Connecting the Issues through Coalition

War Resisters League Southeast was a hub for intersectional organizing against violence in the North Carolina Piedmont. WRL Southeast members built coalitions to link peace with justice work. They worked at the local, regional, and national scales, but their vision was global. They led actions and campaigns that, for some, might have seemed outside the scope of an anti-war organization. They worked as bridge builders across lines of difference and path-makers for progressive change, striving to end violence in all its forms.

Color photograph of a group of people attending a march, holding signs and banners. The large banner at the center of the image reads, "North Carolinians for Peace with Justice," with a painted image of the outline of the state and a series of footprints to represent the North Carolina tar heel icon. WRL Southeast organizer Mandy Carter, a young African American woman with short hair wearing a jacket and layered hoodie, is visible to the left of the banner. Other white or light-skinned-presenting people are scattered around Carter and the banner.

WRL Southeast staff organizer Mandy Carter (left of banner) organized North Carolinians to join a national mobilization against US support for right-wing insurgency in Central America and racial apartheid in South Africa. Carter recruited other people of color to the majority-white group through local Black-led organizations and tobacco worker unions, 1987.

A colorful poster picturing a large peace dove with five human legs instead of bird legs to represent people marching together. The word "march" is pictured in multicolored block letters with small print reading: "for Peace & Justice" and "June 12, New York"

WRL organizers were involved with the planning for what became, on June 12, 1982, the largest one-day protest in US history. The rally in New York City called for nuclear disarmament, following related talks at the United Nations. WRL Southeast organized a North Carolina contingent, the “Jesse Helms Brigade,” to participate in the “Blockade the Bombmakers” action two days later. That June, a majority-white group of protesters connected the US investment in the nuclear arms race to Reagan’s social spending cuts.

A grouping of circular political button templates printed on pink paper. Inside each circle is an image of Martin Luther King Jr. with a sun coming up over a horizon. Beneath the sun is text reading, "Jobs, Peace, Freedom; March on Washington, August 27, 1983. North Carolina" Around the top edge of the circle is the statement, "We Still Have a Dream"

In August 1983, the year after the June 12th anti-nuclear protest, national civil rights leaders led a march to mark the twentieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Organizational leaders included the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the NAACP, and Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC). These buttons branded the WRL Southeast-led North Carolina contingent of the march, this time organized under the banner "Jobs, Peace, and Freedom."

“I jokingly have been telling people that this could very well be June 12th all over again, but this time with ‘color.’” -Mandy Carter, WRL Southeast staff organizer, on the twentieth anniversary of the March on Washington

Flier on a blue background featuring an accent image of a white Klan pointed hood with a line drawn through it. The heading reads, "Emergency Update--Speakers, training, and information for concerned citizens on The Klan in North Carolina" Sponsored by the North Carolina Anti-Klan Network; Contact info: Southerns for Economic Justice, based in Durham, NC

WRL Southeast members helped organize local and statewide actions against white supremacist violence and were part of the Anti-Klan Network, ca. 1980.

Handwritten sign in black marker, printed on blue paper.

When members of the Ku Klux Klan marched in Durham in 1987, a multiracial group of local organizers, including members of War Resisters League Southeast, organized a community response. All participants in the Durham Unity Coalition’s silent vigil trained in nonviolent deescalation. Nonviolence training was a core aspect of War Resisters League Southeast’s support for local movement-building.

War Resisters League Southeast helped organize a grassroots regional campaign in the North Carolina Piedmont to stop the deployment, manufacture, and testing of nuclear weapons. The group was part of the national nuclear Freeze campaign, which successfully passed anti-nuclear resolutions and referendums in states across the country in the early 1980s. North Carolina Freeze activists collected signatures on petitions like this one, ca. 1981.

“For all the problems of the Freeze campaign, I really do not understand why anyone would...not get involved until something more correct comes along. This is the most grassroots disarmament movement we have had and it is gaining power.” -Steve Sumerford, WRL Southeast staff organizer

Type-written list of numbered instructions, titled: "Durham Campaign for Nuclear Freeze: Suggestions for Canvassers." At the bottom, a hand-written note scrawled in cursive reads: "*Note: This was written up by someone who is unaware of the fact that 1/2 of the people in Durham are women ("women" is underlined multiple times). Excuse the sexist language."

Note the handwritten memo at the bottom of this guide for Durham, North Carolina-based nuclear Freeze canvassers. When their fellow movement activists failed to connect the dots between issues such as disarmament and women's liberation, radical feminists did it for them.

Photograph of WRL's Diane Spaugh, a young white woman with short hair and glasses in front of a march of white and Black people holding banners and handwritten signs opposing the death penalty. Spaugh is talking to another person, whose back is facing the camera.

WRL Southeast co-founder Diane Spaugh (front, on right) at a march against the death penalty, ca. 1980.

Green booklet cover, printed on newsprint, titled, "Your Taxes, Your Choice? Military Spending / How It Affects the Triangle Area" At the bottom of the page is an outline of the state of North Carolina covered in clippings of newspaper headlines like, "Budget Cuts Will Hurt Education in Triangle Area," "Defense Cost Overruns Spiral," and "Jobs Program Target of Cuts"

Though the War Resisters League was nationally known for organizing civil disobedience actions against unjust laws and policies, WRL Southeast worked in coalition with elected leaders when it would strengthen a campaign. One example was the Triangle Project on Military Spending and Human Needs, a coalition demanding a decrease in military spending to ease the economic hardships facing North Carolinians due to Reagan-era budget cuts, ca. 1981.

“To be lesbian or gay in some states today is to be labeled a criminal and risk arrest; to openly acknowledge that identity is to commit civil disobedience, which is the open breaking of unjust laws.” -Unity Statement, “Out and Outraged” civil disobedience action at the Supreme Court, October 13, 1987

White poster centering an image of a pink inverted triangle inside a purple circle. At the center of the triangle is an image of the dome of the US Capitol building with the text "October 11, 1987. Along the edges of the circle reads, "March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights." Underneath, in pink hot reads, " For love and life, We're not going back!" and "Non-violent Civil Disobedience at the Supreme Court" Tuesday, October 13. The local contact is listed as: North Carolina March Committee, 604 W. Chapel Hill St. in Durham, NC.

Leading up to the second national March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, the War Resisters League Southeast office became the statewide headquarters of the North Carolina March Committee. WRL Southeast staff organizer Mandy Carter organized buses, coordinated rallies, and trained affinity groups for the “Out and Outraged” civil disobedience action at the Supreme Court. The action protested the Bowers v. Hardwick decision, which affirmed states’ rights to make homosexual sex illegal, 1987.

A profile of WRL Southeast staff organizer and North Carolina March on Washington Committee coordinator Mandy Carter in the 1987 special issue of D.C.’s lesbian and gay newspaper, The Washington Blade.