Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice

334 Pages·2022·4.771 MB·English

by  George Lakey

“George Lakey is a national treasure, whom I met when I was 22.
Dancing with George was a blast. His unstoppable, thoughtful,
contagious approach to democratic action has inspired my life’s
work. It’s a story Americans need now more than ever.”
—FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ, author, Diet for a Small Planet, director, Small
Planet Institute
“George Lakey’s memoir is an epic of the personal in flow with
the political—a dance with history indeed! As such, it is an
outstanding example in the rich tradition of Quaker spiritual
autobiography.”
—DOUG GWYN, author of A Sustainable Life: Quaker Faith & Practice in the
Renewal of Creation
“Dancing with History packs a powerful, honest, and deeply
personal account of George Lakey’s remarkable life and legacy of
family building and movement building, honoring identity and
liberation for all, ‘raising the temperature’ on what it means to
live a life of social action and bearing witness. This book is a
stunning testimonial, like walking through a historical landscape
of a life of turning courageously to meet what’s next.”
—VALERIE BROWN, writer, Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher, leadership
coach, and facilitator
“It is hard to express the depth of gratitude I have for the elders
of social movements—people who have committed their lifetimes
to cultivating the skills, frameworks, ideas, and ideologies that
provide the foundation for activism today. George Lakey stands
tall among these leaders. He will, I believe, go down as one of the
great elders of the American radical democratic tradition. George
is an expert in both building prefigurative community and
planning strategic action. He is a master of pedagogy and a core
resource for organizers thinking about how to train social
movement participants. Countless grassroots leaders throughout
the country are honored to claim him as a mentor. . . . His story is
wonderfully presented in this autobiography.”
—PAUL ENGLER, director, Center for the Working Poor in Los Angeles, co-
founder, Momentum Training, co-author, This Is An Uprising.
“George Lakey shows us how to ignite positive change in the face
of adversity. He weaves in passion, creativity, faith, and even
humor. An inspiring read for our moment.”
—DAVE BLEAKNEY, education director for the Canadian Union of Postal
Workers

Copyright © 2022 by George Lakey
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Seven Stories Press
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New York, NY 10013
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College professors and high school and middle school teachers may order free examination
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lakey, George, author.
Title: Dancing with history : a life for peace and justice / by George Lakey.
Other titles: Life for peace and justice
Description: New York : Seven Stories Press, [2022] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022022539 | ISBN 9781644212356 (trade paperback) | ISBN
9781644212363 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Lakey, George. | Pacifists--United States--Biography. | Nonviolence--
United States--History. | Peace movements--United States--History. | Social reformers--
United States--Biography. | Sociologists--United States--Biography. | Social change--
Study and teaching (Higher)--United States. | Civil rights workers--United States--
Biography. | Bisexual men--United States--Biography. | Quakers--United States--
Biography.
Authors, American--20th century. | LCGFT: Biographies.
Classification: LCC JZ5540.2.L35 A3 2022 | DDC
327.1/72092--dc23/eng/20220805
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022539
Printed in the USA.
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contents
Preface
1. A working-class lad finds a place to stand
2. Lessons in leadership
3. College offers breathing room and fresh challenges
4. Finding Quakers and a loving partner
5. I’m more activist than my college can handle
6. The only white student in the dorms of a Black college
7. Starting a family in a social democracy
8. North Philly and the Ivy League
9. Jailed in the civil rights movement
10. Violence greets opposition to the Vietnam War
11. My baby helps to save the trees
12. Community deepens the Vietnam movement
13. Threats and cheer on the home front
14. Piercing a naval blockade with medicine for Vietnam
15. Gunboats surround me in the South China Sea
16. Sharing strategy lessons in Britain
17. The tree of life, a book, and a new baby
18. Building the Movement for a New Society
19. A container for liberation
20. 1976 brings joy in the struggle
21. Getting the goods on cancer
22. Christina’s miracle
23. Campaigning for Jobs with Peace
24. Family stresses lead to major change
25. Confronting a homophobic Supreme Court
26. Training coal miners for a win
27. Responding to tragedy in Sri Lanka and at home
28. Putting training on the front burner
29. Wins for climate justice and democracy
Photo Section
Acknowledgments
Index
preface
As I write this memoir, I see around me widespread anxiety about the state
of the world. It is based in reality, but in my experience, anxiety itself isn’t
very useful. Mahatma Gandhi once remarked that he didn’t try to “conquer”
his fear because he needed its energy to stand up to the greatest empire the
world had ever known. Gandhi learned to transform fear’s energy into the
positive work of mobilizing for struggle. I’ve experienced that
transformation many times in my own life, most dramatically in the civil
rights movement, but also in struggles for peace, LGBTQ rights, labor rights,
and the environment. I’ve included such stories in this book.
I find there’s something deeply human about wanting to show up—to be,
as Latin American activists might say, “presente!” One way I think of my
life’s mission for peace, justice, and equality is to make it right for everyone
to be present.
Younger people often ask what keeps me going. I always point to the love
I’ve found in friendship, family, teaching, faith, and community. Another
part of my answer is that I’ve gained tremendous energy from investing in
my learning curve: win, lose, or draw, I want to get better at this tough but
bracing task of making a difference. I’ve wanted to learn from these seven
decades of standing up for justice —from preaching racial equality at the
pulpit of my church when I was twelve years old to being arrested for
blocking the entrance of a Chase bank at age eighty-three, while
participating in the 2021 Walk for Our Grandchildren in pursuit of climate
justice.*
As we sat in rocking chairs, demanding that Chase stop funding the fossil
fuel industry, I was reminded of the struggle against South African
apartheid decades earlier, when advocating for divestment was one of the
winning tactics. I vividly remember pushing the City of Philadelphia to
divest from the apartheid regime—as well as the joy that comes from going
beyond awareness of injustice and toward acting for justice. Inspired by the
protesters in South Africa, we turned a large protest in front of City Hall one
frigid evening into an all-night dance, fueled by the beat of South African
movement songs. I found that hour after hour of dancing with friends and
strangers alike did more than keep us warm physically. It reminded us that
if we tune in to what’s happening and act with others, we get to dance with
history.
* My account of the arrest, plus a photo, are here: George Lakey, “Arrested in Rocking Chairs,
Grandparents Protest Chase and Pressure Biden on Climate,” Waging Nonviolence, July 3, 2021,
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2021/07/grandparents-walk-biden-chase-climate/.
1
a working-class lad finds a place to stand
I was born in 1937, a year when Michigan autoworkers waged a major sit-
down strike and broke through the resistance to unionization by auto giant
General Motors.* That decade was a period of turbulence for workers, Black
people, women, professionals, and young people. As the Great Depression
lagged on, many were questioning a social order that had betrayed its
potential for justice, equality, and peace—and they were acting out those
questions.
I was the second child of three; my big sister, Shirley, was already four
when I was born. My family lived in Bangor, Pennsylvania, a small slate-
mining town surrounded by farms, midway between Scranton and
Philadelphia. My dad, Russell, knew he had to hustle with an additional
mouth to feed now, but there was nothing new about that. As a young
teenager, his grandfather had come to Pennsylvania from Cornwall, in the
United Kingdom, as an indentured worker for the slate mines. The Cornish
were famous for their affinity for digging in the earth, be it for coal, copper,
or slate. The family story was that this ancestor worked for years to pay off
his passage to the United States, then more years to be able to send for his
sweetheart to come and join him. Compared with that, my dad figured he
had it pretty good. As a slate miner, he’d accepted that he’d worry about
money all his life, and he did.
The street I grew up on was typical of my town: a block of duplex houses
with front porches. Summer evenings usually found the older generation
sitting on rocking chairs on the porch, telling stories—often funny,
sometimes poignant—while we “young uns” listened and a neighbor or two
leaned on the front banister. I can’t remember a family occasion that wasn’t
full of stories. I got it: life is about stories, which have a beginning, middle,