Garry Davis (born
Bar Harbor, Maine, July 27, 1921) is a peace activist who created the first "
World Passport."
Early Life
Davis was the son of Meyer & Hilda Davis. He graduated from
The Episcopal Academy in 1940 and attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now
Carnegie Mellon University); he also earned an M.A. in Geo-dialectics from the East-West University of Brahma Vidya, Bangalore, India.
Renunciation of US citizenship
A former Broadway actor, after serving in the US Air Force during WWII as a B-17 bomber pilot, he renounced his American citizenship in Paris in 1948 to become a "citizen of the world." Davis interrupted a session of the United Nations General Assembly on November 22, 1948 calling for "one government for one world." He founded the International Registry of World Citizens in Paris in January, 1949 which registered over 750,000 individuals. On September 4, 1953 Davis declared the World Government of World Citizens from the city hall of
Ellsworth, Maine, based on fundamental human rights. He then formed the
World Service Authority in 1954 as the government's executive and administrative agency, which now issues the passports - along with birth and other certificates - to applicants. Davis first used his "world passport" on a trip to India in 1956, and has been variably admitted into or jailed by countries around the world after using his world passport. Over 150 countries have accepted the world passport at one time or another. In France, his support committee was co-founded by writers
Albert Camus and
André Gide and the
Abbé Pierre.
Davis ran for mayor in Washington D.C. in 1986 as the candidate of the "World Citizen Party" receiving 585 votes. He also declared himself as the World Citizen Party candidate for the 1988 US presidential election. Davis has published multiple books in favor of his cause of world citizenship.
At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro Davis issued and disbursed a world currency based on kilowatt hours of solar power produced, an idea proposed by Buckminster Fuller. These "kilowatt dollars" were the earliest documented emissions reduction currency.
Bibliography
ISBN 0929765087
ISBN 159457166X
ISBN 0970648375
ISBN 0970648340
ISBN 0970648391
ISBN 0738826243
References
Additional books:
Dear World, A Global Odyssey, ISBN-0-97064833-1-6; Views From My Space, ISBN-1-4392-1792-0; World Peace Is You (ebook)-www.worldpeaceisyou.com
Sources
"What's a World Passport?" Daniel Engber, Slate Magazine. http://www.slate.com/id/2138567/?nav=tap3 Accessed March 25, 2006.
Garry Davis's blog. http://www.worldservice.org/gdblog.html Accessed March 25, 2006.
Davis v. District Director, INS, 481 F. Supp. 1178 (D.D.C. 1979) http://members.fortunecity.com/legalstuff/481FSupp1178.htm Accessed Nov. 4, 2006.
External links
Garry Davis' blog
Short documentary clip about Garry's life
Category:Living people
Category:1921 births
Category:American activists
Category:American anti-war activists
Category:World government
Category:People from Hancock County, Maine