Egg Harbor City Native Peace Pilgrim Nominated For New Jersey Hall Of Fame

Egg Harbor City native and renowned activist Peace Pilgrim has once again been nominated for induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the Friends of Peace Pilgrim announced on Thursday.

She was nominated in 2014 and was listed under her birth name, but failed to receive enough votes to be inducted into the hall.

Peace Pilgrim was nominated for the Class of 2016 in the Public Service category, along with other notable New Jerseyans, including Aaron Burr, Molly Pitcher, Antonin Scalia and Richard Stockton.

Voters can cast their ballots at njhalloffame.org. The public voting period ends Sunday, Nov. 27 and the inductees will be announced in December.

Peace Pilgrim, born Mildred Lisette Norman in Egg Harbor City in 1908 is a world renowned peace activist who dedicated her life to spreading a simple but profound message of peace: “This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.”

After a long period of personal reflection, she relinquished her past and adopted her true identity, changing her name to Peace Pilgrim.

She became the first woman to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one season in 1952.

The following year, on Jan. 1, 1953, she embarked on a 27-year pilgrimage for peace at the head of the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.

She walked highways and byways alone and penniless, sharing the knowledge that peace in the world would become reality when enough people experienced inner peace.

She vowed to remain a wanderer until mankind learned the way of peace, fasting until given food and walking until given shelter.

Everything needed to sustain her life was provided without asking. She walked with no money or possessions.

All she owned – a toothbrush, comb, pencil and scraps of paper – was contained in the pocket of her blue tunic, which bore the words, “25,000 miles on foot for peace.” She passed away in 1981.

“She touched the lives of tens of thousands of people one step at a time,” Friend of Peace Pilgrim board member Barbara Reynolds said.

Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania houses a collection of Peace Pilgrim’s writings in its Peace Library.
The International Friends of Peace Pilgrim keeps her message alive by distributing her book, “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words,” and her pamphlet, Steps Toward Inner Peace, which has been translated into 29 languages, free of charge to anyone who asks.

Since its formation in 2008, the Hall of Fame has inducted dozens of famous New Jerseyans who have overcome every imaginable obstacle and challenge. Some survived war or overcame the bleakness of poverty; they conquered fear and disability and rebounded from untold rejections and failure.

“When you look at the list of inductees into the New Jersey Hall of Fame they include actors, athletes, authors and admirals. Certainly, someone who has her roots and family in New Jersey and has done so much to foster peace among nations, groups and individuals should be among them,” Reynolds said.

A total of 50 New Jerseyans are nominated in five categories, including Arts and Letters, Enterprise, Performing Arts, Public Service and Sports. Voters can select one candidate in each category.

For more information about Peace Pilgrim, see peacepilgrim.org. To learn more about the New Jersey Hall of Fame, see njhalloffame.org.

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