George Lakey

"From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission of building a better world through movements for justice. Lakey draws readers into the center of history-making events, telling often serious stories with playfulness and intimacy. In this memoir, he describes the personal, political, and theoretical-coming out as bisexual to his Quaker community while known as a church leader and show more family man, protesting against the war in Vietnam by delivering medical supplies through the naval blockade in the South China Sea, and applying his academic study of nonviolent resistance to creative tactics in direct action campaigns. From strategies he learned as a young man facing violence in the streets to risking his life as an unarmed bodyguard for Sri Lankan human rights lawyers, Lakey recounts his experience living out the tension between commitment to family and mission. Drawing strength from his community to fight cancer, survive painful parenting struggles, and create networks to help prevent activist burnout, this book shows readers how to find hope in even the darkest times through strategic, joyful activism"-- Provided by publisher. show less

From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission of building a better world through movements for justice. Lakey draws readers into the center of history-making events, telling often serious stories with playfulness and intimacy. In this memoir, he describes the personal, political, and theoretical-coming out as bisexual to his Quaker community while known as a church leader and show more family man, protesting against the war in Vietnam by delivering medical supplies through the naval blockade in the South China Sea, and applying his academic study of nonviolent resistance to creative tactics in direct action campaigns. From strategies he learned as a young man facing violence in the streets to risking his life as an unarmed bodyguard for Sri Lankan human rights lawyers, Lakey recounts his experience living out the tension between commitment to family and mission. Drawing strength from his community to fight cancer, survive painful parenting struggles, and create networks to help prevent activist burnout, this book shows readers how to find hope in even the darkest times through strategic, joyful activism. show less

The author's experience as a civil rights legend informs this book for building and conducting nonviolent direct action campaigns. Protest must be supplemented with sustained direct action campaigns crucial to winning major reforms. He looks to successful campaigns worldwide to see what has worked, what hasn’t, and why to achieve real progressive victories.

Evidently, nonviolent action has some kind of power, even when the action is not very spectacular. The question then arises, what is this power? Some people say, “It is the power of God,” others say, “It is the power of love.” Either answer leads to further questions, for just as the astronomer does not feel his task is done when he hears the stars defined as “the wonders of nature,” so we are not content with a philosophical description of nonviolent action. The task of this show more pamphlet, therefore, is to discover the how of nonviolent action. show less