Portal:1980s/Selected biography/18
Mrs. Betty Bumpers
First Lady of Arkansas. She is an advocate for childhood immunizations and world peace. She and Rosalynn Carter ran a successful campaign to ensure that all American school children were immunized. She is also the widow of Dale Bumpers, former state governor and U.S. Senator.
A 1981 conversation with her college-student daughter, Brooke, inspired Betty Bumpers to become a
nuclear war
or the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. Betty Bumpers' light-hearted response of "Well, honey, I guess we’d just go back to Arkansas" did not silence her daughter, who responded "Don’t be so stupid, Mother," and asked what would happen if Arkansas was destroyed. Her realization that her daughter considered nuclear war to be a real threat to her future motivated Betty Bumpers to start a campaign for peace.
After discussing the matter with her fellow Senate wives and other like-minded women in Washington, Betty Bumpers decided to work to bring mainstream American women into the campaign for a nuclear weapons freeze, building on her earlier experience with grassroots volunteer activism. She started the organization Peace Links in
parent teacher associations, and church organizations to educate women about the consequences of the nuclear arms race and to engage them in campaigning for world peace. Within a short time, Peace Links expanded beyond Arkansas and counted some 30,000 members around the United States. It operated as a national organization for nearly 20 years, disbanding in 2001 after the end of the Cold War. (Full article...
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