Remember When: Her Weapons Were Books, Stamps, and an Unshakeable Conscience

She didn't carry a weapon. She carried a library card and a book of stamps.

On March 19, 1906, Clara Estelle Breed was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She would go on to become one of the most quietly heroic figures in American history — not on a battlefield, but behind a library desk.

As the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library, she was known simply as "Miss Breed" to the Japanese American children and teenagers who filled her branch library. Then came Pearl Harbor, and Executive Order 9066. Among the more than 120,000 individuals incarcerated without due process of law were Breed's young friends — most of whom were U.S. citizens.

On the day the children were taken away, she stood at the train station and handed them self-addressed stamped postcards, telling them to write to her and tell her what they needed. And they did. She became their reliable correspondent — sending books, assisting with requests for supplies, and through her actions, serving as a reminder of the possibility for decency and justice in a troubled world.

But Miss Breed didn't stop at care packages. She wrote to members of Congress, published articles calling out the unfair treatment of Japanese Americans, and requested that college-age students from the camps be allowed to attend school.

Years later, the FBI concluded that there was not a single instance of disloyalty or espionage committed by the nearly 120,000 people imprisoned in the internment camps. Miss Breed knew that all along.

In a moment when her country gave in to fear and xenophobia, Clara Breed responded with books, stamps, and an unshakeable belief in the equal worth of every child. That is the America Leading Ladies Vote is fighting to protect.

Photo credit: Wikipedia