Click here to view a PDF of highlights of CFPA's work over the past 40 years! As seen below.
Detailed Highlights from 1980 to 2017
ORIGINAL NAME:
The Coalition to Reverse the Nuclear Arms Race
1980
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Wallace Alston (through July 84)
Events:
1st Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
• Can We Reverse the Arms Race?
Speakers: Harvey Cox, Helen Caldicott, Richard Barnett, Paul Warnke
Highlights: The small group of religious organizations, which had put together the first teaching conference, decided to organize a coalition to build upon the momentum from this first event. A pulpit exchange was planned for a "Peace Sabbath" in the spring of 1981.
NEW NAME:
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament
1981
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Wallace Alston (through July 84)
Events:
Nagasaki Day Program
Readings and music at Woodrow Wilson School Fountain, sponsored by the Political Action Committee
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace -
• The Choice Is Ours: Confronting the Nuclear Arms Race
Speakers: Donald W. Shriver Jr., George Kennan, Robert Jay Lifton, William Sloane Coffin, William Maynes, Tom Furer, Jeff Dumas
Highlights: With the selection of an executive director and the renting of office space, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament took shape. A second two-day conference was held and MaryAnne Hutchinson gathered and supervised the first "faithful band of volunteers" at 20 Nassau Street. The Peace Education Committee sponsored a series of Sunday afternoon "Talk-togethers."
1982
Staff & Chair:
Assistant Director - Mark Pickett (March 82 - June 85)
Associate Director - Mary Ward (July 82 - Dec 88)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
1st Concert for Peace
• Emerson String Quartet with pianist Lillian Kallir, speaker George Kennan
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
• The Time Is Now: Responding to the Nuclear Arms Race
Speakers: C. T. Vivian, Gary Hart, Herbert Scoville, Inge Thorsson, Mark Garrison, Marion Wright Edelman, William Winpisinger
Highlights: With a new sign (made by Ann Gross) at the door of 40 Witherspoon Street, the Coalition was honored as Outstanding Ecumenical Ministry by the New Jersey Council of Churches. The Coalition chartered a "Peace Train" to take 1,400 to Central Park where 1,000,000 rallied for peace in the largest such demonstration in US history. The successful Nuclear Freeze Referendum, which received the support of 66% of New Jersey voters in the fall election, was co-led by the Coalition.
1983
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Wallace Alston (through July 84)
Events:
1st Membership Dinner
Speaker: Robert Scheer, With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush, and Nuclear War
Honorees: Jack Johnson, Barbara Johnson, Ione Milner, Elsa Kerr, Len Newton, Irene Rodgers
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
• Euromissiles: Leverage or Liability?
Speakers: Cyrus Vance, Maj. Gen. George J. Keegan, Brig. Gen. Michael Harbottle
Highlights: Bishop Thomas Gumbelton speaks to 1000 Coalition members and supporters about the Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on Peace. The Coalition co-organized a Nuclear Freeze Lobby Day that brought 800 New Jerseyans to join a crowd of 5,000 peace lobbyists in Washington DC.
1984
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Ira Silverman (July 84 - May 86)
Events:
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Freeman Dyson
Honorees: Hinda Winawer, Betsey Clark, Ann Kurtt, Joel Weisberg, Ariela Gross
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
What Price the Arms Race?
Speakers: George McGovern, Seymour Melman, Harold Willens
Highlights: In May demonstrations continued at Earle Naval Weapons Base with more than 40 Coalition members demanding that nuclear weapons be removed from New Jersey and everywhere! Rachel Findley became Director of the New Jersey Freeze Voter '84 drive as Freeze Voter injected the Freeze into the presidential and congressional elections.
1985
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Assistant Director - Steve Harrison (July 85 - June 87)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Jeremiah Ostriker, The Fallacy of Star Wars
Honoree: Wallace Alston
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
US - Soviet Relations
Speakers: Balfour Brickner, Arthur Waskow
Highlights: The 40th Anniversary of the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki commemorations included a walking tour, led by Al Cavallo and Frank von Hippel, entitled "Princeton and the Bomb." The Urgent Action Network Phone Tree included 120 of the 1200 Coalition members.
1986
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Jay Bleiman (May 86 - March 90)
Organizer of the Trenton office of the Coalition - Jerry Eure
Assistant Director Steve Harrison becomes Associate Director
Associate Director Mary Ward becomes Assistant Director and Executive Secretary
Events:
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Victor W. Seidel, Destruction before Detonation
Honoree: Barbara L. Johnson
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Clearing Obstacles: What It Will Take to Get a World without Nuclear Weapons
Speakers: Robert Drinan, George Rathjens, Thomas Graham, James Bush, Robert Tucker, Arthur
Macy Cox, Jack Matlock, Sergei Rogoff, Howard Moreland, Richard Ullman, Franklin C.
Miller, Richard Perle, Daniel Duedney
Highlights: In August, the US House of Representatives approved an amendment to a Department of Defense Authorization Bill that called for withholding funds for nuclear warhead tests for a period of one year. The majority of New Jersey congresspersons voted for the amendment due to an intense year of letter, phone calls, vigils, and meetings with Coalition members. Mary Ward was one of 150 protesters arrested for civil disobedience at a Nevada Test Site. Youth for Peace, a group of students from local high schools, was initiated at the Annual Conference.
1987
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director - John Field (June 87 - Sept. 89)
Steering Committee Chair -
"Target Congress" coordinator - Frances F. Kaplan
Events:
Concert for Peace - Paul Winter Consort
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Robert Tucker
Honorees: John Crocker, Z Smith
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Clearing Obstacles: Apathy to Action
Speakers: F. Forrester Church, Betty Bumpers, Fred Reed, Milton Schwebel, Robert R. Holt,
Frank von Hippel, Jessie Cocks, Thomas Gumbleton
Highlights: Founding Congress of newly merged SANE/FREEZE attended by Bob Moore. 11 Soviet citizens visiting with US-USR Bridges for Peace attend 6th Annual Membership Dinner.
1988
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director - John Field (June 87 - Sept. 89)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Membership Dinner
Speaker: William Sloane Coffin
Honorees: Michele Graybeal, Menachem Tacher, Sue Graham
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Leveling the Wealth of the American Economy
Speakers: Bishop Leontine Kelly, Dr. Gar Alperovitz, Dr. Betty Lall, Col. Philip Cox, Dr. John Lynch,
William Hartung, Gen. William Burns, Andy Lebedev
Highlights: A March demonstration at the Nevada test site drew over 5000 peace activists who rallied to the cry "Reclaim the Test Site." 1200 committed acts of civil disobedience requiring over 50 buses to take them to a location far from the site before releasing them. The Coalition sent twenty-five supporters.
1989
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director/Office Manager - Pat Cox (Sept. 89 - July 96)
Bookkeeper - Stuart Lee Brown (Jan 89 - 1993)
Events:
Concert for Peace
Pete Seeger & the American Boy Choir (Jan 89)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Andrea Ayvazian, Positive Peacemaking: Looking Forward to the 90's
Honorees: Mary Ward, Margaret Burt, Pat Paine Dougherty
10th Anniversary Concert
NJ Symphony & American Boy Choir
(Oct 89) in a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem at the Trenton War Memorial
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Speakers: John Crocker Rep. Ted Weiss, EP & Dorothy Thompson, Richard Falk, Mark Sommer, Dietrich Fischer, Pam Solo
Highlights: The Coalition joins the Peace Economy Campaign of National SANE/FREEZE. The Monmouth chapter of the Coalition sponsored the second annual "Children's Peace Fair" at Brookdale Community College.
1990
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Alan Karcher (March 90 - May 93)
Events:
Concert for Peace - Odetta and the choirs of Trenton's Shiloh Baptist Church (Jan 90)
10th Anniversary Membership Dinner
Speakers: George Kennan, Marvin Goldberg, Vladimir Pechatnov
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
The Peace and Justice Dividend
Speakers: Marion Anderson, Elena Bonner, Eugene Carroll, William Sloane Coffin, Angelique
Walker-Smith
Highlights: Palmer Square Post Office was once again the site for a Tax day vigil and leafleting. The Coalition hosted a delegation from the Volgograd region as part of the second annual New Jersey-Volgograd Bridges for Peace exchange.
1991
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Suzanne Vega & Pete Seeger (Jan 91)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: John Kenneth Galbraith
Respondent/Honoree: Frank von Hippel
Honorees: Sylvia Temmer, Julius and Fern Keil, Joanne Garver
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Nuclear Weapons and the New World Disorder
Speakers: Harvey Cox, Freeman Dyson, Erwin Knoll, Mary McGory, Theodore Taylor,
Frank von Hippel
Presentation of an original multimedia performance piece written, composed and performed by Dan
Bauer, Charlotte Hussy, and Tim Geller
Highlights: Buses of Coalition members attended the mass rally to support the Comprehensive Test Ban held at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the UN. Eight busloads from the Coalition joined 160 other organizations in DC to demonstrate against the Persian Gulf War.
1992
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Tom Paxton & Holly Near
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Audrey Freedman, Economic Conversion in the Post-Cold War Era
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Shaping a Peaceful World: National Priorities, Economic Realities
Speakers: Benjamin Chavis, Ramsey Clark, Dr. Ann Markusen, Freeman Dyson
Highlights: With the Nassau Presbyterian Church and the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church, the Coalition sponsored a play, short story, essay, and poetry writing contest for high school students. Sixty-nine students from eleven schools participated in the "Writing about Peace 1992" event. Members were again mobilized for the April "Save Our Cities/Save Our Children" march on DC.
NEW NAME -- Coalition for Peace Action
1993
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director- Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Leslie Smith (May 93 - May 96)
Events:
Concert for Peace - Lucinda Williams & David Byrne (Jan 93)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Sharpe James
Honorees: Donald Payne, Sarah Milburn Moore, David Morris
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Halting Weapons Trafficking
Speakers: Arthur Hertzberg, Seymour Hirsh, Betty Lall, Lora Lumpe, William Hartung
Highlights: In keeping with the National SANE/FREEZE change of name to Peace Action, the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament became the Coalition for Peace Action with its educational arm becoming Peace Action Education Fund. In July, in response to an intense campaign by the Coalition and others, President Clinton announced his decision to extend the US nuclear testing moratorium.
1994
Staff & Chair
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Emerson String Quartet (Jan 94)
Membership Dinner
Speakers: Leonard Spector, Frank McClosky
Honorees: Darlene McKnight, Vladimir Iakimets
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Speakers: Andrew Young, Daniel Ellsberg, Miyoko Matsubaru, McGeorge Bundy, Rolf Ekeus,
Richard Falk, Miguel Marin-Bosch, Bonnie Urfer
Highlights: At the Peace Action National Congress in Biddeford, Maine, Coalition vice-chair Darlene McKnight participated in a panel on "The Urban Crisis and the Role of the Peace Movement." The Coalition brought the largest delegation outside Maine, 40 people including 16 youth.
1995
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Lionel Hampton & Orchestra (Jan 95)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Stewart Udall
Honorees: Ellen Saxon, Magnolia McGlothen, William Scheide
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Stopping Weapons Violence at Home and Abroad
Speakers: William Sloane Coffin, Patricia Schroeder, Joel Chinitz, Vinny DeMarco,
Kathy McBride-Thomas, Ken Rutherford, Arlene and Jacob Locicero
Highlights: The Coalition hosted its first annual Peaceful Toys Fair and Violent Toy Turn-In. Youth for Peace began participation in "Alternatives to Violence," a Quaker-based program of training for peaceful conflict resolution.
1996
Staff & Chair:
Steering Committee Chair - Darlene McKnight (May 96 - May 99)
Associate Director - Eric McKinley (Oct 96 - May 98)
Events:
Concert for Peace - Jennie and Amy, Janis Ian (Jan 96)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Bruce Kent, Nuclear Disarmament Is Possible Honoree/Respondent: Freeman Dyson
Honorees: Wesley Derbyshire, Valerie Ramos-Ford, Georges Temmer, Kathy McBride-Thomas
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Swords into Plowshares: Building a Peace Economy for the 21st Century
Speakers: Rosemary Ruether, Lawrence Korb, Ann Markusen, Donald Payne, Alice Slater, Ben Cohen
Highlights: In the Hague, the World Court declared threat of or use of Nuclear Weapons to be illegal and called for concluding negotiations for global nuclear disarmament. The Coalition co-sponsored the March for Peace of the Mothers Against Violence in Trenton for the third year in a row.
1997
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concerts for Peace - David Shifrin & Anne-Marie McDermott (Jan 97), Tribe I & Richie Havens (May 97)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Ambassador Richard Butler, Nuclear Weapons: Moving Toward Elimination
Honorees: Marcia Van Dyck, Karen Scarborough, Trinca Palmer
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Youth Violence: Issues and Solutions
Speakers: John Harris, David Elkind, Janet Patti, John Bess, Don Schwartz, Charles
Webster, Taleeta Carter
Highlights: Coalition youth continue to participate in alternatives to violence training as the Coalition becomes a part of the HIP/RAVE ("Help Increase the Peace/Real Alternatives to Violence") program. Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin agreed on the outlines of a START III nuclear reduction treaty after both New Jersey senators joined with 20 others in urging him to do so.
1998
Staff & Chair:
Associate Director - LL Morgan-DuBreuil (Oct 98 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Baba Olatunji & Peter Yarrow (Jan 98)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: Stansfield Turner, Caging the Nuclear Genie
Honorees: Henrietta Backer, Yvonne Amalina DeCarolis, Leslie Smith, Ted Taylor
Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Speakers: Bishop Paul Moore, Jonathan Schell, Betty Burkes, Dr. Barbara Rosenberg, Dr. Amy Smithson, Dr. Zia Mian,
Dr. MV Ramana, Thomas Nilsen
Highlights: The Coalition co-sponsored a week of activities to honor Paul Robeson. A "No to NATO Expansion" panel discussion was hosted by the Coalition at the Woodrow Wilson School. Peace Voter '98 to educated voters in the 12th congressional district, and a majotiry voted for the pro-peace candidate.
1999
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Bishop Mellick Belshaw
Events:
Concerts for Peace - Paul Winter Consort (Jan 99), Jennie Avila & Baba Olatunji (May 99)
Membership Dinner
Speaker: William D. Hartung, Stopping the New Arms Race
Honorees: Carol Allen, Marc Tolo, Barbara Hillhouse
20th Annual Conference and Interfaith Service for Peace
Challenges of Peace for the 21st Century
Speakers: Calvin Butts, Rush Holt, Randall Forsberg, Bryan Miller, Cora Weiss
Highlights: The Fifth Annual Peaceful Toys Fair included games, crafts, music, and a violent toy turn-in. Susan Tenney and her company of dancers and singers as well as the Solidarity Singers made the annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki Commemoration a multi-media event. In response to the bombing of Kosovo, the Coalition hosted an evening panel "Lessons from Kosovo," which included presentations by Richard Falk, Amy Goodman, Jeff Laurenti, Jack Matlock, and Walter Rockler. Ten Coalition members and six students attended the International Peace Convocation in The Hague. The students were winners of a Coalition sponsored essay contest.
2000
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concert for Peace - Cheryl Wheeler & Dar Williams (Jan. 00)
20th Anniversary Membership Dinner
Speakers: Wallace Alston Jr., John Crocker, Marcia Van Dyck, Patricia Roberts
Honorees: Irene Goldman, Sylvia Temmer, Robert Turoff, Norm Cohen, Rick Walnut, Deborah Jacoby
Highlights thus far: Tonight's celebration of the 20-year vision for peace, which began with a teaching conference and has grown to the many programs, events, and initiatives presented here.
2001
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director - LL DuBreuil
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Concerts for Peace - featuring Dar Williams and Jeanie Bryson (February), Membership Dinner (March)
Speakers: MIT Physicist, Dr. Theodore Postol, previously worked for the military, a Star Wars critic
Candlelight Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence on steps of Trenton City Hall, Lobby Day for Childproof Handgun Bill (May)
Speakers: Dr. Zia Mian, Mr. Shigeryuki Yama (a survivor of Hiroshima), Mr. Hideo Tose (a survivor of Nagasaki), and Susan Tenney and company with an original creative dance entitled Snow in Summer (August)
Gubernatorial Voters Guide published, including statements by the year’s candidates - McGreevey (D), Schulter (I), and Schundler (R) (October)
Speaker: Rabbi David Saperstein (November)
JUNE 1999 TO MAY 2000
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director -
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
April 15 - "Missile Stop 2000 Tour" comes to Princeton when a 50-foot mock nuclear missile is the Coalition's entry into the Communiversity Day activities.
Coalition begins to lay the groundwork for Peace Voter 2000 on December 7 by conducting a briefing on Coalition issues for a first major party candidate to fill Senator Frank Lautenberg's seat. Four more briefings conducted subsequently.
2002
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director -
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
2003
Staff & Chair:
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Associate Director -
Steering Committee Chair -
Events:
Annual Membership Dinner featuring journalism professor Dr. Robert Jensen draws 160 on May 16, 2003.
Executive Director Rev. Bob Moore receives “Distinguished Leadership” Award from NJ Council of Churches on May 22.
Coalition co-organizes statewide “Waging Peace” conference at United Methodist Church in New Brunswick on May 31, attended by 175.
Coalition sponsors third “Arts for Peace” dance and performing arts event of the year on June 20 at Arts Council of Princeton, attended by over 100.
Annual Commemoration of Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, featuring survivors of the bombings, draws over 125 on August 6.
Coalition organized, in conjunction with Princeton Clergy Association and September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, interfaith candlelight commemoration of 9-11 on September 10; a diverse group of 125 attend. Front page articles and photos in area newspapers.
Coalition co-sponsors October 29 forum with Trenton NAACP at Shiloh Baptist in Trenton on community justice issues, over 75 attend.
Coalition sponsors panel on media and peace featuring American Phil Donahue and Russian Vladimir Pozner on November 6 at Princeton University. Overflow crowd of 400 attends.
Coalition hosts annual National Congress of Peace Action at Princeton University November 7-9, culminating with 24th annual Conference and Interfaith Service on November 9 with 1,000 attending. Executive Director Rev. Bob Moore receives “Grassroots Organizer of the Year” Award from National Peace Action.
Former US diplomat Dr. Brady Kiesling and United Methodist Pastor Rev. Frederick Boyle, who had been to Iraq with Christian Peacemakers, speak at a forum on Iraq attended by 70 in Princeton on December 2.
Lobby meetings held with Representatives Rush Holt, Rob Andrews, Frank LoBiondo, and Senators Corzine and Lautenberg, during Congressional recess from mid-December through late January 2004.
Coalition co-sponsors talk on deceptions in Iraq by 26-year CIA veteran, Ray Close, on February 15 at Princeton University; several hundred attend.
Annual Concert for Peace on February 28, featuring John Sebastian and Michelle Shocked, draws over 400.
Coalition coordinates candidate briefing for Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, running for Senate in Pennsylvania, on March 15.
Coalition co-organizes Peace Train to NYC, with over 300 riders from central Jersey, on March 20—they join estimated 100,000 in New York on the first anniversary of US invasion of Iraq.
Coalition coordinates statewide workshop on Patriot Act resolutions attended by 50 organizers after four municipal resolutions successfully passed in central Jersey.
2004
Executive Director - Rev. Bob Moore (Sept. 81 - current)
Steering Committee Chair - Irene Etkin Goldman
Events:
