Lokashakti Encyclopedia of Nonviolence, Peace, and Social Justice

1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

U.S. civil rights groups organized a March on Washington in 1963 - 100 years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation - in an attempt to gain federal and nationwide support for the drive against racial segregation in the American South.

1989 Chinese Student Movement

A series of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tienanmen Square and elsewhere, known widely for the awe-inspiring moment when a lone man faced down a tank. Started by students but growing to include the citizenry at large, the movement was violently put down by Chinese government forces.

Adin Ballou

Unitarian minister, utopian socialist, and founder of the Hopedale Community in Milford, Massachusetts. Also an ardent abolitionist, and for a time, head of the New England Non-Resistance Society, serving as chief editor of its newsletter, 'The Non-Resistant'. Widely considered the first-ever theorist of nonviolence.

Ahimsa

An ancient Sanskrit word translated literally as 'nonviolence' in English. Forming a core part of many Indian religions, the concept of ahimsa was brought back to the fore by Gandhi, who in combining it with shrewd political thinking created the method upon which all present-day nonviolent action is now based.

Air Raid Drill Protests

A series of anti-war protests in New York City during the 1950s and early 1960s. Taking advantage of compulsory Civil Defense drills, prominent pacifists such as Dorothy Day and A.J. Muste were able to commit direct civil disobedience by simply sitting in a public park in broad daylight, drawing attention to the madness of preparing for nuclear war.