History of Sister Cities International and the Sister Cities Movement
SCI’s mission: promote peace though mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation—one individual, one community at a time.
The sister cities movement in the United States began after the end of World War II, when the world was still reeling from the devastation and destruction that had occurred. Following the lead of European nations, namely France and Germany, the United States determined that reconciliation would best take place not through the governments but rather through the citizens of the respective countries. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held a White House conference on Citizen Diplomacy. As the Cold War was becoming increasingly serious, Eisenhower wanted the input and ideas of the American people regarding building peace by leaping over governments and working out “thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other.”
The response to the concept was overwhelmingly positive, and it was discovered that many cities already had created agreements of understanding with cities abroad. In 1952, the town of Hagerstown, Maryland had signed a sister city affiliation agreement with Wesel, Germany. In 1955, St. Paul, Minnesota reached out to Nagasaki, Japan in the spirit of healing old wounds and restoring peace between the two countries. Their relationship formally began on December 7, 1955 on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Sister Cities International was founded in 1956 out of President Eisenhower’s conference, and in 1967 became a separate not-for-profit organization. It has since connected over 2,500 communities in more than 134 countries around the world.
Did you know…
…that the oldest documented sister city relationship in the United States is between Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain, signed in 1931?
“Two deeply held convictions unite us in common purpose. First is our belief in effective and responsive local government as a principal bulwark of freedom. Second is our faith in the great promise of people-to-people and sister city affiliations in helping build the solid structure of world peace”
