Notable Peace & Justice Activists Posters “Pe...-”
with curriculum enrichment resources for social studies classrooms, teachers, home schoolers, offices.

Elizabeth Peabody
Lester B. Pearson

William Penn
Shimon Peres

Elizabeth Peabody
b. 5-16-1804; Billerica, MA
d. 1-3-1894; Jamaica Plain, MA

Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and gifted teacher Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, best remembered as one of the accomplished Peabody sisters, opened the first English language kindergarten in the United States, ran a bookstore from her home where Margaret Fuller held “Conversations”, and worked for the rights of the Paiute Indians. Her tutor for Greek was Ralph Waldo Emerson and she was a teaching assistant to Amos Bronson Alcott (Louisa May Alcott's father).

Elizabeth's sisters, Mary (1805-1887) and Sophia (1809-1871), also made marriages to notable men: Mary became the wife of Horace Mann and Sophia married Nathaniel Hawthorne.

• The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism

Lester B. Pearson
b. 4-23-1897; Ontario, Canada
d. 12-27-1972; Ottawa

Professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician Lester Pearson was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis.

William Penn
b. 10-14-1644; London, England
d. 7-30-1718; Berkshire, England

William Penn, a pacifist Quaker, was the founder and “Absolute Proprietor” of the Province of Pennsylvania. Penn received what was to become the state of Pennsylvania as a land grant from Charles II in repayment for a loan made by Penn's father to the king.

Penn, who visited the colony several times and wanted to settle in Philadelphia, hoped an income would be generated by those who were drawn to Pennsylvania because of his charter guaranteeing “free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections”.

FYI - In 1681 Penn decreed that one acre of old-growth forest must remain for every five acres cleared, making him an early environmentalist and conservationist.

Edward Hicks- Peaceable Kingdom with William Penn in the background Lesson Plans

Shimon Peres
b. 8-2-1923; Poland

Shimon Peres was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.

Frances Perkins
b. 4-10-1882; Boston, MA
d. 5-14-1965; New York

Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945, was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet, the most senior appointed advisors in the executive branch of the federal government. As chairwoman on the President's Committee on Economic Security Perkins was involved in all aspects of the reports and hearings that ultimately resulted in the Social Security Act of 1935. Frances Perkins also was a teacher, a volunteer at Hull House in Chicago, and a lecturer at Cornell.

Frances Perkins quotes ~
• “Being a woman has only bothered me in climbing trees.”
• “To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods.”
• “In America, public opinion is the leader.”

• The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience