Abraham Johannes Muste (1885-1967)
AJ Muste, a peace activist known as the “American Gandhi” spent his life challenging the “big problems” of the world, such as social justice, capitalism and nationalism. He used religion as a basis for guiding his radical and nonviolent peace movement, with his goal to create “the kingdom of God on Earth.”
Muste began his adult life working as an ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and in 1916 became an avowed Christian pacifist. In 1919 he became involved in the Lawrence, Massachussets textile strike, persuading the picketers to use nonviolent methods even though they were being physically attacked by the police. The workers won after four months. In 1921, Muste was appointed director of the Brookwood Labor College, an educational institute for trade unionists. He urged people to think critically of the human struggle.
Muste spent the latter part of his life leading nonviolent protests against the nuclear arms race. In 1957, on the 12th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where 130,000 people were killed, injured or reported missing, Muste walked into a restricted nuclear testing site. In 1958, he laid in front of trucks that carried construction material to a nuclear base. In 1960, at the age of 75, Muste led the San Francisco – Moscow Peace March which opposed the war policies of the East and West. The very last years of his life, he worked on pacifist responses to the war in Vietnam.
