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Current Issue 1967 This is a copy of the October 1967 Current Issues, a publication of the United States Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR USA). FOR USA “was founded in 1915 by sixty-eight pacifists … and claims to be the "largest, oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States.” “FOR in the USA was formed initially in opposition to the entry of the United States into World War I. The American Civil Liberties Union developed out of FOR's conscientious objectors program and the Emergency Committee for Civil Liberties.” “In 1947, FOR and the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, which had been founded by FOR staffers James Farmer and George Houser along with Bernice Fisher, sponsored the Journey of Reconciliation, the first Freedom Ride against southern segregation …” This edition is about Black Power and was edited by Dr John M. Swomley Jr., a white Methodist theologian and activist. “Swomley served as FOR’s executive secretary from 1953 to 1960, and was a passionate advocate for pacifism and civil rights through religiously-based principles. He was among the community of FOR leaders and colleagues who helped shape the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s understandings of active nonviolence. In an October 2008 interview, Swomley said, ‘I sat outside the door of Martin’s office and when someone came to talk to him, I talked to that person about nonviolence.’” |