Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Access restrictions

The collection is open to research.

Preferred Citation

Richmond Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) records, 1967-2004, Collection # M 563, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Sarah Jean Huggins, 2011.

Biographical / Historical Information

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in 1915, early in World War I during an International Suffrage Congress held at the Hague in the Netherlands. Jane Adams was the first president of the organization, which is one of the oldest extant women's peace organizations in the world. WILPF is an organization dedicated to "world disarmament; full rights for women; radical and economic justice; an end to all forms of violence; and to establish those political social and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom and justice for all." (WILPF "Principles and Policies" U.S. Section pamphlet, 1985). The local Richmond branch of WILPF (sometimes called RILPF) seems to have been founded in the 1960s, with varying levels of activity through the early 2000s.

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the activities of the Richmond branch of WILPF. Materials were collected by past Richmond WILPF president, Sarah Jean Huggins. The Richmond WILPF records contains materials created between 1923 and 2004, with the bulk of the materials created from 1967-2004.

Formats include: meeting minutes and agendas, event planning materials, flyers, correspondence, annual reports, news clippings, photos, slides, and other administrative materials produced by the Richmond branch. It also includes local, regional, and other WILPF-produced publications, such as brochures, newsletters, magazines, buttons, flyers, and more.

Subjects include: nonviolence and peace; women's rights; anti-war, anti-embargo, and anti-nuclear politics; WILPF national meetings; welfare and child poverty; Marii Hasewaga (a peace activist who worked with WILPF for 50 years and served as the U.S. WILPF president during the Vietnam War. She was forcibly confined with her family by the U.S. Government at the Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942-1945. Hasewaga was named one of the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History in 2018); and work to prevent the 1997-1998 reappointment of Richmond Judge Thomas O. Jones due to instances of racism in the courtroom.

Arrangement

Collection is organized chronologically and is separated into two series: Administrative materials (agendas, minutes, statements, policies, reports, correspondence, brochures, event planning, news clippings documenting Richmond WILPF members and activities, photos from events, etc.) and Magazines and newsletters (Peace and Freedom magazine issues, WILPF newsletters, and other Virginia area newsletters).

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Hasewaga, Marii, 1918-2012
• Huggins, Sarah Jean
• Richmond (Va.) -- Race relations.
• Women -- Political activity -- Virginia -- Richmond.
• Women political activists -- Archives -- Virginia
• Women political activists -- Archives -- Virginia -- Richmond