Missoula Women for Peace

Missoula Women for Peace was founded in 1970 by a group of women, mostly mothers, who were concerned about escalating U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The group actively campaigned to end the military draft and against U.S. war policy. Missoula Women for Peace became a branch of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1981. Three years later the organization proposed a bill to the Montana State Legislature calling for a statue of Jeannette Rankin to accompany that of Charles M. Russell in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall. Despite contentious legislative debate over Ms. Rankin’s wartime votes, the bill passed both houses and was signed by Governor Ted Schwinden. Missoula Women for Peace continued its involvement throughout the process of organizing the statue dedication ceremonies. The organization is also known for multiple donations to the Missoula Children’s Library and an annual April 15th bake sale intended to inform the public about the proportion of tax dollars dedicated to military expenditures and international espionage.

From the guide to the Missoula Women for Peace Records on the Jeanette Rankin Statue, 1983-1988, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)

The activist group Missoula Women for Peace (MWP) was formed in 1970 by a group of Missoula, Montana mothers and other community members concerned with the escalating American military presence in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War the group was extremely active, participating in peace marches, working to end the draft, and writing letters to local, state and national officials to protest the conflict in Vietnam. In the years following the Vietnam War, MWP members continued to educate themselves and the public on a broad array of peace related issues by hosting and attending lectures, reading books, distributing literature and holding public meetings. The group also initiated an annual bake sale on April 15th, Tax Day during the 1970s, to alert citizens to the significant amount of their tax dollars used for military purposes.

MWP continued to be an active voice for peace and social justice in Missoula throughout the 1980s. The group became a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1981, a relationship that proved beneficial to both organizations through the exchange of information, speakers and financial support. In 1985 MWP group members succeeded in placing a statue of Montana’s prominent peace activist, suffragette and politician, Jeannette Rankin, in the Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The 1980s also marked the beginning of the group’s Peace Consortium Dinners, a monthly gathering of peace groups in the Missoula area. From these dinners and similar collaborative events came the idea for a clearinghouse of peace resources in Western Montana. This vision was realized when MWP members, along with countless other groups and individuals, facilitated the opening of the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center in 1986.

The 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century have seen a slowdown in MWP sponsored activities as the founding members grow older. Yet, the group continues to meet on a regular basis and sponsor many of its annual events such as the Tax Day Bake Sale. MWP has also vigorously protested the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the Kosovo Conflict of the late 1990s, violence in Latin America and many other conflicts around the world, and remains optimistic that future generations will take up the fight to firmly establish world peace.

Dawn Walsh, a staff member and student of the Women’s History Department at the University of Montana, conducted the Missoula Women for Peace Oral History Project in 2000. The project was part of Walsh’s internship with the Jeannette Rankin Peace Resource Center, and was supervised by John Bertche, a board member at the Peace Center, and Anya Jabour, a history professor at The University of Montana. The objective of the project was to document and celebrate the history of Missoula Women for Peace, as well as record the personal reflections of eleven veteran group members before they grew too old to participate in oral history interviews.

During the course of the project Dawn Walsh recorded eleven individual and one group oral history interview with MWP members. She also attended and photographed MWP sponsored events such as the annual Tax Day Bake Sale and the donation of peace-related children’s books to the Missoula Public Library. Walsh also organized a banquet in honor of MWP members that was held at the Jeanette Rankin Peace Resource Center in May of 2000. After the completion of the Missoula Women for Peace Oral History Project, Walsh donated all materials compiled and created during the project’s course to the K. Ross Toole Archives with the hope that they will inspire and educate future generations of women activists.

From the guide to the Missoula Women for Peace Research Files, 2000, (University of Montana--Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)