Marquette Acquires Voices in the Wilderness Records

April 2007--Marquette University has acquired the records of Voices in the Wilderness (VITW, 1996-2005) and the papers of its co-founder and coordinator, Kathy Kelly.  These collections are preserved in Raynor Memorial Libraries' Department of Special Collections and University Archives and will be processed by archivists over the next two years.

VITW utilized nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience and fasting, to oppose economic sanctions and war against Iraq.  From its base in Chicago, the group organized over seventy delegations to Iraq which brought donations of medicine and toys to children in hospitals in open violation of United Nations' sanctions and U.S. law.  The Treasury Department responded by imposing a $20,000 fine.  Refusing to pay the fine as a matter of principle, VITW closed its doors in the summer of 2005, reorganizing under the name Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

The Kathy Kelly Papers include personal correspondence and files on other peacemaking projects, including a nuclear disarmament action in Missouri for which she served nine months in prison, opposition to the U.S. Army School of the Americas, and participation in the Gulf Peace Team.

A former teacher in Catholic high schools, with close ties to the Catholic Worker movement, Kelly has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions, once by Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.  Studs Terkel, a longtime friend and fellow Chicagoan, has called her “a direct descendant of Dorothy Day.”

Researchers interested in accessing the VITW and Kelly collections before processing is complete should contact archivist Phil Runkel, 414-288-5903 or phil.runkel@marquette.edu.  An inventory of Marquette's peace and social action research collections may be viewed online.