Ebook Overview: ‘Dancing with Historical past’

Even among those unfamiliar with his name, countless people involved in movements for peace, racial justice, environmental justice, LGBTQ+ rights, trade unions, and other important causes have been impacted by George Lakey’s more than six decades of activism. The radical Quaker activist, trainer, writer, and teacher has helped shape important aspects of the analysis, vision, strategy, training, and education of much of today’s democratic left. An impressive number of his former students at the colleges and universities where he has taught have gone on to become prominent leaders and thinkers in their own right, thanks to his mentorship.

Lakey’s memoir Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice tells his personal story—from his working class origins in a small rural Pennsylvania coal town, to an Ivy League graduate program, to his key role in the founding of such groups as Movement for a New Society, Training for Change, Earth Quaker Action Team, and Jobs with Justice, which have had a lasting legacy in today’s popular struggles. One is struck how at each stage of his life, Lakey is constantly learning and growing, taking lessons from his Methodist upbringing, his education as a white student at a historically Black college, his study of sociology, his experiences living abroad, his experiments in urban communal living, and his participation and leadership in the great social movements of our time. 

This is a rare memoir that not only engages the reader, but forces one to think about how we can be more effective agents for change. Lakey was well ahead of his time on many of the seminal political struggles since the 1950s, but he repeatedly emphasizes that being right is not enough—you also have to think strategically. For example, while committed to pacifism as a personal ethic, he also acknowledges the critical importance of recognizing the strategic advantages of nonviolent action. And his stories underscore the importance that nonviolent action campaigns be as well-planned, creative, and tactical as military or electoral campaigns.

At the outset, in noting the exclamation “Presente!” common among Latin American activists, Lakey declares that “my life’s mission for peace, justice, and equality is to make it right for everyone to be present.” Long before “intersectionality” became a movement buzzword, he was cognizant that for a movement to succeed, it had to be aware of how issues of racism, sexism, classism, and other forms of oppression play out not just in the country’s political, economic, and social system, but in our interactions with each other.

Indeed, his stories do not just describe his activism, but his process of deciding when to become engaged in popular struggles (and when to step back), and the growth in his understanding of how he and others could have the most impact. For Lakey, this includes the importance of taking the time for self-care, including family, friendships, faith, and community. In his memoir, Lakey comes across not just as smart and courageous, but profoundly human, with all the frustrations, sadness, joy, and excitement of living.  

His stories do not just describe his activism, but the growth in his understanding of how he and others could have the most impact.

He is frank about personal hardships and struggles, including the death of his only son, the difficulties in balancing activism and family, and his near-terminal bout with cancer. He reflects on coming out as bisexual—and non-monogamous—at a time when such identities pushed the limits of tolerance even in progressive circles. His creativity in dealing with both attacks from the right and the internecine struggles of the left is quite inspirational. And the ways in which he has balanced his belief in nonviolent direct action (his accounts of his frequent arrests are among the book’s highlights) and his ability to gain the respect of elected officials provide significant lessons. 

The importance of music comes up repeatedly in Lakey’s memoir. An accomplished pianist, one of his great joys is leading others in singing, from Broadway tunes to an annual singalong of Handel’s Messiah. In so many ways, Lakey reminds us of the importance—even when faced with the horrifying realities facing the world today—of maintaining a balanced life, of self-care, and creative self-expression.  

Lakey has spent most of his life, including to this day, in a racially-mixed neighborhood in Philadelphia, one of the United States’ poorest big cities. He sees the impact of U.S. militarism and the grossly distorted priorities of government spending every day in the poor public education, housing, transit, healthcare, and overall infrastructure around him. As a result, he has long pushed the anti-war movement to focus not just on the impact of war on its immediate victims, but on the need to change spending priorities to meet the needs of ordinary Americans. His key role in the initially successful campaign against the B-1 Bomber and related campaigns serve as a model of how the peace movement can attract the support of trade unions and minority communities by not just opposing unnecessary wars and weapons systems, but focusing on alternatives.

Three-quarters of the book takes us only through the late 1970s, and it feels like the subsequent forty-five years are given short shrift—even though they include some of the most significant events in Lakey’s remarkable personal and political life. It leaves the reader with a longing to learn more, particularly since the final chapters include Lakey’s ongoing contributions, even in his mid-eighties, to contemporary struggles against the growing threats from climate change and the authoritarian right. Despite this, it is hard not to be inspired, not just by his personal story, but through his reminders of how individuals can indeed make a difference. 

The title of Lakey’s memoir acknowledges history’s drive, but leaves open the possibility that when it comes to history, thoughtful and determined activists can also lead history. He notes how activism, like dancing, requires skill, community, imagination, and daring. This memoir is an invitation to join in the dance.