KEY MOMENTS A History of Peaceful Protests
student is the class clown. So when he says something totally outrageous like ‘Whale blubber,’ everybody’s just going to laugh. We interject love and kindness, and we interrupt nonsense.” Spreading Peace In addition to breaking up fights, the Peace Warriors cheerfully greet students at the entrance to school, lead daily peer mediation to help their classmates resolve disagree ments, and write condolence cards to students who are dealing with a death in the family. Rahmier has taught nearly 1,000 kids and adults in the Chicago community how to live nonviolently. Last year, he and his fellow Peace Warriors even trained adults who had recently been released from jail. When the adults got their certifi cates for finishing the Peace Warriors program, Rahmier says, “they just started crying. One of them told us, ‘This is the first thing I ever got that means something to me.’” And when Rahmier’s friend Jordan eventually decided to join the Peace Warriors, he told Rahmier, “Oh, this is actually powerful. I’m sorry that I didn’t start this earlier.” “This is my calling,” Rahmier says. In college, he plans to study communications to continue learning how to teach people about the power of nonviolence. “It changed my life by changing my community,” he says. “I know it can work anywhere.” ◆
Nonviolence is a powerful tool. Throughout history, demonstrators have stood up for important causes by marching, sitting, or even lying down.
1930 Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi leads thousands of people in a 240-mile-long march across India to protest British rule of their country.
1960 Four black college students stage a sit-in at a whites- only Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation .
2016 Ieshia Evans stands still while facing armed officers of the Baton Rouge Police Department during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
2018 Dozens of students stage a “lie-in” outside the White House in Washington, D.C., to call for stricter gun laws.
WRITE ABOUT IT! Research a nonviolent activist, such as Martin
Luther King Jr. or Mohandas Gandhi. Then write an essay comparing that person’s actions with those of the Peace Warriors.
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