Call Number:

CDG-A.Lauser, Wayne

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

0.21 linear ft. (2.5 linear inches.)

Date:

1969-1972 (bulk)

Abstract:

Collection consists of materials relating to Lauser's walk from Cleveland to Washington D.C., the federal lawsuit against him, his sentencing, and his time in prison.

Wayne Lauser; Wayne Paul Lauser; born 1946; raised in Media, Pennsylvania; Quaker; conscientious objector during the Vietnam War; worked for six months in a Cleveland hospital in alternative service, but he felt that this seemed like "the easy way out" and that even this concession to a system he deplored was more than his personal morality and religious convictions would allow. "I went to Cleveland to perform my alternative service and only later realized that I was also conscientiously opposed to conscription as well and would have to return my draft cards." On July 1. 1969, Lauser quit his alternative service and began a 500-mile walk to Washington, D.C. to turn in his draft cards and cancel his registration with the Selective Service; he served fourteen months in federal prisons in Allenwood, Pennsylvania and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.