The University of North Carolina Wilmington was one of many universities that joined the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam on October 15, 1969. The Moratorium was a national day for teach-ins, memorial services, and demonstrations. 

UNC Wilmington's Student Political Action Committee sponsored a memorial service attended by more than 200 students and community members. Speakers included ministers, a physician, and a UNCW professor. Some speakers voiced opposition to the Vietnam War, while a pro-war minister prioritized honoring fallen soldiers and avoiding distortion of their sacrifices.

The local newspaper, the Wilmington Star-News, covered the event. Newspaper clippings can be seen in a 1969-1970 scrapbook held in the University of North Carolina Wilmington Advancement and University Relations Records at the Center for Southeast N.C. Archives and History. 

A Star-News photographer captured UNCW philosophy professor Gerald Shinn speaking on campus to a crowd gathered to memorialize those who lost their lives in Vietnam. 

In another article, three Student Government Association leaders criticize the Vietnam Moratorium ceremony as inappropriate and misleading as a memorial service, while reaffirming support for free speech and academic freedom.

Find these articles online in the University Archives News Clipping Scrapbooks, a digital collection featuring news, events, sports, and the arts at Wilmington College and UNCW from the 1950s through the 1980s. 

Want to see the original scrapbooks? Visit the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History (CSENCAH) in Discovery Hall to find these items and much more Seahawk history from the founding of Wilmington College in 1947 to the present day.

Source

Scrapbook, 1969-1970, Scrapbook 11, RG-10, University of North Carolina Wilmington Advancement and University Relations Records, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History.