Two Legacies, One Vision: The Sargent Shriver-James H. Laue Connection
ICAR recently had the privilege of competing with top universities to secure an endowment from the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute. Months of work by ICAR Director, Sara Cobb, in collaboration with faculty and ICAR's broader affiliates, produced an impressive thirty-two page proposal and video. The proposal draws on ICAR’s 30-year history as a leader in the field of conflict resolution, advancing a future vision of positive social change amidst the urgency of the present demand for justice and an end to violence. In proposing that ICAR become the Sargent Shriver School for the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict, we considered the life and work of Sargent Shriver. Renowned for decades of service, he built national programs like the Peace Corps and Head Start, as well as programs to eradicate poverty, racial injustice, and social inequity. As reflective practitioners, we revisited our own history, recalling its early voices–including the late James Laue, a beloved colleague who helped to shape ICAR’s early institutional vision and programming.
Laue's 1960s sit-in research initiated his friendships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Andrew Young, and other civil rights leaders and his lifetime pursuit of justice through peacemaking. In his early public life at the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service (CRS), at a time when racial unrest raged in the South and across urban America, Laue and his colleagues broke new ground in racial conflict intervention work.
After leaving CRS, Laue continued developing intervention theory and techniques at Harvard University Medical, at Washington University, and at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. In St. Louis, he headed up the Center for Metropolitan Studies, investigating conflicts like inmate grievance procedures, school desegregation, and urban development. Laue's pragmatic approach focused on results that changed people's lives. Realizing the growing strain on communities, he leveraged academic knowledge and resources to address real world problems.
Laue's expertise in community conflict intervention earned him national recognition and he began to develop the field by strengthening and expanding conflict resolution networks such as the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution and developing institutions to prosper the work. Laue and others envisioned the creation of a peace academy where the government would invest in, and support, the training of a cadre of skilled peacemaking scholar/practitioners. The nine-year grass-roots effort resulted in the establishment of the United States Institute for Peace, which currently receives a multi-million dollar appropriation, and is constructing "Peacemakers Plaza" near the National Mall, which will draw an anticipated 400,000 visitors annually.
Laue also advanced the academic discipline of conflict resolution through theory-building (most notably his contribution to applied ethics) and innovative practice related to his work with the Conflict Clinic, Inc., which he helped bring to Mason. His greatest contribution was his ability to inspire others—through intellect, humor, compassion, and an unfailing moral compass—to strive for higher ground as individuals and as communities.
As we look to the past to imagine the future, it is apparent that the far-reaching visions and pragmatic approaches of both Laue and Shriver hold the dignity of the person and the service of communities as their central purpose, with the aim of advancing opportunities, particularly for those most marginalized. The consideration of these two iconic figures has inspired the proposal of new ICAR initiatives: The Sargent Shriver Legacy Initiative, the Media and Conflict Resolution Initiative, the Social Inequality and Collaborative Engagement Initiative, and the Spiritual Peacemakers Network, which reflect what Laue and Shriver clearly understood—that people come before programs and institutions.
ICAR's greatest strength is its character, conviction, and capacity to serve others through its expansive network. While the Shriver endowment is pending, we remain confident that ICAR will continue to lead the field of peacebuilding, through its accomplishments and through its abiding commitment to pursue justice and to labor for peace.