Freedom Ride 2007 may be over, but its legacy continues
Vanderbilt Students for Nonviolence held its inaugural meeting Thursday. The organizations aims to educate students about the principles of nonviolence taught by Mahatma Ghandi, which were utilized during the civil rights movement.
Sophomore Elias Feghali, founder of VSN, said he anticipates the organization will serve an educational and activist role on campus.
"I envision VSN to be more than just an educational group but a communitarian group as well," Feghali said. "We will learn about nonviolent tactics and activism, and then study issues in our local and global communities and look to nonviolence as a way to produce social change."
The group plans to educate themselves and others about nonviolence through speakers, forums and group discussion.
"We're going to study nonviolent philosophy by Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi and other intellectuals through group readings, films, lectures and panel discussions," Feghali said. "It's important to study nonviolence and educate others because so many people don't really understand what it is - that it's not a passive approach to social change, but an active, direct approach using nonviolent tactics."
Sophomore Leslyn Moore said Freedom Ride 2007 motivated her to attend the trip.
"I was excited after the Freedom Ride; it gave me more insight into how I can impact the campus and the Nashville community," Moore said. "The Freedom Riders were our age, and they were strong enough and dedicated enough to band together and even die for a cause. I am someone who will be very dedicated to an organization for nonviolence like this."
VSN plans to incorporate a system of group leadership to direct the organization, modeled after the student activists on the Central Committee during the civil rights movement.
"Group leadership, to me, is the ideal way to run an organization because one person doesn't shoulder all of the responsibility," Feghali said. "Anyone who is willing to step up and be a leader will have an opportunity in VSN."
Joshua Newsome, a first-year divinity student, is excited about the prospect of having a nonviolence organization on campus.
"I just think it's a great opportunity to learn more about the philosophy and lifestyle that is nonviolence," Newsome said. "I feel like nonviolence, the philosophy of nonviolence, has something we can all learn from, something to teach the whole world."
VSN plans to hold their next meeting Thursday, Feb. 15, after the Freedom Ride reunion. Feghali hopes to encourage participants to continue studying nonviolence and apply it in their daily life.
"I think the group has a lot of potential to set the pace and also team up with other groups," Moore said. "I really hope people get involved and apply the lessons we learned on the Freedom Ride and continue to be activists in their daily life."
