1950's International Reconciliation
In Korea, FOR member Ham Sok Hon is jailed for advocating peaceful co-existence between North and South Korea. In the USA, the FOR fights racial segregation, pioneering attempts to apply the tactics used by Mahatma Gandhi in India in the racial justice struggle in the US; in Europe, IFOR travelling secretaries Jean and Hildegard Goss Mayr work for reconciliation between East and West.
1960's Peace Work in Latin America
The Goss-Mayrs conduct nonviolence trainings throughout Latin America, leading to the 1975 founding of the Latin American peace and justice network Servicio Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ).
1968 Opposing Vietnam
FOR/USA invites Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn (later nominated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize) on a speaking tour seeking an end to the war in Vietnam.
1958 Independence in the Congo
IFOR leader in Belgium, Jean Van Lierde created the “African Presence of Friends” which worked to develop a nonviolent strategy for the independence of Congo and demonstrating actively against the Belgian government. Van Lierde was a friend and advisor to Patrice Lumumba , the first Prime Minister of independent Congo, murdered in 1961 and encouraged Lumumba to utter his famous anti-colonial discourse during the independence ceremony of the Congo, which sharply criticized the paternalism King Baudouin.
1964 Dr. King Receives the Nobel Prize
FOR- USA Member, Martin Luther King Jr. is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace and travels to Oslo to accept the prize.