The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Venezuelan opposition chief María Corina Machado. This week in From the Archives, we’ll be looking again at notable Nobel Peace Prize winners with ties to Boston.
Worldwide Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Warfare
In 1985, the Boston-based group Worldwide Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Warfare acquired the Nobel Peace Prize for organizing the medical group in opposition to nuclear weapons.
The IPPNW, solely 5 years outdated on the time of the award, was based by cardiologists Bernhard Lown and Yevgeny Chazov from Newton and the Soviet Union, respectively. The Herald reported in 1985 that the group was created as a result of the docs realized the importance of Soviet and American physicians coming collectively on the problem.
“It is the Committee’s opinion that this organization has performed a considerable service to mankind by spreading authoritative information and by creating an awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic warfare,” the award announcement stated.
Elie Wiesel
Holocaust survivor and activist Elie Wiesel gained the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 in recognition of a lifelong dedication to peace and talking out in opposition to violence and racism.
He authored a extremely influential memoir, “Night,” about his experiences throughout the Holocaust and went on to show at Boston College. Wiesel additionally held annual public lectures at BU and the higher Boston space.
“It pleases me because I may say that this honor belongs to all the survivors and their children, and through us, to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified,” Wiesel stated in his acceptance speech.
“No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil rights chief Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his management within the nonviolent protest motion. 4 years later, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Earlier than his activism formally started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, King studied at Boston College, incomes a doctorate in systematic theology. He additionally met his spouse, Coretta Scott, in Boston – a relationship that has since been honored with the Embrace statue within the Boston Frequent, modeled from a photograph of the pair taken after King gained the Nobel Peace Prize.
