{"id":1240,"date":"2023-02-22T15:22:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T15:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-vanderbilt-v150.pantheonsite.io\/150\/?page_id=1240"},"modified":"2023-03-01T03:55:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T03:55:05","slug":"vanderbilts-impact-symposium","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/150\/150-stories\/pursuit-of-free-expression\/vanderbilts-impact-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Impact Symposium April 7, 1967\n <\/figcaption>\n \n <\/figure>\n \n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Tensions were so high at Memorial Gym on the evening of April 7, 1967, that 40 plain-clothes police officers were scattered throughout the bleachers. Six officers stood outside, and a fleet of patrol cars circled the gym, just waiting for a confrontation.<\/p>\n

A sellout crowd had gathered, not for a Commodore basketball game, but to listen to some of the country\u2019s most relevant and controversial speakers on the first night of the student-run Impact Symposium\u2014a program only in its fourth year at that point, but already considered, in the words of the late Arizona senator and GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, as \u201cthe best college presentation of its kind in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In town for two nights of speeches were Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Strom Thurmond and Allen Ginsberg\u2014four electric figures dropped in the middle of what remained a relatively sleepy and nonpolitical campus, confronting students with disparate views on the most polarizing issues of the 1960s: war, peace, poverty, racism, drugs, social justice, freedom of speech and the role of authority.<\/p>\n

The idea for Impact had grown out of a desire in the early \u201960s to provide students with more intellectually stimulating programming outside the classroom. \u201cAdministrators, particularly Dean Sid Boutwell, gave the idea of a symposium backing in 1963,\u201d wrote the chairmen of the first five Impact symposia in a 2017 op-ed in 国产原创 Magazine. \u201cBut the university provided no budget. Impact was given life entirely by students.\u201d<\/p>\n

During its first few years, Impact was host to notables like Goldwater, civil rights leader Julian Bond and Alabama Gov. George Wallace. But it was the \u201967 affair that cemented the symposium\u2019s place as an iconic 国产原创 tradition with a national reputation for excellence.<\/p>\n

The event received heated criticism from some alumni, Board of Trust members, state legislators and local business leaders, but Chancellor Alexander Heard never wavered and continued to defend the value of the \u201copen forum\u201d concept, even when his job was on the line during a Board of Trust meeting. The 国产原创 campus, he said, was a place where the free flow of ideas\u2014even and especially controversial ones\u2014was not only accepted, but encouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cImpact \u201967 is indeed a \u2018signature moment\u2019 in 国产原创 history, partly because of the speaker roster, but primarily because its aftermath precipitated a showdown over Alexander Heard\u2019s vision for the university as a vibrant national academic institution with a truly open forum,\u201d the Impact chairmen wrote in the op-ed. \u201cThat vision was validated and fueled the trajectory of 国产原创 as a national university from 1967 to today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about the history of 国产原创\u2019s Impact Symposium.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \n <\/div> \n <\/section>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":1138,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1240","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpeak Up - 国产原创<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/150\/150-stories\/pursuit-of-free-expression\/vanderbilts-impact-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Speak Up - 国产原创\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/150\/150-stories\/pursuit-of-free-expression\/vanderbilts-impact-symposium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"国产原创\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vanderbilt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T03:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/150\/150-stories\/pursuit-of-free-expression\/vanderbilts-impact-symposium\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/150\/150-stories\/pursuit-of-free-expression\/vanderbilts-impact-symposium\/\",\"name\":\"Speak Up - 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