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James Peck (December 19, 1914July 12, 1993) was an American activist who practiced nonviolent resistance during World War II and in the Civil Rights movement. He is the only person who participated in both the Journey of Reconciliation (1947) and the first Freedom Ride of 1961, and has been called a white civil rights hero. ==Biography== James Peck (usually called "Jim") was born in Manhattan to Samuel Peck, a wealthy clothing wholesaler, who died when his son was eleven years old. He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. Even though Peck and his family had converted from Judaism to the Episcopalian Church, Peck was still considered a social outsider at Choate. Peck preferred the fellowship of scholarly intellectuals and in their company he developed a reputation as an independent thinker and at the same time adopted idealistic political doctrines. He enrolled and studied at Harvard in 1933. While studying at Harvard, Peck polished his skills as a writer and engaged in radical acts that ended up shocking his classmates and forcing him to become the outsider once again. Peck wrote that his mother "referred to Negroes as 'coons'" and he chose to defy her and his classmates by asking a black girl to be his date at the Freshman dance. He dropped out of school at the end of his freshman year when "his alienation from his family and the American establishment was complete". In the labor movement in the 1930s he helped found what later became the National Maritime Union. He was beaten during a 1936 strike.〔(James Peck" ), ''Library of America'', Reporting Civil Rights.〕 During World War II he was a conscientious objector and an anti-war activist, like his friend Bayard Rustin, and consequently spent three years in jail at Danbury Correctional Institution in Connecticut (1942–1945). While in prison, he helped start a work strike that eventually led to the desegregation of the mess hall. Also during this time, he participated, as did many other conscientious objectors, in medical experiments, especially a yellow jaundice experiment which permanently damaged his liver. Peck viewed it as volunteering to help discover a cure for the disease and for humanity.〔Bennett, Scott H., (''Radical pacifism : the War Resisters League and Gandhian nonviolence in America, 1915-1963'' ), Syracuse, N.Y. : Syracuse University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8156-3003-4. Cf. pp.86, specifically, and various on Jim Peck.〕 He assisted the War Resisters League, and edited the Worker's Defense League ''News Bulletin''. He also wrote a labor column for ''The Conscientious Objector''.〔 Peck was married to the former Paula Zweier for twenty-two years. She was a teacher of cooking and author of ''The Art of Fine Baking'' (1961) and ''Art of Good Cooking'' (1966).〔Ephron, Nora, ("Critics in the World of the Rising Souffle" ), ''New York Magazine'', September 30, 1968〕〔Bittman, Mark, ("THE MINIMALIST; Pudding For Purists ), ''The New York Times'', December 8, 2004〕〔Peck, Paula. ''The Art of Fine Baking'', New York : Simon and Schuster, 1961.〕〔Peck, Paula. ''Art of Good Cooking'', New York : Simon and Schuster, 1966〕 Paula Peck died in 1972. They had two sons, Charles and Samuel.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「James Peck (pacifist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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