Peace is an ambitious word.
Peace can mean the end of a war, reconciliation between nations or the resolution of conflicts that seem impossibly large.
But for Dick Gregory, the famed civil rights activist, comedian and lifelong advocate of nonviolence whose name will now be carried by a new Plymouth peace prize, the idea was also deeply personal.
“I think the whole world would be better off if all men learn to be non-violent one day,” Gregory once said. Gregory moved his family to Plymouth, Massachusetts in the summer of 1973 when he and his wife, Lillian decided to leave Chicago to raise their children on Tower Hill Farm in town.
And in Plymouth, a group of residents is asking what that aspiration might mean on a much smaller scale — between neighbors, within a community and in the choices people make every day.
The topic is at the heart of Plymouth’s designation as the 451st International City of Peace and the creation of the inaugural Gregory Peace Prize, recognizing a Plymouth resident whose compassion, courage and commitment to peace, social justice and humanitarian service have made a lasting difference.
The award will be presented Sunday, Sept. 20, at 5 p.m. at the Plymouth Center for the Arts. Residents have until the end of August to nominate a Plymouth resident for the honor. The form asks the nominator to describe how the nominee has affected “social justice, reduced violence, expanded rights, improved dialogue, strengthened community, or other worthy pursuits of peace.”
For the Gregory family, the creation of an award carrying Dick and Lillian Gregory’s names gives new life to work that defined both of their lives.
“My family and I are moved and honored by the creation of the Gregory Peace Prize,” said their daughter Ayanna Gregory, speaking on behalf of the family. “My parents, Lillian and Dick Gregory, dedicated their lives to the tireless pursuit of peace, justice, and human dignity, and seeing their work continue to inspire grass-roots peacebuilders right here in Plymouth means the world to us.”
The prize follows Plymouth’s recognition last year of Dick and Lillian Gregory as peacemakers. Gregory, who died in 2017, was honored posthumously alongside his wife and partner in activism, who still lives in Plymouth.
Long before Gregory became internationally known as an activist, he was breaking barriers with comedy. He used humor to confront racism directly, exposing its absurdities to audiences that might otherwise have resisted the conversation.
As the Civil Rights Movement intensified during the 1960s, Gregory increasingly used his celebrity offstage, supporting voter registration efforts and civil rights organizations and participating in the movement for racial equality and nonviolence, marching and organizing alongside Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
Plymouth’s path toward becoming an International City of Peace began with Alice Lague.
Before beginning her 2024-25 term as president of the Plymouth Noontime Rotary Club, Lague attended a president-elect training session that included a seminar on International Cities of Peace, a worldwide network of communities working to foster cultures of peace.
As she listened, one thought occurred to her: “Of all the places in the United States, Plymouth should be an International City of Peace.”
The organization expects member communities to voluntarily endeavor to foster a culture of peace, reject violence, and create local action plans aimed at improving the safety, prosperity, and overall quality of life for everyone.
Her Rotary Club supported the idea, and the effort grew. Organizers approached the town, provided additional information requested by officials and ultimately went before the Select Board. In spring 2025, the select board approved the proclamation recognizing Plymouth as the 451st International City of Peace.
The initiative became a broader community collaboration supported by local civic organizations and residents. Members of Plymouth’s International City of Peace Committee include Lague; Pompey Delafield of the Plymouth Noontime Rotary Club; Bill Keohan, Plymouth Select Board member; and Lewis M. Randa, executive director of The Life Experience School and The Peace Abbey Foundation.
International Cities of Peace encourages member communities to recognize the International Day of Peace each Sept. 21. Plymouth’s observance last year honored Dick and Lillian Gregory, with Lillian and, Lague recalled, all 10 of the Gregory children gathering in the historic courtroom at Town Hall.
For Lague, it was also a reunion of sorts. Before becoming an attorney, she spent 27 years as a teacher and had taught two of the Gregory children. The ceremony was meaningful, she said, and the gathering concluded with the singing of “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
“It was one of the most moving things that I had ever been a part of,” Lague said.
Last year’s ceremony, which features a speech by Martin L. King III, can be viewed online here.
From that celebration came the idea of establishing an annual Gregory Peace Prize. Rather than have a committee simply select the recipient, organizers decided to ask Plymouth residents to nominate the people among them who are already doing the work of peacemaking.
Paper nomination forms and ballot boxes are available at the Plymouth Public Library’s main and Manomet branches, with nominations also accepted online through the end of August.
Another expression of Plymouth’s commitment to peace is visible at Town Hall.
A new Peace Pole was dedicated this summer during a visit by a 13-member delegation of students and community leaders from Shichigahama, Japan, celebrating 36 years of friendship between Plymouth and its sister city. The Plymouth Sunrise and Noontime Rotary clubs joined the town and visiting delegation for the dedication, which was also attended by Consul General Takahashi. State Representatives Kathy LaNatra and Michelle Badger attended along with town officials.
The pole carries its message in Japanese, Wampanoag and English and is expected to be permanently installed outside the Great Hall, where the Select Board meets.
The relationship behind the pole is the culmination of a decades long peace-building effort in itself. For more than three decades, residents of Plymouth and Shichigahama have traveled between the two communities, welcomed one another into their homes and built relationships across differences of language, nationality and culture.
Clearly, there is something resonant about Plymouth choosing to call itself a City of Peace.
More than four centuries ago, Plymouth was founded in part by people seeking the freedom to practice their religion. Of the 102 Mayflower passengers who arrived in 1620, only 52 survived their first winter. Their survival and the colony’s early success depended on the knowledge and assistance of the Wampanoag people who had lived on this land for thousands of years.
What followed that delicate cooperation is a reminder of the fragility of peace. The uneasy relationships of those early years eventually gave way to war, dispossession and profound losses for the Wampanoag and other Indigenous people, whose descendants remain part of this region today.
“Peace begins in how we treat one another; choosing understanding over division and honoring the dignity of every neighbor,” said Randa, of the Peace Abbey Foundation. “The Gregory Peace Prize reminds us that peace is not something we wait for, but something we co-create.
“In Plymouth, even the smallest act of peacemaking is like one candle lighting another, or a stone dropped into still water, spreading light and ripples that reach far beyond us to help shape a more peaceful world.”
Outside the room where Plymouth’s elected officials gather each week stands a simple wooden pole. In three languages, it carries the message: “May peace prevail on Earth.”
The inaugural Gregory Peace Prize will be presented Sunday, Sept. 20, at 5 p.m. at the Plymouth Center for the Arts, 11 North St. Nominations of Plymouth residents are open through the end of August and may be submitted at the Plymouth Public Library’s main and Manomet branches or online A nomination can be submitted here by Aug. 31, 2026.