From a long tradition of struggle, African Americans have been in the forefront of not only taking firm positions on questions of war and, but in providing insight to the root causes of world-wide conflicts. Many heroic voices have pointed out the connection between racial oppression at home and imperialist oppression overseas, the power of capitalism to overwhelm the needs of humanity in its own interest of increasing profits. Especially a this moment it is important to pause and hear some of these voices from the past and review some of the history of this struggle.

There is probably no other single individual who encompassed such a long history of struggle for peace, during such turbulent times, as WEB DuBois. As far back as 1913, on the edge of the first world war, DuBois took on the whole nature of the current peace movement when in wrote in Crisis magazine,

"Peace today, if it means anything, means the stopping of the slaughter of the weaker by the stronger in the name of Christianity and culture. The modern lust for land and slaves in Africa, Asia and the South Seas is the greatest and almost the only cause of war between the so-called civilized peoples. For such 'colonial' aggression and ''imperial' expansion, England, France, Germany, Russia and Austria are straining every nerve to arm themselves; against such policies Japan and china are arming desperately. And yet the American peace movement thinks it bad policy to take up this problem of machine guns, natives, and rubber, and wants 'constructive' work in 'arbitration treaties and international law'. For our part we think that a little less dignity and dollars and a lifetime more humanity would make the peace movement in America a great democratic philanthropy instead of an aristocratic refuge."

Following the horrors of that war he appealed to the Congress of Versailles as they considered the peace settlement:

"The attempt to write an International Bill of Rights...without any specific mention of people living in colonies seems to me a most unfortunate procedure. If it were clearly understood that freedom of speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear, which the nations are asked to guarantee, would without question be extended to the 750 million people who live in colonial areas, this would be a great and fateful step. But the very fact that these people, forming the most depressed peoples in the world...who hitherto have been considered as sources of profit and not included in the democratic development of the world; and who exploitation for three centuries has been a prime cause of war, turmoil and suffering-the omission of specific reference to these peoples is almost advertisement of their tacit exclusion as citizens of free states, and that their welfare and freedom would be considered only at the will of the countries owning them and not at the demand of enlightened public opinion.:

DuBois understood that this was a war to win profits and that the "peace" settlement was, in fact, no solution to the problems that led to war in the first place. There was, of course, a second world war, a war to fight fascism. It is of course an easy argument to make that the rise of fascism and the Second World War were a direct result of the greed DuBois warned of much earlier.

Following World War II, seeing the dangers ahead in the coming Cold War, DuBois lashed out again. In 1949 speech he raged

"...Leading this new colonial imperialism comes my own native land built by my father's toil and blood, the United States. The United States is a great nation; rich by grace of God and prosperous by the hard work of its humblest citizens...Drunk with power we are leading the world to hell in a new colonialism with the same old human slavery which once ruined us; and to a third World War which will ruin the world.":

In a speech in 1950 at a peace conference held in Moscow he continued to warn of the ill-guided power of U.S. capital: His words seem remarkably current:

"Our industry is today controlled by 1000 individuals and is conducted primarily for their profit and power. This does not exclude a great deal which is for the progress of America and the world, but human progress is not its main objective nor its sole result...the high standard of living in the U.S> and its productive capacity is not due to monopoly and private profit, but has come in spite of this and indicates clearly how much higher standards of living might have been reached not only in America but throughout the world, if the bounty of the U.S> and its industrial planning had been administered for the progress of the masses instead of the power and luxury of the few."

DuBois joined, and helped lead, the struggle for the Stockholm Peace Appeal, a petition that gathered half a billion signatures to call for an end to atomic weapons world-wide. By February of 1951 he was indicted, a U.S. citizen labeled a criminal for not registering as an agent of a foreign power in the peace movement! Peace, far from a goal, was so feared by the ruling class, that its advocates were jailed, or their activities were at least limited.

Another powerful advocate of peace coming from the African American community in the 20th Century was Paul Robeson. He, like DuBois had not only the moral integrity to oppose unnecessary killing, but understood what was behind the aggression manifesting itself in the world mid-century. As the Korean war was heating up in the 1952, he spoke courageously and harshly about U.S. actions in a part of the world that, 50 years later, continues to be the source of unresolved conflicts:

"Six months ago the truce negotiations began in Korea. But today the bloodshed continues, and the American diplomats and top brass persist in carrying on the most shameful war in which our country has ever been engaged.

"A hundred thousand American dead, wounded and missing have been listed in this war...and more than that, we have killed, maimed and rendered homeless a million Koreans, all in the name of preserving western civilization. U.S. troops have acted like beasts, as do all aggressive, invading, imperialist armies. North and South of the 38th parallel, they have looked upon the Korean people with contempt, called them filthy names, raped their women, lorded it over old women and children, and shot prisoners in the back.

"Is it any wonder that Rev. Adam Powell, NY Congressman, returns from a lengthy tour of Britain, Europe, the Near East and Africa to report that the United States is 'the most hated nation in the world."?

"Yes, our government is well hated because it has forced on the people a policy which places this nation in deadly opposition to the liberation movements of hundred of millions of people in all parts of the globe.

"When the Iranians took back their rich oil fields from the British exploiters, whose side were we on? Now that the Egyptian masses are calling for John Bull to get out of Egypt, and the Suez Canal, what position do we take? With Chiang Kai-shek's mercenary troops violating the border of Burma to achieve a springboard for attack upon the Chinese mainland, do we rush to protect the sovereignty of Burmese soil or do we lend covert and open support to Chiang's marauders?

"In Indo-China, Indonesia, Malaya-which side are we on? The question almost answers itself. In each case we have been on the side of the Dutch, the French, and the British colonial powers who stand arrogantly, arms akimbo, feet spread wide, blocking the road to national liberation and independence....Millions in the colonial world want peace, not war. And they are joined by millions in Europe, Latin America, Canada and the U.S. who are tired of slaughter...The war means a government bent on conquest has no interest in preserving civil rights at home because civil rights imply the right to protest and war-bent rulers need conformity, not protest."

We know that Robeson, too, was indicted, had concert hall doors shut in his face, record contracts torn up and his passport taken from him because he would not stop challenging these "war bent rulers".

By the 1960's the U.S. was once again engaged in combat, in one of those colonial territories referred to by Robeson, having sown the seeds of upheaval in the policies of imperialism and anti-communism. It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who courageously challenged the same powers questioned by DuBois back in 1913. From a moral stance in 1963,..

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...the chain reaction of evil-hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."

...Dr King took a more political stance in 1967:

"Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours....A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Like DuBois and Robeson, Dr. King became a dangerous man. Finding a point of unity in the struggle against racial inequality at home and policies of imperialism abroad would not be tolerated, but it was not to be stopped.

Voices continue to be raised. More recently, the "war" on Cuba has been challenged for what it is. African American writer Alice Walker took on President Clinton who willingly approved of this war of a different kind:

"The bill you have signed is wrong. Even if you despise Fidel and even if the Cubans should not have shot down the planes violating their air space. (Did you, by the way, see Oliver Stone's 'Earth and Sky', about the U.S. bombing and general destruction of Vietnam over years and years? There was a major case of violating airspace!) The bill is wrong, the embargo is wrong, because it punishes people, some of them unborn, for being who they are. Cubans cannot help being who they are, given their long struggle for freedom, particularly from Spain and the U.S., they cannot help taking understandable pride in who they are. They have chosen a way of life different form ours, and I must say that from my limited exposure to that different way of life, it has brought them, fundamentally, a deep inner certainty about the meaning of existence (to develop one's self and to help others) and an equally deep psychic peace. One endearing quality I've found in the Cubans I have met is that they can listen with as much heart as they speak. I believe you and Fidel must speak to each other. Face to face.

...Is Jesse Helms, who speaks of Cuban Liberty, as he urges our country to harm Cuba's citizens, the same Jesse Helms who caused my grandparents, my parents and my own generation profound suffering as we struggled against our enslavement under racist laws in the South? And can it be that you have joined your name to his in signing this bill?...Greed has been a primary motivating factor from the beginning. and so the dream of the revengeful and the greedy is to retake Cuba, never mind the cries of children who can no longer have milk to drink or of adults whose ration card permits them one egg a week. Would you want Chelsea to have no milk, to have one egg a week? You are a large man, how would you survive?"

In a few words, the political becomes personal. The connections between the liberation movement here at home and at abroad become clearer. The root of the problem is the same. And as we teeter on the brink of another misguided aggression, we see an encouraging world wide movement which shares this understanding, with continued courageous leadership such as Cynthia McKinney who, though defeated in her run for re-election in Georgia, continues to speak out,

"Now against the backdrop of so many unanswered questions, President Bush wants us to pledge our blind support to him. First, for his war on terrorism and now for his war in Iraq. How can we, in good conscience, prepare to send our young men and women back to Iraq to fight yet another war, when we have tens of thousands of our service men and women poisoned and still suffering from the first war? And what of those veterans who are sleeping on our streets? Within five minutes of where we are today, you can walk there, and see them, and talk to them--Vietnam Veterans, Gulf War veterans, veterans of our wars.

"George Bush can count me out of his war-making plans...We have proudly brought blacks and whites, Asians and Latinos together. I'm proud that everywhere around me the human rainbow has been represented. And I know that as we continue to speak out on behalf of the poor and the marginalized in this country, my supporters across the spectrum, and across America will be right there with me. And that as we continue to speak out on behalf of those who are sick and tired of greed being more important than human needs, my supporters will be right there."

And so we will.