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Oberlin Ohio has a long and distinguished history of visionary activism and progressive work for peaceful social change. From the very beginning, Oberlinians advocated the peaceful abolition of slavery – 25 years before the Civil War – and Lewis Tappan, one of the founders of the college and town, was closely involved with the freeing of the Amistad captives. Early student and faculty groups such as the Oberlin Non-Resistance Society, Oberlin Peace Society, and Oberlin Peace League emphasized the spiritual foundation of their non-violence movements. Other early Oberlinians were among those who advocated the formation of organizations similar to the United Nations and World Court – almost 100 years before those bodies were established.

The arch pictured here was erected in memory of the Oberlin missionaries who, while providing education, medical care, and the gospel in Shansi, China, were martyred in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Oberlinians were not deterred by this setback and, to this day, Oberlin Shansi continues to promote educational programs and community projects in Asia.

In 1930 Oberlin students, foreseeing the gathering clouds of war over Europe, established the second Oberlin Peace Society and, together with college president Ernest Hatch Wilkins, they tried valiantly throughout that decade to prevent the most terrible of 20th century wars.

Vernon Johns, an Oberlin graduate, was one of the pioneers of the early civil rights movement and prepared the way for his successor at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Rev. Martin Luther King.  King himself visited the college four times and delivered the 1965 commencement address, exhorting the students to remain awake during a great revolution.

That revolution is not over yet, and such visionary activism is needed once again to face a new wave of growing nationalism and militarism.

Constitution of the Oberlin Nonresistance Society

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This student organization, established in 1840, was influenced by William Lloyd Garrison's New-England Nonresistance Society.  Though its ideals were lofty and its theology sound, it appears to have been short lived.  The society was denounced by Charles Finney and the college faculty and ignored by the Oberlin Evangelist, the college newspaper of the day.

Constitution of the Oberlin Peace Society of 1843

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This was the college faculty's response to the Non-Resistance Society.  It is a more conservative and less eloquent statement that questioned whether all war is sinful.  Although this society also appears to have been short lived, it did send Amasa Walker as a delegate to the 1843 World's Peace Convention in London.

Constitution of the Oberlin Peace League

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This group was founded in 1850 amidst the optimism of the international peace conferences held in Paris, Brussels, Frankfort, and again in London.  It was more of a community organization than the previous two societies and had ties to other organizations such as the Lorain County Peace Society, the Ohio State Peace Society, and the American National League of Universal Brotherhood.  Abolition and the Civil war eventually swallowed up all of these efforts.

The Bible Against War by Amos Dresser

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Amos Dresser was a missionary, lecturer, pastor, Oberlin resident, part-time cobbler, and one of the “Lane Rebels” who studied at Oberlin College.  He was very active in the abolitionist and peace movements of his day and was, at one point, whipped in Nashville for distributing anti-slavery literature.  He published this book in 1849, in which he demonstrates that the wars of the Old Testament were not God's original plan for the Jewish people and provides a detailed analysis of Romans chapter 13.