St.
Francis...Quakers...Harriet Tubman...FOR...Gandhi...Badshah Khan...White
Rose youth... Daisy Bates... Rosa Parks...Martin Luther King, Jr...
Freedom
Summer...Kent State students... Oscar Romero...Rigoberta Menchu...Tiananmen
Sq. students...Erik Larson...Nelson Mandela...
Summary: The "Wall
of Hope" is a graphic exhibit of more than 100 peace and justice events
and movements throughout history in which everyday people have been successful
in bringing about peace and social change by nonviolent means. The display
includes well-known figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks as
well as lesser-known stories such as the White Rose student movement in Nazi
Germany. For many people, a good way to explore the possibilities of peacemaking
today is through the lives and activities and choices of inspiring peace and
justice heroes like Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, and Aung San Suu
Kyi, to name a few.
Click
here to view the online version
Layout: Each event on the Wall of Hope is summarized
in a few lines on bright squares mounted along the top of a 120 foot long
green cloth. Underneath, from one to five pictures and drawings
help illustrate and bring to life each event. Shorter versions of the wall
with fewer events are readily organized for use in smaller display areas,
classes, or work-shops. Many classes and youth groups have used our Wall “How-
To” kit to make their own Wall of Hope (over).
Experience: The Wall and related activities have
been used with over 500 classes, conferences and groups in the past five years.
For example, the Wall of Hope proved inspiring at the Intercollegiate Peace
Fellowship annual conference in Canada in early 2000, several Global Mission
Events, and was a major exhibit at the 1997 and 2003 ELCA Youth Gatherings
each attended by over 37,000 youth and advisors. The display has been featured
in workshops for teachers and at annual meetings of the largest peace education
associations in the U.S., the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA)
and the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development (COPRED).
The Wall of Hope is especially relevant in light of the
Decade for Peace which was proposed by 20 Nobel Peace Prize winners, the largest
number ever to support any initiative. In November 1998, the United Nations
General Assembly voted to designate the years 2001 to 2010 as “The International
Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.” The organizations that
developed the Wall of Hope have been at the forefront in working on the Decade
in the Pacific Northwest and around the US. The coordinator of the Wall of
Hope was one of two dozen leaders from around the world invited to participate
as the US representative to the first international meetings, held near Madras,
India in October 1999, to make plans for the UN Decade for Peace.
Resources: A packet is available explaining the
steps for a youth group or class to successfully put together and display
their own Wall of Hope, using materials available from us and the world wide
web. It includes the text of the Wall, photos, examples of activities, 4-page
bibliography of sources covering most of the Wall’s events, tips on a
Wall project for classrooms and youth groups, and other material. We have
also developed a number of other resources including activities and back-ground
articles on peacemaking, and bibliographies of varying lengths for individuals,
teachers, and leaders. The organizations that developed the Wall have experience
presenting workshops on building a culture of peace, ranging from one and
three hour sessions to weekend workshops including highly regarded programs
for youth and adult groups such as “Peacemaking in the Real World”
and “From Violence to Wholeness.” For more information please contact:
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