History of CCPJ
Annual Reports
2025
By the most conspicuous measures we have, during the past twelve months the prospects for peace and justice have flickered dim. International warfare has intensified around the world, as has the zeal of national governments to address problems by unilateral military aggression, at which the targets of that aggression have predictably fought back in kind. Witness (to look no further) Ukraine, Sudan, Iran. Within nations, armed schism has ranged from outright civil war, through insurrection and assassination, to police belligerence.
In the United States violent eruptions of this kind used to be rare, but now they appear commonplace, being the extreme manifestation of entrenched and seemingly irreconcilable conflicts over our nation’s identity and the histories that have shaped it. Witness the border with Mexico, Minneapolis, and nearer to home, Washington D.C. State brutality, the politics of intransigent polemic, self-righteous demonization of the other, and suppression of dissent have emerged as the order of the day.
Living as we must within that order, we at the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice nevertheless work to sustain another way. Since the 1980s we have aimed to model and teach a different order centered not on victory but on actively shared community. We have met the rule of force with nonviolence, countered winner-take-all triumphalism with patience and dialogue, and practiced an inclusiveness rooted in the ethics of care. From the open structure of its internal governance to the priority it places on outreach, coalition, and mutual support, CCPJ seeks every opportunity to compass just ends by peaceful means.
While pursuing a set of ongoing initiatives that the following calendar of events will itemize, we steadily collaborate with dozens of groups in central Virginia. All these groups have, as is right, focused agendas of their own. But they also come together with CCPJ to sustain the progressive momentum, and larger synergy, of a dynamic heritage of globally-minded local activism that shines against the lurid backdrop cast by most of what passes so discouragingly for the news.
“Minority views, with perseverance, can eventually make for long-term change.”
This broad picture of our work finds a first illustration in the earliest item in our annual survey. During the late spring of 2025, CCPJ accepted an invitation from the People’s Coalition to sign a letter decrying a proposal, not just to renovate the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, but significantly to expand it. At a time when public mental health facilities were struggling, we opposed the replacement of curative measures by carceral ones. Our argument did not prevail – not for the last time in this report! But we have learned that minority views, with perseverance, can eventually make for long-term change. In something of the same spirit, but with a lot more flamboyance, CCPJ took part with Indivisible in the huge No Kings demonstration along Route 29 North in mid-June, as well as the smaller display of theater and song that took place on Charlottesville’s downtown mall earlier on the same day.
CCPJ was back on the mall twice over the summer months. We tabled at Central Place in late June with the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention, and then in early August we returned to observe the grim 80th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Eight tall panels displayed information about those devastating nuclear attacks and about the exponentially more dire toll predicted in the event of a nuclear assault today. On these tabling dates, CCPJ as usual distributed free message buttons drawing attention to an array of causes and garnering support.
Meanwhile, in a late June observance of World Refugee Day, CCPJ co-sponsored with the International Rescue Committee an evening at the Vinegar Hill Theater featuring refugees’ stories that gave substance to their experience relocating in our area from strife in countries worldwide. And a month later a similar theme energized an inter-congregational brainstorming session on “faith and immigration” planned by a Charlottesville Friends Meeting working group with CCPJ support. Well over a hundred people packed a room at the Northside Library branch; their ideas helped precipitate a local ecumenical movement, Love Thy Neighbor, that will appear again in this report. Our organization, while resolutely secular, often works with the Charlottesville Clergy Collective and area congregations, some of which underwrite CCPJ with a yearly contribution.
In mid-July CCPJ’s mandatory annual meeting (stipulated in our bylaws as a 501[c]3 nonprofit) considered the state of the budget and elected our official Board – Bob Diamond, Bob McAdams, April Heyward, Jason Obergfell, Steve Wilson. We also received a treasury report from Secretary Virginia Rovnyak. As in recent years, the CCPJ budget remains in good trim: we stay lean by successfully spending on matters planned and arising about as much as we take in from individual and institutional donors. Readers will find at the end of this report a form inviting such contributions as they may be moved to make at this, our chief fund-raising time of the year.
One welcome new use for our funds arose with a solicitation from the “Elements of Peace” day camp that CCPJ, joining the Mindfulness Institute, Love No Ego Foundation, and other organizations, helped launch in mid-August for youth aged 11-15. This program gave a diverse roster of 30 young people an environment in which to rest and learn about mindfulness outdoors, just before they returned to school for a new year. At the end of August, CCPJ members were interviewed on Charlottesville Public Access TV about the Peace Center and the Activists’ Guide.
Autumn into Winter … Peace and Democracy Drew Us Together with Others.
The autumnal equinox proved an especially busy time for progressive activists in central Virginia. The International Day of Democracy occurred on 9/15, U.S. Constitution Day on 9/17, and then the International Day of Peace on 9/21. Just before that full week, CCPJ staffed a table on 9/14 at the Vegan Fest – an annual event where (who knew?) we acquire more new contacts than at any other time of year. And shortly after that date, we held the annual event that brings us together once every year with many sister organizations old and new: the CCPJ Community Gathering at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Representatives from a large number of local activist groups attended, renewing familiar acquaintances and making fresh ones over supper and at breakout tables where CCPJ facilitators led discussion on the theme “What can we do to protect our democracy?” This was by design a fully participatory evening, right up to a performance by the Charlottesville Women’s Choir that had us singing along.
We joined again with Indivisible for a follow-up No Kings protest in October and then a Democracy Fair and Jazz Parade on November 1. As Election Day approached, we put up a sign, highlighting the late John Lewis’s exhortation to vote, that was viewed by thousands of drivers daily where Hydraulic Road meets the Route 250 bypass. CCPJ supported a mid-November march organized by Cville United for Palestine to lament and protest the relentless killing in the Middle East. Shortly thereafter CCPJ acted as co-sponsor for a Vinegar Hill screening of the Argentinian film “Sometime Somewhere,” about the condition and prospects for Central American migrants to our part of Virginia. Other sponsors included Sin Barreras, the newly convened Keep Growing Together, and the Central Virginia Community Support Fund, which provides bail bond for arraigned immigrants. The Love Thy Neighbor coalition hosted winter screenings of the film as well, with our blessing.
As fall cooled toward winter, CCPJ renewed its campaign against the military indoctrination of children via war toys. We bought radio spots on nine area stations urging parents to buy peaceful and creative toys instead, and spread the same message with a holiday sign replacing the October one about getting out the vote. We also showed up in person on a crisp December morning outside Walmart with placards on the same theme.
At the approach of 2026 we united once more with the CCGVP at their downtown vigil for those slain by gunfire, and in January promoted a bus trip to Richmond to rally and lobby for the cause on the birthday of a most prominent victim of shooting, Martin Luther King Jr. CCPJ was also glad to help defray costs for an iftar supper held by Welcoming Greater Charlottesville during Ramadan with our Muslim neighbors.
At the end of March, CCPJ lent its name and support to a pair of events that responded in two distinct keys to the national miscarriage of justice. One was another massive No Kings rally that thronged a long commercial block north of town to the tune of incessant honks of solidarity from passing traffic. On the next day, Palm Sunday, at the invitation of Love Thy Neighbor and CCPJ, over a hundred opponents of US immigration enforcement policy processed down the city’s pedestrian mall with intervals of prayer, meditation, and group singing.
We suffered the loss of our own leader, Bob McAdams, who served as CCPJ’s president for many years.
We suffered this winter the loss of our own leader in Robert McAdams. Bob had served as CCPJ’s president for many years, and among many other responsibilities he was the author of a long line of annual reports before the one you are reading now. As the end of his life approached, Bob did all he could to facilitate the group’s transition to a new leadership and redistribution of duties. One of the last CCPJ decisions in which he took part – having become an increasingly outspoken defender of American democracy under mounting siege – was the creation of another roadside sign quoting Lincoln in defense of government of, by, and for the people.
That sign stood at the highway intersection from Presidents’ Day until the long winter ice melted and our Earth Month sign took its place. This formed part of a three-pronged effort that also included tabling downtown to mark Earth Day in April, where CCPJ gave away 50 redbud seedlings to plant, and paid radio spots, voiced by none other than Bob McAdams, delivering a perennial message about how the way we live bears upon the health of the planet we depend on.
Our Ongoing Activities – Please Join Us!
The past year’s chronology leaves unmentioned a number of things that CCPJ conducts on an ongoing basis all year long. We maintain a web site with numerous resources and updates: https://www.charlottesvillepeace.org/. The Activists’ Guide, created several years ago with CCPJ’s sponsorship and continuing support, provides among other resources a curated calendar of local meetings and actions within the central Virginia peace and justice community. Nearly 500 members on the CCPJ mailing list receive monthly email blasts that record or forecast events recent or imminent. And our monthly steering sessions take place either remotely or in person (with hybrid access) at the Quaker Meeting House on Forest Street. These sessions – which are where CCPJ decides where to spend its energy and money – are open to all comers. There is no better way to have a say in CCPJ, and to learn about the network of allied organizations it fosters, than by attending. Please join us!
2023
Each year brings its unique challenges and the past twelve months were no exception. We continue to live in troubled times. The COVID pandemic seems to have abated for now, although new variants could still pose a threat. Domestic and international violence, the intensifying of the climate crisis, the need to protect individual rights and our democratic institutions show the deep need for peace with justice. In this context, the efforts of the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice are as important as they ever have been and will be. Extending the principles of peace and justice through times of change has been our mission for over forty years. Finding new ways to do so is the challenge we face now.
In May and June of 2022 we met first in person, but then via Zoom, in part to reduce travel and thereby reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Through the year, five of CCPJ’s meetings were in person and seven via Zoom. Doing so balanced the need to view decisions through an environmental lens against the desire to be together physically after the long pandemic. In June we met to stuff, seal, and label copies of our annual letter for bulk mailing to 800 addressees.
During our June meeting we heard about an initiative begun by members of the Sierra Club Piedmont Group to express support for democracy. The focal point was the United Nations established Day of Democracy to take place on September 10. The insurrection that took place on January 6, 2021, plus on-going attempts by right-wing state legislatures to suppress voter participation, to gerrymander districts to perpetuate their power, and to assault individual rights prompted the concerns of all of us. Also in June, members of CCPJ joined with members of the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention for ASK Day, “Asking Saves Kids”, to encourage gun safety in homes where children play.
In July we gathered at the Friends Meeting House for the Annual Meeting. There we elected four members to the CCPJ Board, received the treasurer’s report, and planned events for August and September. We also reviewed a statement prepared by CCPJ members in response to the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Because that decision took away a woman’s right to have an abortion by denying the validity of a right to privacy or bodily autonomy, members recognized the threat to many individual rights posed by the majority opinion. The CCPJ statement called on Congress to pass laws to protect individual rights. It is available here on our website.
On August 6 we held our annual remembrance of the bombings of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. An eight-panel display on the Downtown Mall showed the history of this use of atomic weapons and also the horrific effects that use of modern nuclear weapons would cause. This information has become vitally important as Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, threatens to use nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. The possibility of nuclear war looms over that conflict and other conflicts around the world.
CCPJ members also took part in vigils against the death penalty as the state of Oklahoma began a series of monthly executions. The vigils were organized by members of the Friends Meeting, the Quaker community in Charlottesville. (In support of those and other opponents of the death penalty, CCPJ helped the successful movement to abolish the death penalty in Virginia in 2021.) In another collaborative effort with the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention, CCPJ members tabled at the Back to School Bash, where crowds of students and their families were able to learn about gun safety in the home and pick up free school supplies. In the August meeting members appointed a UVA student as the youth member of the board.
In September we again set up the CCPJ sign urging people to vote. Located at the intersection of Hydraulic Rd. and the Route 250 By-pass, the sign quoted John Lewis’ statement, “The VOTE is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” On September 21, members of CCPJ tabled on the Downtown Mall in honor of the International Day of Peace. Many students from a local school learned about Peace Day and about CCPJ. The students gladly accepted free buttons to show their support for a variety of peace and justice causes.
In October, CCPJ joined with a dozen other organizations in the Protect Our Democracy event held on UVA grounds. This event brought students and community members together to learn about authoritarian efforts to undermine our democratic institutions and what to do about those threats. The event featured a forum with a panel including historians, local legislators, and a political cartoonist. In a spirited discussion, students and community members asked questions in order to gain a better understanding of the authoritarian forces at work in our society. During a break participants viewed tables of information from the sponsoring organizations and enjoyed pizza for lunch. After the break students and community members gathered in a very large circle and shared their experiences with activism and their views on what needs to be done now.
In November and December, we held our No War Toys campaign. We purchased radio broadcasts of our message urging people to buy peaceful, creative gifts especially for children. We held signs at the entrance to Walmart on a Saturday afternoon with the same message. This year again we set up a big sign saying “Choose Gifts that Create – Joy and Peace – Dignity and Compassion” at the intersection of Hydraulic Rd. and the Rte. 250 By-pass.
This took place in the context of a community in shock and grief at a mass shooting on UVA grounds that killed three students and wounded two others. UVA and the surrounding neighborhoods were in lock-down for hours until the shooter was arrested in Henrico County. The three students killed were well known at UVA and in the community, as they played on the football team. On December 10, students and community members came together again at a vigil on the Downtown Mall to remember victims of mass shootings, but this time with UVA added to the list.
On January 16, Martin Luther King Day, members of CCPJ joined other community members and UVA students on a bus ride to Richmond for a rally to prevent gun violence and to lobby state delegates and senators. The Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention with help from others provided the bus.
On January 25 CCPJ held a Community Gathering via Zoom to celebrate CCPJ’s 40th Anniversary and to discuss in breakout rooms the challenge of sustaining volunteer-based activist organizations. The celebration included a seven-minute video montage extending from the incorporation of the Peace Center in January of 1983 through the December 2022 vigil to remember victims of mass shootings. Playing with the pictures of rallies, actions, and program material was a recent recording by the Charlottesville Women’s Choir of “Never Turning Back.” Fifty-five participants came together for the celebration and met in small groups assigned to breakout rooms in two sets to discuss the theme.
In February and March members began planning upcoming activities particularly for Earth Day where, a member suggested, CCPJ could hand out tree seedlings for people to plant as a tangible way to help the tree canopy in the area.
On March 23 CCPJ helped with a forum on Keeping Our Community Safe from Gun Violence. The forum was co-sponsored by the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention and Walker-Buford United, an organization of parents of students. The panel for the forum included Charlottesville’s chief of police, a state senator, representatives from both Charlottesville and Albemarle public schools, and a board member of the B.U.C.K. Squad, “Brothers United to Cease the Killing”. Audience members questioned the panelists about ways to address mass shootings, local shootings by young people, and also safety from guns at school and in the home.
In March we also heard a report that the Activists’ Guide has strong viewership and a stable future. The Guide is a project that CCPJ helped start and has continued to support over the years. The Guide provides a directory of local activist groups and a calendar of upcoming events. In March members continued to plan for Earth Day with help from a board member of Cville100 and a member of the Charlottesville Tree Commission.
In April, CCPJ members put up our Save the Planet sign at the intersection of Hydraulic Rd and the Rte. 250 By-pass. We also organized an Earth Day tabling event on the Downtown Mall that brought together CCPJ, the Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club, 350-Charlottesville-Albemarle, the Citizens’ Climate Lobby plus the Charlottesville Tree Commission and Charlottesville Environmental Sustainability Division. Along with much information about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we gave away fifty Eastern Red Bud seedlings with instructions for planting and information on restoring Charlottesville’s tree canopy. The seedlings were provided by a member of the Charlottesville Tree Commission, who provided a similar number of seedlings for tabling at the IX Farmers’ Market.
During the past year the need for vigilance to protect our democracy, our planet, our communities, our rights, and the future for our children has never been greater. But we need more than vigilance, because many people are not fully aware of the dangers or do not see a path to a better future. Moreover, the forces we oppose believe that they are in a war for the nation and will say anything, use any tool to get their way.
CCPJ has always extended our message into the public sphere through public statements and events, newspaper and radio ads, and large signs in public places. Now we need more ways, creative ways, and more voices to help people grasp the deep human need for peace and justice and ways to attain those values.
We, therefore, invite you to participate in our virtual or in-person monthly meetings and in activities like those described above, and shown below!
2020
COVERING EVENTS FROM MAY 2019 THROUGH APRIL 2020
Each year at this time we thank our membership and tell you how your support and contributions to the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice have helped CCPJ maintain our strong tradition of nonviolent advocacy for peace and justice. During the past 12 months, we have continued that tradition with annual events and special projects in collaboration with other groups.
Every year our work goes forward in the context of local, national, and global events that determine both needs and opportunities. The past year, especially the past five or six months, have not been normal. Major historical forces have brought deep change to our society. Throughout this period, CCPJ has continued in the hope that together we can move our community and our nation toward greater peace and justice.
In May of 2019 we planned our annual Community Gathering as usual. We also discussed ideas for the International Day of Peace, including collaboration with the Interfaith March for Peace and Justice, a national and global effort that has a local chapter.
Members of CCPJ also spoke at a rally to urge the Charlottesville City Council to divest from fossil fuel and weapons companies. In April CCPJ had supported this divestment drive with a donation to help with publicity. The effort was successful! The Charlottesville City Council voted to divest from all entities involved in the production of fossil fuels or in the production of weapons of any size, from nuclear to handguns.
In another May tradition, members gathered for a mailing party to fold, insert in envelopes, seal, and label our Annual Report.
In June we held our Annual Community Gathering in the fellowship hall at Westminster Presbyterian, a major event each year that gives activists busily working on their own issues a chance to meet and network with activists on other issues. Thirty-seven organizations shared the purposes and activities of their work. At the beginning of the presentations we recognized that the scope of the problems we face transcends old, worn political categories. Systemic racism, economic injustice, fear and hatred intensified to acts of violence, climate change, militarism all present a massive challenge.
We recognized that we are running out of time and need a leader who has a vision of the challenges confronting us. We then recognized that in the aggregate we are that leader. Not as single individuals but as a chorus of voices each expressing aspects of the problems in front of us, we can insist that meaningful change begin now.
In June we also learned that the “Walk in My Shoe Closet” art experience project to help people enter the consciousness of being LGBTQ was ready for exhibit. CCPJ had helped this project with start-up funds in March.
In July we held our annual organizational meeting, electing five members to serve on the CCPJ board and reviewing our finances for the prior calendar year. We made plans for our annual Hiroshima / Nagasaki remembrance in early August. We voted to support Virginia Organizing with a donation, as we have for many years. Planning continued for the September 22 Interfaith March for Peace and Justice with the focus on a march around the Downtown Mall.
On July 9 members of CCPJ joined with local groups from the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention, Moms Demand Action, the League of Women Voters, and others to rally at the Capitol in Richmond in support of gun safety legislation at the special session of the General Assembly called by the governor. Participants urged legislators to bring gun legislation to the floor for a vote. The Republican-led Senate and House of Delegates adjourned within ninety minutes without acting on any legislation.
In August we commemorated the bombings of Hiroshima / Nagasaki on the Downtown Mall, with our large eight-panel display of news stories, photographs, and posters depicting the effects of nuclear weapons. CCPJ members also handed out more than 270 flyers to those stopping to view the exhibit. On the day before our effort, the Trump administration formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which heightened the possibilities of nuclear war. Members of a new Charlottesville group affiliated with the Friends Committee for National Legislation explained their overall purpose and sought support for a campaign to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
On August 12, CCJP members represented associated organizations, the Living Wage Coalition of Central Virginia and Moms Demand Action, at Unity Days Charlottesville, part of a commemoration of the events of August 16 & 17, 2017.
CCPJ members voted to provide some start-up funds for a new Activist’s Guide web site, which would provide a list of organizations, a joint calendar of events, and a list of services available. Members continued a discussion of the urgent need to act on the Climate Crisis individually while at the same time pushing for government to act. Addressing this need brought out the problem of reaching people not already part of the activist community. Members authorized the CCPJ president to work with other environmental groups to develop a program of personal response to the Climate Crisis.
On September 21 we honored the International Day of Peace with the making of Peace Flags on the Downtown Mall. CCPJ provided the materials and people young and old provided the creativity. The following day, CCPJ members carried our banner in the Interfaith March for Peace and Justice. This march coordinated with marches across the U.S. and globally.
On September 28 we tabled at the Vegan Roots Festival in Washington Park. At the festival we displayed the long string of Flags of Persistence sent to us by a group in Connecticut in 2017. Members also handed out literature, answered questions, gave away buttons and bumper stickers, added names to our e-mail list, and were soaked by a thunderstorm.
In October and November members planned CCPJ’s annual No War Toys campaign, which urges people to choose peaceful holiday gifts for family, friends, and especially the children in their lives, and to avoid toys that show using weapons as the first choice to settle conflicts. To spread this message CCPJ purchased airtime on 94.7 WPVC and on Z95 to play public service announcements, which began airing the week before Thanksgiving and continued through the holiday shopping season. On November 23, at the entrance to Walmart on Hilton Heights Rd., members of CCPJ were joined by members of the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention in our annual No War Toys demonstration. Holding signs and waving at passers-by, we urged shoppers to purchase only creative toys, not war toys.
At our monthly meetings, our representative to the Living Wage Coalition of Central Virginia reported on the coalition’s recognition of local employers who pay at least $15 per hour, and the University of Virginia’s progress with 96% of their staff at or above a living wage and work begun to provide a living wage to contract workers as well.
In December after hearing reports on the efforts of Cville100, a coalition of 18 environmental activist organizations, members voted that CCPJ seek membership in that coalition. We saw this action as a first step in our program for personal engagement to address the Climate Crisis.
On December 14, the anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, members from CCPJ joined with people from the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention and others for a vigil on the Downtown Mall to remember the many victims of mass shootings.
In January CCPJ officially joined Cville100. We developed plans to focus our efforts on urging all people, both inside and outside the activist community, to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 5 years. Other organizations in Cville100 focused on legislative agendas and on raising awareness of specific issues.
Continuing our efforts to reduce gun violence, members planned with the Charlottesville Coalition for Gun Violence Prevention a January 20 bus ride to Richmond for the annual Martin Luther King Day Vigil and Rally. The rally was cancelled when thousands of gun rights activists planned to gather in force at the capitol on that day. The possibility of violence led the governor to ban all weapons from the capitol grounds and request that all people avoid the area.
In February and March CCPJ members voted to affiliate with the World Beyond War organization. We planned a radio campaign leading up to Earth Day that would urge individuals to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 5 years. The 60-second spot was written and recorded. We also planned to march in the Dogwood Festival and Batesville Day parades. We received reports on the renovation of our web site and that the Activist’s Guide website was preparing to roll out a list of organizations, followed by a list of services and a joint calendar. Members discussed visions of CCPJ’s future use of new media to extend our message of peace with justice to more people. Our March 1 meeting was the last in-person meeting we held so far this year.
In April members of CCPJ held our first virtual meeting, as the COVID-19 pandemic compelled a general stay-at-home mandate. After making sure that everyone was in good physical and economic health, we recognized that events we had planned for the spring and early summer had to be postponed or cancelled. Members reported that renovations to the CCPJ web site continued and that the Activist’s Guide web site was nearing completion. We devoted the rest of the meeting to questions about how the pandemic was transforming and could transform our society. A great divide had been set between the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic world.
* * *
Almost no one living has experienced a crisis like this COVID-19 pandemic. This crisis challenges our vision of the scale of the problems we face and our determination to take effective action. The glaring light of reality in this pandemic has shown the great depth of flaws in our health care, economic, social, and political systems. Racial disparities in COVID-19 infections and fatalities show the persistent racism in our country. Workers we now see as essential have long been underpaid and exploited. Failures of leadership result in suffering and death. These lessons also apply to the looming crises of climate change, violence used to exploit others domestically or internationally, the breaking of treaties and agreements that were created to prevent war, and disrespect for the rule of law. One ray of hope we have learned from the COVID-19 crisis is that people are capable of changing how they do things when they are aware of imminent danger.
The time frame for this Annual Report ends before the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide protests against racist police brutality. With every new report of a police killing comes a more urgent call to unite with others to bring peace and justice to our nation. The task lies before us like never before. And so does the opportunity to effect positive change.
For 37 years the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice has been a determined, persistent, nonviolent advocate for peace and justice. Nonviolence is a way of life that contrasts sharply with the many wrongs we oppose: economic impoverishment, racism, bigotry, environmental destruction, arbitrary cruelty in our justice systems, social divisiveness, gun violence, and war itself. We have much work to do on these issues in the coming year and beyond. We welcome your involvement.
Highlights from Past Decades
