United for Peace & Justice invites you to join us for a special webinar: “End Racism. Build Peace”
Wednesday, September 21, the UN International Day of Peace
Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The United Nations General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire. But achieving true peace entails much more than laying down arms. It requires the building of societies where all members feel that they can flourish. It involves creating a world in which people are treated equally, regardless of their race.
The 2022 theme for the International Day of Peace is “End racism. Build peace.” To mark this day, United for Peace & Justice hosted a webinar on Wed. Sept. 21, at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT.
Our distinguished speakers include: 
Vernita Pearl Fort, a former United States diplomat, an Evolutionary Systems Ecologist, Political Economist, and Democracy Research Scholar at the University of Illinois Global Institute, Urbana-Champaign. Vernita also serves on the Board of the Center for United Nations Constitutional Research. The title of her current work and manuscript-in-progress is: “The Africana World and Regenerative Global Democracy: Transforming the United Nations and the International Order through the Arts of Transitional Justice.”
Dr. Vincent Intondi, author of “African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement,” is a leading authority on the intersection of race and nuclear weapons. Dr. Intondi is a professor at Montgomery College (MC) in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he teaches U.S. and African American history and directs MC’s Institute for Race, Justice, and Civic Engagement.
George Friday, UFPJ’s National Organizer, grew up in a rural low-income community in North Carolina in the 1960s. She holds degrees in Political Science, Economics and African American Studies from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. George is a Board member of Peace Action and a co-founder of the Black Liberation Caucus of WILPF. She serves on the North Carolina and National Coordinating Committees of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
About the image, above:
In order to further promote peace education in member cities around the world, Mayors for Peace hosts an annual children’s art competition inviting children from 6 to 15 years old who live in Mayors for Peace member cities to submit artworks on the theme of “Peaceful Towns.”
The Mayors for Peace 2021 President’s Award 1st place article was Honoka Yamada of Hiroshima, Japan (14 years old). Here’s her message:
“My home town of Hiroshima wishes for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons. We fold paper cranes with a prayer for peace. Regardless of different nationalities, skin color, culture and religion, our wishes for peace are borderless and connected by a rainbow bridge. This painting depicts people from various backgrounds holding hands and sharing paper cranes. Children from around the world cross over a rainbow on the back of paper cranes. With a wish for a world in which children can walk into a bright future in their “peaceful towns,” I designed the picture with a motif of glittering stained glass.”
