Coming Together in a Climate of Fear

Young antiwar organizers started War Resisters League Southeast in the Triangle region of North Carolina during a time of US military build-up, political repression, and state and vigilante violence against Black people, lesbian and gay-identified people, and activists on the Left.

The office emerged as a hub for local action against systemic violence, both within the US South and abroad. WRL organizers embraced many different political strategies based on a vision of “revolutionary nonviolence,” rooted in direct action and grassroots organizing. 

A gold-colored flier titled, "A Workshop and Retreat on Political Organizing," with starred text, advertising what participants should expect and, below that, a list of workshop topics in a smaller font.

This flier for a WRL Southeast-led organizers’ training in Durham breaks down the issues of the day facing North Carolinians, 1980. Issues included: the draft, racism and the rise of the New Right, nuclear power and the politics of energy, and disarmament.

Black and white photograph of a majority-white group of people with several Black members huddled together for a group photo. They are outside, wearing warm-weather clothing. Some people are raising a fist in the air while others are flashing a peace sign. Two participants, one white and one Black, appear to be both raising a fist and flashing a peace sign with each of their hands.

War Resisters League National Conference, 1976. This was WRL Southeast co-founders Diane Spaugh and Steve Sumerford’s (top row, second from left) first WRL conference. Also in attendance is future WRL Southeast staff organizer Mandy Carter (top row, fourth from right) who, at that time, was director of WRL Los Angeles.

July4th,1974_NAARPR_Demonstration.png

The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) called this action in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1974. NAARPR labeled North Carolina a “laboratory of repression.” At that time, the state led the nation in sentencing people to death and incarcerating political activists and Black and Indigenous people.

"Maybe the best way to illustrate what it felt like in North Carolina at the time is that there was an organization called the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. It was a national organization...Here's what they said about North Carolina: ...Most people on death row. Least unionized state. Most militarized state. Wilmington Ten, Charlotte Three, Joan Little. If you know those cases, you know what I'm talking—all police violence against Black people."

Listen to WRL Southeast co-founder Steve Sumerford reflect on the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) and the political climate in North Carolina in 1976, when he and Diane Spaugh opened the WRL Southeast regional office in Chapel Hill.

Front page of a newspaper with a photograph of a group of six people walking with a Continental Walk sign on a sidewalk.

WRL Southeast co-founders Steve Sumerford (second from front) and Diane Spaugh joined other marchers on the Appalachian route of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, 1976. Their leg of the walk traveled to Washington, D.C. from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the home of the plutonium that powered the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.

Group of six people walking in the center of a road. The first four present as young white men and women followed by two Buddhist monks carrying instruments. A person carries a sign at the front of the line of walkers, reading: Appalachian Route of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice

WRL Southeast co-founder and staff organizer Steve Sumerford (fourth from the front) with members of the Appalachian route of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice, 1976.

Newsletter article titled "Arrests, Arson Plague Southern Walk." The top right corner features a photograph of Black and white marchers, one of whom is carrying a sign reading "Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice" and the bottom left photograph features a group of Black-presenting men and women standing and facing a cop. A white-presenting man stands behind the group, holding a hand-written sign reading, "The Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice."

The Black-led southern leg of the Continental Walk for Disarmament and Social Justice encountered harassment, arrest, and racial violence. The mostly white groups of walkers in other parts of the country never saw the levels of violence experienced by Black and white participants in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Coming Together in a Climate of Fear