Editor’s Note: Karen Ocamb is the news editor for Frontiers in L.A., a major LGBT publication in Southern California. Prior to working in the LGBT press, Karen was a producer at CBS Network News and a freelance writer and producer. She lives in West Hollywood with her two rescued dogs.

Jodie Evans can’t help but laugh when she describes how her peace and social justice organization decided on the name CodePink: Women for Peace.

It all started in August of 2002. “I listened in total disbelief to reports saying the White House had a plan to invade Iraq — and they were launching in September because you never launch a new product in the summer,” CodePink founder Evans tells wowOwow.com. "The affront to my being was so shocking at every level, I knew I had to do something."

As President George W. Bush spoke to the United Nations September 12, 2002, warning that the U.S. military was poised to act militarily if Saddam Hussein did not surrender his alleged weapons of mass destruction, Evans and her friend, Medea Benjamin, were in a "big boat on the Hudson" with a 150-foot inflatable sign that read: "Earth to Bush — No War in Iraq." But that was just the beginning.

Evans and Benjamin, who founded the international human rights group Global Exchange, flew to Washington and called a gathering of "unreasonable women" — an identity inspired by their "radical Texas fisherwoman" friend Diane Wilson’s group UnReasonable Women for the Earth. Also among those joining the group were Nina Utne (from Utne magazine) and "visionary astrologist" Caroline Casey. They wanted to discuss what they could do to try to stop the rise in hate crimes after September 11, defend civil liberties and stop an impending war. 

Sitting around a table, they laughed at Bush’s color-coded national security system and the dire warnings to buy duct tape in the event of a Code Orange alert. "We couldn’t believe the level of absurdity," Evans says. "Playing off the moment," Evans realized that "CodePink was in the room"  — specifically Casey, who hosted a radio show called “Code Hot Pink.” Inspired, Evans asked if the group could “steal” her show’s title, and Casey graciously agreed. Thus, the group CodePink was born, and set itself a mission: Wage peace, not war.

“Medea and I looked at each other, shaking our heads,” recalls Evans, laughing. “Two redheads. Neither of us had probably ever worn pink. We didn’t even know where to buy something pink — except maybe the thrift store. But we had no idea of the power of pink when we took the name.” The women would soon learn their lesson, though, as Evans explains.

“We really started feeling the power of pink. Something happened — the pink banners and signs were disarming. We started to realize that this was something that could carry a big punch.”

The freshly founded CodePink held their first march on October 17, 2002, in San Francisco. “This was before we had a website so we had no idea who would show up,” Evans says. “What I saw when we were marching was that everyone smiled. There were about 35 of us — but we stood out. We were much bigger than what we were. Pink has a way of making this statement — it inspires creativity, it inspires life. We’re all pink inside. Whenever Gloria Steinem introduces me now, she says I am the woman who freed an entire color.”

Activism’s as central to Evans’s life as breathing.

“I was abused by power as a kid,” explains Evans, who grew up in a working-class, Las Vegas-based family. “So I understand what it feels like to be powerless.” As a teenager she worked as a hotel maid and got her first experience of social justice activism organizing and marching for a living wage. “In the process, I found my voice, and with that moment of experiencing my voice, I also knew I had the responsibility of using it.”