Meet the elder stateswomen of the state’s protest movement

When he took the stage as the headliner of a rally at Philadelphia City Hall this month, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders may have been the most high-profile senior citizen there that day, but he was far from the only elder activist – and far from the oldest. 

Watching the 83-year-old senior senator from Vermont and marching alongside labor leaders and local organizers in the May Day protest was a small group of elder statewomen: the Granny Peace Brigade of Philadelphia, whose latest protest of the Trump administration was just another example of their activism since the brigade’s founding nearly two decades ago.

Appearing like a bunch of wizened sunflowers, wearing black and yellow with buttons on their hats and signs in tow, the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia has been active in the political and peace-proposing space dating back to 2006 during the movement against the Iraq War. 

Led by Jean Haskell, Joan Lukas and Paula Paul, the brigade’s latest anti-war demonstrations are familiar territory for the generation that came up during the Vietnam and Korean Wars. 

“It’s always been about civil rights and peace – to oppose war,” Paul, an 84-year-old who has been active with the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia for 11 years, told City & State outside City Hall during the May Day demonstrations. 

Today, the Granny Peace Brigade is coming out in full force to oppose what it sees as a war on the country’s democratic principles.

“We care about our country and we absolutely care about the freedom of speech, because you can lose it,” Paul said. “We never felt that our democracy was at stake (prior to recent years). Now there’s so much at stake.”

Brigade beginnings

The Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia originated roughly 19 years ago, mirroring demonstrations against the Iraq war taking place in New York City. 

Those protests, spearheaded by groups including the original Granny Peace Brigade in New York, Code Pink, The Raging Grannies and Peace Action, opposed that war and espoused peace and justice both in the U.S. and around the world. 

Those New York City demonstrations, which included grannies attempting to enlist in the military at a Times Square recruitment center, resulted in the arrest of several members who were demanding to be sent to Iraq in place of the young men and women who were enlisted. 

“Grannies were arrested and in jail for 18 days for trying … to get the recruiters to recruit them,” Jean Haskell, a 93-year-old who’s been on the protest front lines in Philadelphia since 2006. “We have lived our lives; we don’t want our grandchildren coming back in body bags.”

The New York demonstrations spurred a group of women in Philadelphia, some of whom were longtime activists, to come together under the same name and purpose (the Philadelphia group is not affiliated with the original chapter). 

Six months after the New York City demonstrations took place, in January 2006, the Philadelphians came together to do the same that June. 

“We were longtime activists,” Haskell said. “Many of us, including me, had been anti-Vietnam War activists, so we were happy for the opportunity to continue some activism.” She noted that early military recruitment protests led to 11 members getting arrested. On December 1, 2006, a judge dismissed the charges against them, affirming the legality of the non-violent protest.

Momma movement

“We were very active in those early days,” Haskell said, recalling that the group had more than 20 members early on, including the 11 women who were arrested at that first demonstration after bringing apple pies and pleading with recruiters. 

Lukas said they currently have about 250 members on their mailing list and had as many as 350 at their peak; about a dozen members are a consistent presence at Zoom and in-person events. 

The Granny Peace Brigade doesn’t require anyone to be a grandmother – or a mother, for that matter. The Philly-based group’s members are all over 50 years old – and happy to take up the granny mantle, regardless of offspring status. 

An ongoing demonstration for the group had been to join community activists weekly in meetings outside U.S. senators’ city offices. The group’s co-founder, Helen Evelev, who died earlier this year, was heavily involved with Tuesdays for Toomey, the grassroots activist group that met weekly to hold then-Republican Sen. Pat Toomey accountable to constituents – and to make his team aware of the group and its demands for peace. 

Now, Tuesdays for Toomey has turned into Mondays for McCormick and Fridays for Fetterman, where local advocates continue to make their presence known. On May 31, as part of the Fridays for Fetterman series, the group is expected to join a vigil and, according to their materials, be part of a “war tribunal on war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”

Outside of big events, the group meets every other week, convening in person on the second Thursday of the month at the Friends Center at 15th and Cherry streets and on the 4th Thursday via Zoom. 

Haskell, who was born and raised in West Philadelphia, has lived in the city most of her life. She went to the Philadelphia High School for Girls before studying English and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. 

“My first job was (as) a secretary. That’s what we did in those days if you weren’t teachers or nurses,” Haskell said. 

She went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in organizational psychology and worked in the organizational development space. After spending time in Chicago and Washington, D.C., Haskell said, she returned to her home city when she was about 40 and remained involved in anti-war efforts. 

Lukas, set to turn 83 in June, joined the group soon after the first demonstrations when she moved to Philadelphia. 

Just as they have been doing since the group’s founding 19 years ago, Haskell and her compatriots have hosted street actions and letter writing, phone banking and singing events. “We get older. I’m 93 and I’m still here,” Haskell said. “But it’s hard. It gets harder to organize and to get people out.” 

But as the group’s numbers continue to thin, there are concerns about succession plans and keeping the message going. 

“We do carry sheets to hand out at demonstrations … and people take them and sometimes show up at (our) meetings,” Lukas said. “But our meetings are smaller than they used to be.”

Democratic duty

Even with the prospect of standing on unyielding Philadelphia concrete for several hours on a warmer-than-usual spring day, numerous members of the Granny Peace Brigade came out to participate in the May Day demonstration pitched as a protest for “workers over billionaires.”

With signs reading “We will not be silent” and “Build an economy for all,” the group staked a unique place among the thousands of other protesters assembled on the City Hall apron. 

“We’ve had to struggle for every social program. Now, decades of work is all being reversed,” Paul said. “Make America Great Again (means) going backwards.

“We want to forge a new path and remain committed to our values,” she added, noting that the public protest space has only grown in recent years. “Not many people used to pay attention – but we share values of (wanting) equity, inclusion and kindness.”

More than anything, the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia wants younger generations to step up and speak out, to join the fray – especially members of those demographics who are despairing and looking for answers. That’s when Lukas likes to wield a motivational quote from another Philadelphia native, Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”