Peace Seeking in Nebraska: Before NFP and By NFP Since 1970

by Paul A. Olson

“[W]e will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters

and righteousness like a mighty stream.” — Martin Luther King

The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Up to World War II: To begin with our search for peace, nineteenth century Nebraska had significant settlements of Quakers, Mennonites, and the various Brethren churches whose whole tradition was that of a culture of peace. The 1890s-1900s Populist Party, which elected a number of officials in Nebraska, had a powerful anti-war strand, and though for the most part its members supported the Spanish-American War, Nebraska legislators, perhaps basing their sentiment on Populist tradition, voted the subsequent early twentieth century Philippine-American war to be colonialist. There existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a Nebraska anti-war sentiment crystallized by William Jennings Bryan and Senator George Norris in their public careers, and represented in Bryan’s pacifism and Norris’s trust in international law, two legs in most peace movements and certainly in NFP.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead