The first segment of the World Wall for Peace was constructed in Berkeley, California in Martin Luther King Park. The founder of WWFP, Carolyna Marks, had seen a sign painted on a fence in her neighborhood in huge letters: “DO SOMETHING TODAY FOR PEACE.” Challenged by that sign, she set out to create the first peace wall.

It took 5 years, but she and a core of dedicated volunteers eventually completed the first segment, consisting of 3000 hand-painted tiles, in 1988:

Once the Berkeley Peace Wall was done, the volunteers thought that their work was done.  However, one of the Peace Wall Core members had sent a press release to TASS, the Soviet news agency, which was just opening a West Coast office. Their segment on the Berkeley Peace Wall was shown in the Soviet Union, and a Russian woman, Irina Minina, in Troisk saw the segment.

She contacted Carolyna Marks, and eventually brought 100 Soviet youth to Berkeley. These youth, along with 100 American youth, jointly created the second section of the World Wall for Peace, adjacent to the first section.

Irina Minina & Carolyna Marks at the Berkeley Wall

One thing led to another, and before long, Carolyna was invited by the Center for Creative Initiative and the Vocational Schools in Moscow to come and work with Soviet youth for a year to build a Peace Wall. And, within a year, the first section of the Peace Wall outside of Berkeley was created - in Moscow.