The Peace Symbol: A Transformative Antiwar Logo and Social Justice Icon

How a symbol originally representing Nuclear Disarmament became a worldwide icon of Social Justice.

If you would conduct a worldwide opinion survey to discover one wish for the future of humanity shared across societies and cultures, the chances are that universal yearning would be for peace. The world without war and strife, without sectarian violence, without the omnipresent threat of terrorism — certainly these yearnings are among our most cherished but unrequited dreams.

Post World War II generations attached themselves to this idealistic quest early in their adult lives. Some demonstrated for peace. Some molded lifestyles eschewing violence, whether through nonviolent civil disobedience or conscientious objection to military service. Some sought to influence national war policies through political engagement. Some joined the military to fight for long-term peace. Some joined the military as clergy or nurses. The yearning for peace became the theme of many rock ’n’ roll folk songs, with these lyrics among the noteworthy:

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?[1]

— Pete Seeger, Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

For these generations coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s, peace became a preoccupation.

And one icon subsumed their hopes for a better future: the peace symbol. The graphic image tapped into a collective set of values emerging during the generations’ youth, from antiauthoritarian attitudes to youthful thoughts of a more utopian society. To some, it took on inspirational import about moral values similar to symbols of the world’s great religions.

With its growing emotional and motivational subtext, the peace symbol eventually became a useful selling tool as businesses refined modern marketing techniques to create a revolution in product sales. Marketers quickly recognized the strategic value of co-opting the symbol for product positioning. So-called “head shops” filled initial consumer demand by offering peace symbols as stained glass sun catchers, silver necklaces, refrigerator magnets, tie-dyed t-shirts, and myriad posters. Eventually so did K-Mart and Wal-Mart.

On April 4, 2008, the peace symbol turned 50. The story about how it has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the post-World War II generations is significant.

In the spring of 1958, Gerald Holtom, a textile designer and graphic artist from Great Britain, set out to create a mark that could be used at protest events pressing for nuclear disarmament. In perhaps one of the most inspired days of identity design during the 20th century, the artist brought together semaphore symbols for N and D, surrounded by a circle representing the globe. On April 4th, five thousand people gathered at Trafalgar Square in London to support the Ban the Bomb movement and to protest testing and stockpiling of fissionable materials by the world’s largest industrial powers. It was on this day that Holtom’s memorable icon made its debut.

Protestors walked a few miles from the Square to Aldermaston, location of an atomic weapons research facility. Their placards carried the succinct message of protest in this new and undefined symbol. It needed no explanation, whether viewers understood the symbolic implications or not. Reactions were not always positive; some saw the devil in the logo.

The peace symbol quickly spread to other protest movements representing opposition to the Vietnam War, the quest for civil rights, a growing outcry against environmental degradation, and spirited marches for gender equality. The symbol persisted through Vietnam and onward into the debates about wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

The peace symbol received overdue commemoration in a book published in April 2008 by the National Geographic Society, PEACE: The Biography of a Symbol. Author Ken Kolsbun observed that the symbol “continues to exert almost hypnotic appeal. It’s become a rallying cry for virtually any group working for social change.”

[1] “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” words and music by Pete Seeger, copyright 1961