The American Peace Award is awarded to American Citizens working to further the cause of world peace.

The 1924 American Peace Award

The American Peace Award was created in 1923 by Edward W. Bok

Edward W. Bok

Edward William Bok was a Dutch born American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. He was editor of the Ladies Home Journal for thirty years...

, who believed that the United States Government was not taking initiative to promote peace in the world . $100,000 was to be awarded to the person submitting “the best practicable plan by which the United States may co-operate with other nations for the achievement and preservation of world peace.” The first half of the prize was awarded upon the selection of the plan by a jury, and the remainder upon acceptance by the United States Senate or showing “sufficient popular support” . The 1924 American Peace Award received plans from thousands of applicants, and caught the interest of the Senate. The prize was awarded in February 1924 to Doctor Charles Herbert Levermore

Charles Herbert Levermore

Doctor Charles Herbert Levermore received an A.B. from Yale, class of 1879, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, 1885. At the latter institution he became friends with a young Woodrow Wilson, both being fellow members of the Glee Club. Later he became a Professor of History at Massachusetts Institute...

, who was secretary of the World Court League, the League of Nations Union

League of Nations Union

The League of Nations Union was an organization formed in the United Kingdom to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was established by the Great Powers as part of the Paris...

, and the New York Peace Society

New York Peace Society

The New York Peace Society was the first peace society to be established in the United States. It has had several different incarnations, as it has merged into other organizations or dissolved and then been re-created.- First incarnation :...

 . Levermore’s plan suggested the United States adhere to the Permanent Court of International Justice

Permanent Court of International Justice

The Permanent Court of International Justice, often called the World Court, was an international court attached to the League of Nations. Created in 1922 , the Court was initially met with a good reaction from states and academics alike, with many cases submitted to it for its first decade of...

 and should extend its cooperation with the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

.

The Contemporary American Peace Award

The American Peace Award was established in 2008 as a prize awarded to an American citizen or citizens working to further the cause of world Peace, in the spirit of Edward W. Bok’s original award. The American Peace Award is awarded by an advisory committee of artists, who present each recipient with an original work of art to honor their efforts.

Recipients

• 1924 Charles Herbert Levermore
  Charles Herbert Levermore
  Doctor Charles Herbert Levermore received an A.B. from Yale, class of 1879, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, 1885. At the latter institution he became friends with a young Woodrow Wilson, both being fellow members of the Glee Club. Later he became a Professor of History at Massachusetts Institute...
  
  
• 2008 Cindy Sheehan
  Cindy Sheehan
  Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan is an American anti-war activist whose son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President...
  
  
• 2009 Rosalynn Carter
  Rosalynn Carter
  Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
  
   and Jimmy Carter
  Jimmy Carter
  James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...