able. But he
didn’t look at it that way.
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
He saw it as another
human being needs help.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
[music]
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Ayres units participated in
some of the bloodiest campaigns
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
of the Pacific Theater. Nobody really
likes to kill people in a war,
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
although, they… they use it as an excuse
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
to that shot or murder,
it’s war, it’s not murder.
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
Well, he don’t know… he didn’t know the
difference and I don’t know the difference
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
and nobody knows its difference.
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:23.000
[music]
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
He’s not just, well, I’m anti-war.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
They’re not just that. They
can’t be just that I think.
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
It has to be more.
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
I think man kind must find
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
a higher sensitivity himself.
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:58.000
[music]
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
The war was over.
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
It was a bittersweet moment.
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
Like all Americans, conscientious
objectors welcomed the end of the war,
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
but they were deeply troubled
by the way that it ended.
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
[music]
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
What will be victory for a CO? I
think the… the only sure victory
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
is to be true to your
beliefs and your witness.
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
But you’re gonna be alone, almost always.
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:13.000
[music]
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
After the war, I got on the train in
New York at Grand Central Station,
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
took one of those overnight trains.
It gave me a lot of time to reflect
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
on what I had learned. I arrived in Goshen
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
umm… mid-morning.
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
I stepped off the train and I looked out and
there was no band there, to welcome me back.
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
There was no… the mayor
hadn’t planned for Parade.
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
We didn’t have any yellow ribbons
around those old maple trees.
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
[music]
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
As the soldiers came home
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
and picked up the pieces of their lives,
thousands of conscientious objectors
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
replaced them in Europe and Asia,
to begin healing the wounds of war.
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
God, the human suffering that…
that follows in the ways of war,
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
very few people had the
opportunity to… to see the price
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
that we pay for the folly of war that
I had. Making sometimes decision
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
to who got food. They’d be give food to the
kid or do we give it to Tubercular patient?
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
And there was a particular meeting
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
in Amsterdam in the fall of 1947, which
this seem like a catalogue of disaster
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
in the face of overwhelming. We just weren’t
cutting it. And we were pretty gloomy a lot
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
and Dutch Quaker came in
holding aloft of newspaper
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
and I said, \"Quakers win Nobel Peace
Prize honored for Relief Services.\"
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
And after maybe 10 minutes or so,
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
this one young woman got up. The only thing that was said in that
meeting, it all was this woman. She got up and said, \"Oh, I can say
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
as a little love goes a long way.\"
Boy, I remember that for 50 years.
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
[music]
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
The story of World War II
conscientious objectors was not over.
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
Their principles would bear fruit in the
activism of the decades that followed.
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
You can tell the time and place.
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
You can’t sort of designate
that we must have success
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
in my country, in my lifetime
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
because even Gandhi, felt
that he had failed in 1948,
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
when there was a partition of India and then…
and then, of course, he was assassinated.
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
But the fact that a few years later,
along comes Martin Luther King
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
and you have this great movement in the United States
and then the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
all done by people who explicitly
said they owed to Gandhi
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
and what Gandhi represented.
You planned something
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
and you uh… pursue it
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
and you take one step at a time. You’re not
exactly sure what it’s going to lead to.
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
Non-violence would become
the guiding principle
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
of the Civil Rights Movement. COs
George Houser and James Farmer
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
had found the CORE, the
Congress of Racial Equality,
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
during the war. In 1947, almost a
decade before Rosa Parks refused to sit
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
at the back of the bus. Houser
and fellow CO, Byard Ruston
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
organized an interracial bus trip through
the south. \"The journey of reconciliation
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
was the first Freedom Ride.\"
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
[music]
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
Ruston would later organize the historic,
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
1963 March on Washington.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
[music]
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
Thirty years before
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
most Americans took an interest in the
Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa,
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
Bill Sutherland and George Houser
organized the first American opposition
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
to that unjust system. Sutherland stayed in
Africa, living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
Both continued
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
to devote their lives to promoting nonviolence
and African liberation struggles.
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
[music]
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
Carlos Cortez moved to Chicago
00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
and became an artist and poet,
creating works that celebrate labor
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
and the Chicano Movement. And, you
know, almost… almost 80 years old now
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
and uh… it has become more
and more important to me,
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
to try to put into practice
this attention to non-violence,
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
love uh… as an instrument
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
of dealing with every venue of society.
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
Asa Watkins applied those principles
as a special education teacher,
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
artist and peace activist in New Jersey.
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
Lew Ayres went back to a successful career in
Hollywood, was nominated for an Academy Award,
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
and went on to produce
documentaries on World religion.
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
Our own two sons uh… had to register
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
and they both registered as COs so,
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
the song goes on and on and on.
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
Sam Yoder left the family farm
but remained in Goshen, Indiana.
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
He became a Mennonite and spent
28 years as a college professor.
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
In the 1960s,
00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
for the first time, millions
marched against the war.
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
World War II COs were leaders
in the Anti-Vietnam Movement
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
and Dave Dellinger stood trial as one
of the Chicago Seven, for organizing
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
the anti-war demonstrations at
the 1968 Democratic Convention.
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
The Anti-Vietnam War movement
developed very slowly.
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
And uh… it… it… it… I would have done it
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
anyway regardless of uh… whether
it was just a tiny group
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
or was uh… mass movement.
00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
Dave Dellinger continued his work as
one of America’s leading advocates
00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
for peace and justice and
settled in northern Vermont.
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
I have no illusions that uh… my
pacifist views are gonna prevail,
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
not at all. But I think that
almost every great change
00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
in the expanded dimension of human freedom,
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
have come what… from… from a very small
regional beginnings somebody said no.
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
Steve Cary dedicated himself
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
to Quaker Service as staff and then share
of the American Friends Service Committee
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
and as president of Haverford College.
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
It was our protest and our
witness of benefit to society.
00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
Perhaps, the answer to that lies in the findings
of the new science of chaos and complexity,
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
which is discovered that something is apparently
insignificant is the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings,
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
can trigger a cascade of
events that in due time
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
drastically affect the weather
halfway around the globe.
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
We flapped our butterfly wings,
who can know their effect
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:15.000
in our interconnected world?
00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:55.000
[music]
