Jane Addams to be Honored in Fresno State Peace Garden

Jane Addams, a social reformer, writer and international peace advocate in the early 20th century, will be recognized with a monument in the Peace Garden at California State University, Fresno.

Addams was named the Nobel Peace Prize winner exactly 72 years ago today - Dec. 10, 1931. She was the first American and the second woman to receive the honor.

Addams will be the first woman represented in Fresno State's Peace Garden, which has statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar E. Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr.

Her selection was announced by Fresno State President John D. Welty, based on the recommendation of the Peace Garden Steering Committee, which includes campus and community members. Nominations of 25 women were received from the campus and members of the public.

The committee next will work on selecting an artist to create an Addams monument and raising funds to complete the project.

"I am pleased that we will be honoring Jane Addams, who is an inspiration to all of us for her dedication to helping people and the cause of peace," said Welty. "I hope many individuals will join in our effort to add a monument in the Peace Garden."

The Peace Garden concept began in 1990 when a sculpture of Gandhi was donated to the university, followed in 1996 by a statue erected to honor Chavez and in 1999 by a statue of King. All of the statues were financed through private giving.

Addams was a co-founder in 1889 of the world-famous social settlement Hull-House in Chicago, where she lived and worked until her death in 1935. In the early years of the 20th century she became involved in the peace movement, becoming an important advocate of internationalism. This interest grew during the First World War, when she participated in the International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915. She maintained her pacifist stance after the United States entered the war in 1917, working through the Women's Peace Party, which became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919. She was the WILPF's first president. As a result of her work, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

For more information on Addams and other nominees for the Peace Garden, see www.csufresno.edu/peacegarden.

Contact: Shirley Melikian Armbruster (559) 278-2795 or (559) 593-1815 or Tom Uribes 278-5366