Grace DeGraff

Grace DeGraff was born in Thomson, Illinois, on March 12, 1879, and came to Oregon in 1904.  She was a leader in educational activities in Oregon and worked for international peace until her death in 1951.

DeGraff was principal of Kenton Grade School in Portland, Oregon for 30 years. She organized and was the first president of the Portland Grade School Teachers Association, and subsequently became the 2nd president of the National League of Teachers Association, forerunner to the National Education Association.

In 1915, DeGraff was the only woman west of the Mississippi to go with a delegation of 47 U.S. women, led by Jane Addams, to attend the first Women’s International Peace Congress at The Hague.  This Congress was attended by over 1,000 women from both warring and neutral countries.  Its purpose was to help set up arbitration to put an end to World War I and the women drafted and presented peace proposals to heads of state. Although the women did not succeed in this effort, ensuing years saw the adoption of some of the Congress’ key proposals, including creation of a society of nations and a permanent international court of justice. 

The Congress later continued as the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, with many chapters throughout the United States and the world, and with NGO status at the United Nations.  DeGraff helped found the WILPF chapter in Portland, Oregon in the 1920s.

In 1916, DeGraff enlisted in the Henry Ford Peace Expedition to Europe aboard the ship Oscar II again with the mission of helping bring an end to the war.  While aboard the ship, in company with two other leaders of teachers’ organizations, she issued the following statement which received broad press coverage:

To The Teachers of all the World:

In your hands more than in any other lies the future of the world.  You must choose whether you will train the rising generation in the militaristic spirit that has engulfed Europe in death, desolation and misery, or whether you will use your every endeavor to counteract the legacy of hate that will be bequeathed to the children and will teach them that only in the time of peace is the progress of the world possible.

We appeal to you to join with us in a world-wide protest against military training in our schools as detrimental to the self-control and originality of the youths subjected to it.  If this world is to swing happily along in its course it must be peopled by courageous free men and women, not by races subordinated by the cowardly severity bred by military autocracy.

We appeal to you to demand the re-writing of all text-books in history, so that wholesale murderers may no longer be crowned as heroes but instead the story be told of those who by their insight and imagination have blazed the trail to new realms of thought, or have made life easier or more enjoyable by their inventive genius. 

In a word, we appeal to you to teach the truth to the children under your care so that they may no longer be dazzled and blinded by the glittering lies of militarism, but shall see clearly that progress and peace swell together, and that the highest happiness is reached when the world is our country – humanity our race. 

Women at the turn of the century broadened their sphere, with suffrage as the final step to include politics and public policy along with the family-oriented world of domesticity.  Grace purchased a home overlooking downtown Portland and owned and drove a Studebaker.  In the 1930s, she was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to a reception at the White House honoring outstanding women.

Submitted by: Karen James, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Portland Branch