George Russell Lakey (born November 2, 1937) is an activist, sociologist, and writer who added academic underpinning to the concept of

nonviolent revolution A nonviolent revolution is a revolution conducted primarily by unarmed civilians using tactics of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian ...

. He also refined the practice of experiential training for activists which he calls "Direct Education". A

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

, he has co-founded and led numerous organizations and campaigns for justice and peace.

Early life

Lakey was born to Dora M. and Russell George Lakey (a slate miner) in

Bangor, Pennsylvania Bangor is a borough located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located north of Allentown. It had a population of 5,187 as of the 2020 census. Bangor is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population o ...

. He was identified as a prospective child preacher for his church, and at age 12, he gave a sermon promoting

racial equality Racial equality is a situation in which people of all races and ethnicities are treated in an egalitarian/equal manner. Racial equality occurs when institutions give individuals legal, moral, and political rights. In present-day Western societ ...

as the will of God, although his sermon was not well-received at the time. He graduated from Cheyney University in southeastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and also studied at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

, Norway, where he married Berit Mathiesen in 1960, and taught at an

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

high school. He continued his sociology studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

Activist career

In the late 1950s, Lakey was active in the ban-the-bomb movement, then participated in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, in 1963 being arrested in a sit-in. The following year he was a trainer for

Mississippi Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...

and co-authored his first book, ''A Manual for Direct Action'', which was widely used in the South by the

. In 1966 he co-founded the national body

A Quaker Action Group A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) was founded in Philadelphia during the summer of 1966 to "apply nonviolent direct action as a witness against the war in Vietnam". History Founding member Lawrence Scott was a Quaker and radical pacifist who had work ...

(AQAG), whose activities took him in 1967 to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

to participate in the sailing ship Phoenix's protest action in

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

seeking to give medical supplies to the anti-war

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

movement there. In 1970, Lakey was active within AQAG in the successful direct action in the Puerto Rican struggle to stop the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

from using the island of Culebra for target practice. In 1971 he helped found

Movement for a New Society The Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a U.S.-based network of social activist collectives, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 1980s. According to a description from the MNS pu ...

(MNS), a network of autonomous groups working for a

. The network featured living collectives and co-ops as well as participation in national movements of the 1970s and '80s. The network's training program at the ''

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Life Center Association'' became highly influential in the US and abroad in spreading

Paulo Freire Paulo Reglus Neves Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. His influential work '' Pedagogy of the Oppressed'' is generally considered one of the found ...

Popular education Popular education is a concept grounded in notions of class, political struggle, and social transformation. The term is a translation from the Spanish educación popular or the Portuguese educação popular and rather than the English usage ...

and other participatory training methods. During the 1970s, he also gave national leadership to the ''Campaign to Stop the B-1 Bomber and Promote Peace Conversion,'' which succeeded in persuading

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

and

President Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 19 ...

to de-fund this Air Force program. In 1976 he co-organized Men Against

Patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

, a pioneering anti-

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers pri ...

movement for men. In 1982 he organized the

section of a national labor/community coalition named "Jobs with Peace" and directed that effort for seven years.Spirituality, Religion, and Peace Education, By Edward J. Brantmeier, Jing Lin, INFORMATION AGE PUBLISHING, John P. Miller, pg 90 In 1991, he co-founded with

activist

Barbara Smith Barbara Smith (born November 16, 1946) is an American lesbian feminist and socialist who has played a significant role in Black feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s, she has been active as a scholar, activist, critic, lecturer, a ...

, Training for Change (TfC). Building on previous training at the Martin Luther King Jr. School for Social Change and

, Training for Change developed a new

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...

called "Direct Education". Training for Change did trainings and consultations for activists and nongovernmental organizations in 20 countries. In 2009, Lakey co-founded Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), to build a just and sustainable economy through nonviolent direct action campaigns. The group won its first campaign, forcing

PNC Bank The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (stylized as PNC) is an American bank holding company and financial services corporation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its banking subsidiary, PNC Bank, operates in 27 states and the District ...

to stop financing mountaintop removal coal mining in

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...

. In that campaign, while in his seventies, Lakey was arrested and also led a 200-mile march.

Academic career

Lakey's first teaching post in higher education was in the Martin Luther King Jr. School of Social Change, a division of

Crozer Theological Seminary The Crozer Theological Seminary was a Baptist seminary located in Upland, Pennsylvania. Martin Luther King Jr. was a student at Crozer Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1951, and graduated with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. In 1970, the semin ...

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...

. Lakey helped formulate the curriculum and then taught there for its first four years, 1965–69. In this period he systematized the field of "Experiential Nonviolence Training" and the students were supported in efforts to connect field training with theory in

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

s. Later Lakey joined the Peace Studies program at the

, successfully expanding its undergraduate offerings and the participation of minority students. In addition, he helped lead a University of Pennsylvania group dynamics lab promoting innovative

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

leadership. He also taught peace studies at

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducationa ...

. He later taught at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

and much later he accepted the endowed ''Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professorship in Issues of Social Change'' at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

. He continued at Swarthmore as a Lang Professor and then as a research professor until his retirement. In 2010, Lakey was named by the ''National

Peace and Justice Studies Association The Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) is a non-profit organization headquartered at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. It was created following increased interest in peace-building after the September 11th attacks in USA, and it ...

'' as "Peace Educator of the Year".

LGBT activism

In 1973, Lakey came out in public as a gay man, and joined the

LGBT movement Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in th ...

, becoming part of what he later would call "

Gay Liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

's early visionary days."

Works

*''A Manual for Direct Action: Strategy and Tactics for Civil Rights and All Other Nonviolent Protest Movements'', co-author with Martin Oppenheimer; Chicago IL:

Quadrangle Books Times Books (previously the New York Times Book Company) is a publishing imprint owned by the New York Times Company and licensed to Henry Holt and Company. Times Books began as the New York Times Book Company in 1969, when The New York Times Com ...

, 1965 *''In Place of War: Moving toward a New Society'', co-author with the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends ('' Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort b ...

working party; lead author: James E. Bristol) New York City NY: Grossman, 1967 *''A Manifesto for Nonviolent Revolution: Toward a Just World Order, Vol. 1''

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

CO:

Westview Press Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

, 1982 (originally published by War Resisters International (WRI) in 1972) *''Strategy for a Living Revolution: a World Order Book''; New York City: Grossman, and San Francisco CA:

W.H. Freeman W. H. Freeman and Company is an imprint of Macmillan Higher Education, a division of Macmillan Publishers. Macmillan publishes monographs and textbooks for the sciences under the imprint. History The company was founded in 1946 by William H. F ...

, 1973 **Revised and published as ''Powerful Peacemaking'', Philadelphia, PA:

New Society Publishers Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd. is a Canadian book publishing firm. Douglas & McIntyre was founded by James Douglas and Scott McIntyre in 1971 as an independent publishing company based in Vancouver. Reorganized with new owners in 2008 as D&M P ...

, 1987 **Revised and published as ''Toward a Living Revolution'', London, England: Peace News, 2013, then published with the same title in a North American edition by Wipf & Stock, 2016 (The central thesis of the above book on nonviolent revolution is found in "A Manifesto for Nonviolent Revolution" also by George Lakey and released by War Resisters International (WRI), 1975 (see above).) *''Moving toward a New Society'' (co-author), Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1975 *''No Turning Back: Lesbian and Gay Liberation in the ‘80s'' (co-author with Erika Thorne), Philadelphia, PA:

, 1983 *''Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times'' (co-author with Berit Lakey, Rod Napier, and Janice Robinson), Philadelphia, PA:

, 1995; new edition (self-published), 2016; also published in translation in Cairo, Belgrade, and Bangkok *''Opening Space for Democracy: Curriculum and Manual for Training for Third Party Nonviolent Intervention''; co-author with Daniel Hunter), Philadelphia, PA: Training for Change, 2004 *''Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners.'' San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010 *''Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians got it right and how we can, too''; New York, NY and London, England:

Melville House Publishing Melville House Publishing is an American independent publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The company was founded in 2001 and is run by the husband-and-wife team of Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians in Hoboken, New Jersey. T ...

, 2016 *''How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning''; New York, NY and London, England:

, 2018 Internet Development and Writing: *''Global Nonviolent Action Database'', internet – ongoing Over 1,000 researched cases from nearly 200 countries with focus on campaigns back to ancient Egypt that used

nonviolent direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to othe ...

. Searchable, and includes a narrative for each case. Developed by George Lakey with Swarthmore and other university students, with Swarthmore's Peace and Conflict Studies, the Peace Collection, and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. *''Living Revolution.'' column internet website WagingNonviolence.org, ongoing *''Waging Nonviolence.'' Blog (featured columnist) internet website WagingNonviolence.org, ongoing on-line blog where George Lakey has been a regular featured columnist since 2010.

References