April 22, 1937

Vassar faculty and students participated in a strike against “the billion dollar war budget; militarization of colleges and universities; lack of academic freedom and civil rights; the intervention of Germany and Italy in Spain.” The strike, sponsored by the American Student Union, was held simultaneously at colleges and universities throughout the United States. Student speakers deplored the tendency of world leaders toward war and spoke out against the policies and actions of Germany under Hitler.

The Poughkeepsie Journal

“On past Strong and Lathrop they marched in groups of six or seven with the faculty and several ministers at the head. Bold, alliterative printed posters, carried by girls from all the campus organizations, proclaimed ‘Careers not Conscription,’ ‘Sanity not Slaughter,’ ‘Pax Vobiscum….’” Dean C. Mildred Thompson ’03 presided over the gathering in the Students’ Building, where the peace strikers filled the main floor, with others listening from the balcony.

“After Sally Jenkins [’37], President of Students’, had read the new revised Peace Call, Erika Mann, the daughter of the German writer Thomas Mann, described the preparations for war that were being carried on in Nazi Germany, and stressed the urgent need for peace….” The Miscellany News