The Ribbon International is a United Nations non-governmental organization that created a large decorated cloth promoting nuclear disarmament and care and protection of the earth. In an event held on August 4, 1985, panels were connected in an 18 miles (29 km) long strip stretching from the Pentagon into Washington D.C. The event was covered in the film The Ribbon Starts Here by Nigel Noble (1988). Individual sections of the Ribbon are exhibited internationally. In 1991, The Ribbon International became a United Nations Non Governmental Organization. Ribbon events can be held for special designated days such as the International Day of Peace (September 21), Earth Day (April 21), special prayer days or other events. Panels from the Ribbon were displayed at the United Nations Decade for Women international conference in Nairobi in 1985, and others were used by members of Women for a Meaningful Summit at their demonstration at the Geneva Summit (1985). Ribbons were used at peace demonstrations at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, and the Horse Creek Missile Silo near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986.
Planning
The Ribbon International was created in 1982 as a protest against nuclear war by Justine Merritt (1924–2009). In 1975, following a trip to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in Hiroshima, Japan, Merritt conceived the idea of wrapping the Pentagon with a mile of ribbon. In her words, the wrapping would help to recall "that we love the earth and its people," analogous with tying a string around one's finger to remember something. The wrapping event took place on August 4, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Ribbon was made in the three years leading up to the Pentagon event from hundreds of panels created by local groups co-ordinated nationally by Mary Frances Jaster of Denver with state co-ordinators. Each 36 by 18 inches (91 by 46 cm) panel used embroidery, quilting, painting and other techniques. The makers were invited to convey their thoughts and emotions in the panels, with their story on the back. Friends, relatives, places of worship, and other organizations helped spread Merritt's idea throughout the United States and around the world. Local newsletters and arts and crafts magazines such as Fibre Art, Handwoven, and Quilter's Newsletter Magazine helped publicize the project. Stories leading up to the Pentagon event appeared in over 2,500 publications, including local newspapers and national publications such as McCall's, Mother Jones, People, and Vogue magazine. After the event, coverage appeared in Time magazine and on the front page of the Washington Post. The Ribbon was covered by major radio and television networks. Merritt appeared on Good Morning America in June and August (before the event) and again in November 1985.
Panels were received from contributors in every state in the United States. Every state and many towns and organizations held Ribbon joining events. Panels were received from all over the world, including Russia, England, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and Puerto Rico. A group of women with Church Women United led a grassroots effort around the country, making panels and assisting with preparations in Washington. Their newsletter, which was sent to a half a million members of the Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church in America, the Salvation Army, the Quakers, and 29 other Christian denominations, provided information on how to construct the panels. More than 3,000 Ribbon panels were contributed by this group. The California delegation contributed over 3,000 panels for the Ribbon event. In 1984, they created a display of panels that surrounded Lake Merritt in Oakland. The California group also sent panels to Hiroshima for a Ribbon event that was going to surround the Hiroshima Peace Memorial on the same day as the Pentagon event. Marie Dennis Grosso, Joan Urbanczyk, and Margaret Schellenberg of the Center for a New Creation (a peace group in Arlington, Virginia) coordinated the Washington event. The center concentrated on peacemaking, poverty and economic justice, human rights, and women's issues. Betty Bumpers, advocate for world peace and wife of former U.S. Senator and Governor of Arkansas Dale Bumpers, also worked on preparations for the Washington event with her group Peace Links, a national nonpartisan organization of women in opposition to the nuclear arms buildup. Organizers planned a 10-to-15-mile (16 to 24 km) route through Washington D.C., and met with various police authorities and the National Park Service to obtain the required permits. Security was of utmost importance; the course from Virginia into Washington travelled past some of the most important buildings and monuments in the country. Forty-nine churches and one senior's center in the Washington area hosted individual state delegations and participants. The churches held a reception for attendees and provided bag lunches, lodging, and transportation. Host churches also displayed panels.
Events in Washington
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