Last updated: September 21, 2022
Place
Shadowcliff (Fellowship of Reconciliation Headquarters)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47467151
Quick Facts
Location:
Upper Nyack, NY
Significance:
longtime headquarters of the US branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist organization that influenced the civil rights movement
Designation:
National Register of Historic Places
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Shadowcliff is a mansion in Rockland County, New York that served as the longtime headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an influential peace organization. In 1915, several dozen pacifist activists established FOR to oppose World War I and promote nonviolence in human affairs. The organization has worked for racial justice, labor rights, environmental protection, nuclear disarmament, and an end to war. In 1942, members of FOR founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to oppose racial segregation through nonviolent protest. These tactics became central to the civil rights movement.
Origins of FOR
In 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. Horrified pacifists in Britain and Germany created the Fellowship of Reconciliation. They opposed war and violence of all kinds. The group aimed to establish a new, peaceful world order based on Christian peace principles. American pacifists established a US chapter of FOR in 1915. Early leaders included settlement house pioneer Jane Addams, socialist minister and politician Norman Thomas, labor reformer Grace Hutchins, and Dutch immigrant pacifist A. J. Muste. Many Quakers and liberal Protestants joined FOR. A large proportion of them were women.
Wartime Work and Labor Rights
FOR was unable to stop the US’s entry into WWI in 1917. Instead, it focused on protecting the rights of people who opposed it. The group defended conscientious objectors to military service. With the activists Crystal Eastman and Roger Nash Baldwin, FOR also helped to create the National Civil Liberties Bureau (NCLB). The NCLB supported antiwar activists who criticized the conflict or the government. Two controversial laws, the Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918), had made this kind of speech a crime. The NCLB was a forerunner of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Another major area of concern for FOR was workers’ rights. Many of its members were union organizers and socialists. In 1921, FOR members helped to create Brookwood Labor College, a training school for labor leaders in Katonah, NY. The organization clashed with other activists over the role of violence in the movement. Communists, for example, believed that violence was necessary to challenge unjust systems. Members of FOR retained their commitment to peaceful means.
FOR continued to assist conscientious objectors (COs) two decades later, during World War II. Many of its staffers, including the African American leaders Bayard Rustin and James Farmer, claimed CO status during the war.
Civil Rights and the “Journey of Reconciliation”
In the 1940s, the Fellowship of Reconciliation began to work against racial injustice in the United States. Many leaders drew inspiration from Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi led peaceful protests against British imperial rule. His tactics of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance appealed to Americans seeking to challenge racism. In 1942, several FOR members created the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, to put these principles into action.
In April, 1947, an interracial group of sixteen FOR and CORE members embarked on the “Journey of Reconciliation.” Their leaders were Black Quaker Bayard Rustin and white Methodist minister George Houser. This nonviolent protest aimed to challenge segregation on interstate bus travel—which the Supreme Court had recently ruled unconstitutional.[1] The group started in DC and traveled through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Black participants sat in the front of the buses and white ones moved to the back—a reversal of the usual segregated order. On several occasions, police arrested members of the group. A North Carolina judge sentenced Rustin and two white riders to 30 days on the chain gang. (In 2022, a court vacated their convictions.)
In a report for FOR and CORE on their experiences during the Journey, Houser and Rustin wrote:
“It is our belief that without direct action on the part of groups and individuals, the Jim Crow pattern in the South can not be broken down. We are equally certain that such direct action must be non-violent.”
This trip influenced civil rights activists who would take similar bus trips through the South in 1961. These later trips were known as “Freedom Rides.” (The Journey of Reconciliation is sometimes called the “First Freedom Ride.”) As their predecessors had done, the Freedom Riders of the 1960s traveled in interracial groups. They challenged segregation and dramatically called national attention to the violence and discrimination Black passengers faced.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation continued to influence the civil rights movement. Prominent leader Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced the principles of nonviolent resistance. He worked with FOR staff on the Montgomery bus boycott and other actions. FOR’s 1957 comic book about the boycott, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, raised awareness about civil rights and peaceful protest.
Shadowcliff Mansion
In 1957, the Fellowship of Reconciliation purchased Shadowcliff mansion after outgrowing its previous office space in Manhattan. Shadowcliff is located in Upper Nyack, a town along the Hudson River about thirty miles north of New York City. Wealthy resident Eleanor Manville Ford commissioned the 44-room mansion. Completed around 1921, the house features Neoclassical design elements. It was built using up-to-date fireproofing techniques. Ford’s son sold the house after her death in 1949. In 1957, the new owner put it back on the market. FOR converted the space into offices and guest quarters and hosted meetings and retreats for members.
Other Activities and Legacy
The Fellowship of Reconciliation dedicated time and resources to several other causes. Members protested the Vietnam War. They demanded nuclear disarmament and advocated for Native American rights. FOR had originated as a Christian organization. In the 1960s, however, it revised its mission to emphasize connections among all world religions. Staff forged ties with the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. They helped bring his teachings about mindfulness to American audiences.
According to historians of peace movements, FOR played a major role in encouraging pacifists to go beyond a refusal to participate in violence. Instead, FOR members argued that violence could only be stopped by addressing its roots in injustice and exploitation.
In 2018, after six decades, FOR sold Shadowcliff mansion and moved to smaller offices nearby.
Notes
[1] FOR organized the Journey of Reconciliation in response to the US Supreme Court’s decision in Morgan v. Virginia (1946). The court ruled that Virginia’s statute enforcing segregation on interstate buses was an unconstitutional violation of the Commerce Clause. The decision invalidated several Southern states’ laws segregating bus travel. The Journey of Reconciliation aimed to educate people about the decision and challenge the enforcement of these laws.
Bibliography
Dekar, Paul R. Creating the Beloved Community: A Journey with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Telford, PA: Cascadia, 2005.
Forest, Jim. "When American Met Thich Nhat Hanh." Tricycle (Winter 2021). https://tricycle.org/magazine/thich-nhat-hanh-america.
Houser, George and Bayard Rustin. "We Challenged Jim Crow! A Report on the Journey of Reconciliation, April 9-23, 1947." New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation and Congress of Racial Equality, 1947. http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/3675.
Howlett, Charles F. “John Nevin Sayre and the American Fellowship of Reconciliation.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 114, no. 3 (1990): 399–421. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092504.
Records of Fellowship of Reconciliation [finding aid]. Swarthmore, PA: Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 2008. https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG001-025/DG013/dg13forhistintro.htm.
"Shadowcliff (Fellowship of Reconciliation Headquarters)." National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. Washington, DC: US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2014.
Article by Ella Wagner, PhD, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education.