This Week in Vanderbilt History

This Week
In Vanderbilt History ...

A Vietnam war moratorium sponsored by the Nashville Moratorium Group in conjunction with Vanderbilt students was held Oct. 15, 1969. The event, which attracted participants from Vanderbilt as well as local students and citizens, hoped to add strength to national anti-war efforts. Shawn Saavedra, Student Government Association president, explained the philosophy of the moratorium as "the attempt to speak out for an American withdrawal from Vietnam or a negotiated settlement on the part of the American troops." The day consisted of an early morning chapel service, leafleting throughout the Nashville community in the afternoon and a rally on the Peabody campus that attracted 2,000 people. The only opposition to the event came from a group of students called the Executive Committee of Concerned Students. Their anti-moratorium position was expressed solely through literature passed out both on the Vanderbilt campus and in downtown Nashville.

Source: Vanderbilt Hustler, Oct. 3, 1969, Oct. 15, 1969
-- Adrienne Spain