Women’s History Month – Dagmar Wilson, We Still Need You, We Still Remember You

Local Gerogetown, Washington DC hero, Dagmar Wilson, who co-founded the Women Strike for Peace movement that later grew to include a half-million members, died on January 6 at the Washington Home and Community Hospices.  She was 94 years old and died of complications from congestive heart failure.

In 1961, during the hieght of the US-Soviet nuclear arms race, Wilson, a homemaker and successful children’s book illustrator, organized a phone tree and encouraged her friends to call on their friends to rally support for a one-day demonstration in support of peace and disarmament.

On Nov. 1, 1961, less than two months later, some 50,000 mothers, grandmothers and other women took to the streets to demonstrate in 60 cities across the country.

“I decided there are some things an individual can do.  At least we can make some noise and see,” she once said. 

The movement garned such a wide and far-reaching support for antiproliferation that President Kennedy credited the group with helping to force the Cold War superpowers to eventually sign a partial nucelar test-ban treaty.

Wilson is survived be her three daughters, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Source: The Washington Post, January 24.