Peace Corps staff

Rowland Scherman was the first photographer for the Peace Corps in 1961, documenting the work of volunteers all over the world. His photos helped define the image of the agency we know today. He became a free lance photographer in 1963. His photographs appeared in Life, Look, National Geographic, Time, Paris Match, and Playboy among many others. He photographed many of the iconic musical, cultural and political events of the 60’s including the 1963 Newport Folk Festival, the March on Washington, DC, the Beatles first US concert and Woodstock. At the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, final speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which he called for an end to racism and racial segregation. As we honor Dr. King today, in his Photographer’s Newsletter, published on January 14, Rowland revisits the March on . . .

Former NPR President and U.S. Ambassador Delano Lewis has died at 84 By Natalie Escobar Published August 2, 2023 Delano Lewis, a former president of National Public Radio and U.S. ambassador to South Africa, is dead at 84. He died on Wednesday while in hospice care in Las Cruces, N.M., according to the Las Cruces Bulletin. Lewis was named president of NPR in 1993, becoming the first Black person to take the role. He came to the job with a long resume, including many leadership positions within Washington, D.C.’s politics and business circles. Born in 1938 in Arkansas City, Kan., Lewis grew up in a segregated community, and became interested in civil rights law at a young age, according to the Bulletin. After graduating law school from the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka in 1963, he eventually took positions at the Justice Department and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thus began a long . . .

  The Call: The Spiritual Realism of Sargent Shriver by Jamie Price 336 pages SSPI Press March 2023 $11.49 (Kindle); $22.00 (Paperback)   The Call looks at the role of the spirit in the life and work of one of the most accomplished American peacebuilders of the 20th twentieth century, Robert Sargent Shriver (1915-2011), founder of the Peace Corps and architect of the War on Poverty. Author Jamie Price knew Shriver personally and served as the Founding Director of several programs dedicated to understanding and advancing Shriver’s approach to leadership and peacebuilding. The Call is an imagined dialogue between Sargent Shriver and the character of Didymus about the role of the spirit in Shriver’s efforts to build peace. Its title alludes to the pivotal moment when Shriver received the phone call from his brother-in-law, the newly-inaugurated President John F. Kennedy, asking him to be Director of the as-yet-nonexistent Peace Corps. . . .

This Profile benefited greatly from a Peace Corps WorldWide publication. by Jeremiah Norris (Colombia 1963-65) • Rowland Scherman writes: Like so many others, I was thrilled by JFKs inaugural speech. Although I wasn’t a professional photographer, I made a few dollars doing portraits out of a makeshift studio or ‘on location’ on the streets of New York City. I shared a crappy little darkroom with a friend. But JFKs words made me think that I could do something more, and could reach a higher potential if I volunteered my work, and myself to the betterment of my country, instead of simply chasing a buck. I thought my services just might somehow be useful to the new administration.” Rowland took a bus to Washington, D. C. to seek work with the Peace Corps, announcing his potential availability as an official photographer. He went to Peace Corps headquarters, then a jumble of . . .

  Left Bank Books  at 399 N. Euclid Street, St. Louis, presents St. Louis author Jaye P. Willis, with Reginald E. Petty in our store on November 21st at 6 p.m. Join us in the store or on YouTube Live Page. This is a poetic and prose praise song to Mr. Reginald E. Petty. He is from a small town in Southern Illinois called East St. Louis. It is now considered an economically deprived city, but it never stopped his drive and passion to make it better, as well as himself. The book speaks to his upbringing and what makes him a legend to not only the citizens of his hometown, but throughout the world — particularly in Africa. Mr. Petty was one of the first African American Peace Corps Country Directors, appointed by the U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He served in several African nations and went on to . . .

  “Spirit of the 60’s” Provincetown Art Association Museum 13 May to June something.   Forever Young; Rowland Scherman – Profile Of An Iconic 1960s Photographer The article (above) in the March 15 issue of  Cape Cod Wave  carries the story by Brian Tracy of photographer Rowland Sherman (PC staff) from the time he was 9 and met Babe Ruth, through his years with the Peace Corps, and up to the opening of the show of his work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum opening on May 24th. And it’s filled with great shots and stories including the famous blue Bob Dylan halo photo that ended up on his Greatest Hits album.    

The Cape Cod Chronicle 3 February 2021 by Susanna Graham-Pye     HARWICH – Educators at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School are eagerly exploring ways to use a recent gift of photographs, many depicting iconic moments from the civil rights movement. In one photo, the leaders and organizers of the August 1963 March on Washington sit at the feet of the sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in his memorial; in another Marlon Brando stands with his arm slung over James Baldwin’s shoulder, as the pair looks out over the National Mall on that same day. Faces from the crowd fill other photos: of volunteers at workstations, of college students painting signs and children earnestly watching it all. Pictures show Jackie Robinson at the march, hugging his son David, and Harry Belafonte speaking; Peter Paul and Mary singing and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. flanked by Floyd McKissick, Matthew Ahmann and Reverend Eugene . . .