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“We’re the moral authority of our nation. Our responsibility is to be the other voice and the other authority because there’s a dual authority in the country. There’s one authority representing the reactionary and evil and criminal policies of this administration, and then there’s the authority of people who love and yearn for justice and peace and human rights.”— Damu Smith, January 21, 2005
The American Friends Service Committee has been saddened at the news of the death of Damu Smith. We have known Damu for a long time as a passionate voice for justice and peace, the expansion of the peace movement and the full inclusion of people of color and their issues in the work of the peace movement.
Damu Smith, the founder of Black Voices for Peace and the National Black Environmental Justice Network, never stopped working to organize people in the quest for peace. Damu’s commitment to justice and peace was his lifetime mission: whether organizing on racism in the United States, the US peace movement, or South Africa; working for a homeland for Palestinians and peace in the Middle East; or bringing attention to health and environmental issues affecting poor communities of color in the south or across the world. It is this legacy of organizing work and struggle in the world that Damu leaves as a challenge for all who desire to see a world free of racism, economic injustice, and war.
Damu Smith worked for the American Friends Service Committee’s Washington Office from 1978 to 1983 as the Associate Director. Damu also served as a Co-Clerk for the American Friends Service Committee’s Third World Coalition, a department of the AFSC created by people of color to help end the practices and impact of racism in the AFSC and its’ work. Damu understood better than most that the struggle to end war and poverty in the world could only happen with the inclusion and participation of people of color. His work for environmental justice, both during his several years at Greenpeace and as the founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, was inspired. Damu challenged both communities of color and the white peace movement with articles like “Black America’s Stake in the Struggle for Disarmament and Peace” written and published in Freedomways magazine in 1980. Damu worked for years trying to make the connections between the peace movement and communities of color.
Damu believed that the AFSC could be an important part of unifying the peace movement and giving leadership in the effort to deal with the racism that is very much a part of the movement itself. Damu said in a 1985 memo to the AFSC that “the organic involvement of Black and third world leaders and organizations (in the peace movement) to the degree that they ought to substantially be, is not yet a reality. In fact it may not ever materialize to the extent that is politically acceptable. However, I am a realist and I do understand the internal dynamics of the US peace involvement and its racist, racial, and organizational shortcomings. It is a fact of life that we all must work hard to unify the peace movement. The primary responsibility for this lies with white people, white leadership and white peace organizations. To that end, AFSC has an important role to play in the broader peace movement.”
Damu Smith made his transition from this world to be with the ancestors on the morning of May 5, 2006. The US peace and human rights movements and struggling peoples everywhere have been strengthened because of the contributions of Damu Smith. We urge all those who believe in justice to help keep the legacy of Damu alive: the spirit of continual struggle.
Contributions in Damu’s honor may be made, at his request, to the Asha Moore Smith Trust c/o Praxis Project, 1750 Columbia Rd. NW, Second Floor, Washington DC 20009. Asha Moore Smith is Damu’s 13-year-old daughter.