In the 17th century it was illegal to be a Quaker in the British Isles. Collecting on a debt inherited from his father, William Penn here accepts a grant of land from King Charles II in lieu of money. He used the grant to establish Pennsylvania (“Penn’s Woods”) and invited Quakers and others seeking religious freedom to settle there in 1681.
Library of Congress
Library of Congress
In the 17th century it was illegal to be a Quaker in the British Isles. Collecting on a debt inherited from his father, William Penn here accepts a grant of land from King Charles II in lieu of money. He used the grant to establish Pennsylvania (“Penn’s Woods”) and invited Quakers and others seeking religious freedom to settle there in 1681.
The history, deep faith and enduring impact of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers, are richly illuminated in Quakers: The Quiet Revolutionaries, broadcasting Tuesday June 9 on WITF.
From women’s suffrage to civil rights and environmental justice to pacifism, the Quakers have left their mark on America and the world. Yet, as a relatively small denomination of less than 400,000, their influence far outweighs their numbers.
Quakers: The Quiet Revolutionaries brings this iconic, yet often unheralded, faith into focus through interviews, archival footage and dramatizations. The film follows its history from the United Kingdom, where it was illegal to be a Quaker, to America, where Quakers found religious freedom, economic opportunity and an evolving nation ripe for their activism.
The film tells the story of a spiritual movement that has played a remarkable role in the religious, social and political life of our nation. Demonstrating an influence disproportionate to their numbers, Quakers have led anti-slavery, civil rights and women’s rights movements and been strong advocates for world peace.
The film travels to locations in the U.K., Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, New York, and Indiana that figure prominently in the Quakers’ history. Quakers opens with present-day father-daughter activists George and Ingrid Lakey, founders of Philadelphia’s Earth Quaker Action Team. They led a successful campaign to get PNC Bank to discontinue financing mountaintop-removal coal mining that pollutes the water and disfigures the landscape.
The Quakers’ far-reaching impact is illustrated through their most significant causes and the people who helped lead them, from William Penn to the Lakeys. The abolition movement awakened the country to the inhumanity of slavery. The women’s suffrage movement won the vote for women thanks to the shrewd leadership of Quakers Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott. Bayard Rustin brought the concept of nonviolent protest to Martin Luther King Jr., while Quakers practiced principled pacifism and humanitarianism during the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War.
However, Quakers: The Quiet Revolutionaries doesn’t gloss over the Quakers’ contradictions, such as their reluctance to integrate their own schools and meetings while leading the effort to abolish the slavery of African Americans. The film takes on the two Quaker presidents – Herbert Hoover, who denied government aid to impoverished Americans during the Depression and Richard Nixon, whose crimes as president belied his Quaker faith.
Watch Quakers: The Quiet Revolutionaries Tuesday June 9 at 8pm on WITF. This program is not available on-demand through the PBS Video app.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
