As our nation prepares to celebrate 250 years since its founding, the nearly quarter-million people who have served in the Peace Corps are marking a milestone launched 65 years ago, on Oct. 14, 1960.
In the early hours of that morning, then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy arrived at the University of Michigan, exhausted after a televised debate and campaign events that ran late into the night. At about 2 a.m., his motorcade stopped at the Michigan Student Union, where he had been scheduled to speak hours earlier. Expecting an empty plaza, he instead found 10,000 students waiting in the dark to greet him.
Kennedy climbed the steps and delivered a few brief, impromptu remarks that would change the course of U.S. history:
“How many of you who are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers – how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that … on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country … will depend whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”
The next day – long before email or social media – students circulated a petition pledging to serve if given the chance. Less than five months later, Kennedy signed the executive order establishing the Peace Corps. By the next summer, the first volunteers were training for assignments in Ghana, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and Colombia.
If you visit the University of Michigan today, a circular medallion embedded in the Student Union steps marks the spot where JFK delivered his call to action. Nearby, a plaque commemorates that night and the moment that inspired a generation of service. Across the country, other tributes honor the Peace Corps’ historic legacy – markers at early training sites, statues and murals in small towns, and plans for a “Peace Corps Park” in Washington, D.C., where visitors will one day reflect on the agency’s role in the nation’s story. In southern Minnesota, a “Peace Corps Plaza” is also underway as part of a broader National Service Park, recognizing Americans who served at home and abroad.
For the hundreds of thousands who answered Kennedy’s call, the Peace Corps experience remains one of the most meaningful and transformative parts of their lives. It fostered understanding between nations, advanced education and public health, and helped countless Americans see their own country through a wider lens. For the good of our nation and others, the Peace Corps continues to play a vital role in building peace through practical service.
Now, as the Peace Corps’ 65th anniversary begins, Congress has an opportunity to honor its enduring legacy. Bipartisan legislation – H.R. 5521, introduced by Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN) and John Rutherford (R-FL) – would award a Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to past and present Peace Corps volunteers for their selfless service.
This bill does more than recognize history – it reminds us that the Peace Corps remains active in about 60 countries, with plans for expansion and new opportunities for Americans eager to serve. Its mission endures: promoting peace, friendship and shared progress through grassroots action.
I urge my representative, Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM), and Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO), to co-sponsor H.R. 5521. And I encourage Southwest Coloradans and northwestern New Mexicans to contact them as well.
Let us honor the Peace Corps’ past by protecting its future.
Mick O’Neill, of Farmington, served three years with the Peace Corps in Ghana and Burkina Faso and later worked on agricultural development projects in Mali, Niger, Kenya, Rwanda, India and Colombia. He spent the last 20 years of his career at New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science Center in Farmington.
