[46] Several hundred students sat down in the Commons, demanding to know why the guardsmen opened fire. City officials and downtown businesses received threats, and rumors proliferated that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and university. In her 1996 still/moving photographic project. Instead, it harshly criticized both the protesters and the Guardsmen, but it concluded that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable. The ROTC building, now nothing more than a few inches of charcoal, was surrounded by National Guardsmen. All those shot were students in good standing at the university.[51]. [44] Guardsmen that claimed they feared for their lives variously listed an assortment of reasons, including: that they were surrounded, that the crowd pursuing them was almost on top of them, that the protesters "charged" them or were advancing on them "in a threatening manner", that "the sky was black with stones", and that a sniper fired at them; some listed a combination of multiple such reasons, and some gave no explanation as to why they believed their lives were in danger. It . The group has organized a commemoration on the university's campus each year since 1976; events generally include a silent march around the campus, a candlelight vigil, a ringing of the Victory Bell in memory of those killed and injured, speakers (always including eyewitnesses and family members), and music. May 3, 2020, 8:51 AM UTC By Ben Kesslen Joe Lewis was just 18 when he was shot twice by the Ohio National Guard on his college campus. What had begun as a small campus demonstration turned Kent State into a symbol of the Vietnam era worldwide. Some of the Guardsmen on Blanket Hill, fearful and anxious from prior events, may have believed in their own minds that their lives were in danger. They promptly recorded the song, and preview discs (acetates) were rushed to major radio stations, although the group already had a hit song, "Teach Your Children", on the charts at the time. In a mere thirteen seconds four students were killed, and nine others wounded. It was maybe 25, 30, 35 seconds of sporadic firing. That's all I can say on that." Kent State after Fifty Years | Origins Despite this, organizations of survivors and current Kent State students continue to believe the Strubbe tape proves the Guardsmen were given a military order to fire and are petitioning State of Ohio and United States government officials to reopen the case using independent analysis. During the 1966 Homecoming Parade, protesters walked dressed in military paraphernalia with gas masks. A freshman at Kent State University in Ohio, Lewis had. "[57] Not only was the President taken to Camp David for two days for his own protection, but Charles Colson (Counsel to President Nixon from 1969 to 1973) stated that the military was called up to protect the Nixon Administration from the angry students; he recalled that: "The 82nd Airborne was in the basement of the executive office building, so I went down just to talk to some of the guys and walk among them, and they're lying on the floor leaning on their packs and their helmets and their cartridge belts and their rifles cocked and you're thinking, 'This can't be the United States of America. We looked at them and they looked at us. Thomas Mark Grace; 225ft (69m); hit in his left ankle. One other defendant was acquitted, and charges were dismissed against the last. [11], On April 1, 1969, SDS members attempted to enter the administration building with a list of demands where they clashed with police. We devoutly wish that a means had been found to avoid the May 4th events culminating in the Guard shootings and the irreversible deaths and injuries. It reads as follows: Upon contacting appropriate officers of the Ohio National Guard at Ravenna and Akron, Ohio, regarding ONG radio logs and the availability of service record books, the respective ONG officer advised that any inquiries concerning the Kent State University incident should be directed to the Adjutant General, ONG, Columbus, Ohio. Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam. Howard Ruffner/Getty Images By Natasha Lavender / Sept. 21, 2020 11:11 am EST In the 1960s and '70s, US colleges became hotspots for demonstrations as young people joined social justice campaigns like the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party , and the movement against the Vietnam War. In the process, they broke a bank window, setting off an alarm. In 2016, the site of the shootings was named as a National Historic Landmark. [97] Even the construction of the monument became controversial and, in the end, only 7% of the design was constructed. These orders have since been determined by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to have been lawful. Ultimately, more than 4million students participated in organized walk-outs at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools. [71] The judgment on those verdicts was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the ground that the federal trial judge had mishandled an out-of-court threat against a juror. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was 265 feet (81m) away, and their average distance from the guardsmen was 345 feet (105m). The shots were definitely coming my way, because when a bullet passes your head, it makes a crack. Kent State Shooting of 1970 | Massacre, Protests & Summary - Study.com Kent State and Jackson State killings. On morning after Trump's embrace of Nixon '68, "law and order," I went out to see the true meaning at Kent State", National Register Criteria for Evaluation, "May 4 shootings still follow former Kent State football players", "Kent State: 'One or two cracks of rifle fire Oh my God! [6][7], Krause and Miller were among the more than 300 students who gathered to protest the expansion of the Cambodian campaign, which President Richard Nixon had announced in an April 30 television address. Today. The memorial does not contain the names of those killed or wounded in the shooting; under pressure, the university agreed to install a plaque near it with the names. Protests across America took place the next day at many colleges and universities, including Kent State University. Then, "All right, prepare to fire!" They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. The crowd was largely made up of students enrolled at the university, with a few non-students (that included Kent State dropouts and high school students) also present. There was widespread anger, and many protesters called to "bring the war home". KENT, Ohio (WOIO) - All Kent State students have been accounted for after an explosion today in the building that houses the Paris American Academy . A subsequent FBI investigation concluded that the Guard was not under fire and that the guardsmen fired the first shots. Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States in 1968 based in part on his promise to bring an end to the war in Vietnam. False, two of the people who were killed were just walking to class. poet", 'An affront to Americans everywhere:' The world watches investigation after Kent State shootings, "Vietnam War: Kent / Jackson State Songs", "Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming": Musical Framing and Kent State, "Pete Atkin sings "Driving Through Mythical America", Miscellaneous Music (Related to Kent State Shootings) 19702005, "Politics and the popular in British music theatre of the Vietnam era", "The Isley Brothers:: Ohio / Machine Gun (1971)", "Holly Near It Could Have Been Me (Live)", "LSU Fraternity Apologizes For Offensive Sign Referencing Kent State Shootings", "Urban Outfitters Kent State Sweatshirt Stirs Anger", "The Shooting at Kent State: An Eyewitness Account", FBI files related to the Kent State shootings, Interview with Alan Canfora and Dr. Roseann Chic Canfora, survivors of the Kent State shootings, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, College of Education, Health, and Human Services, School of Fashion Design and Merchandising, History of the National Register of Historic Places, List of U.S. National Historic Landmarks by state, List of jails and prisons on the National Register of Historic Places, University and college buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, National Register of Historic Places portal, Length of U.S. participation in major wars, History of the Central Intelligence Agency, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, April 15, 1967 Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Liberty Point International Middle School, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, "'No Way to Prevent This', Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens", List of school shootings in the United States by death toll, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kent_State_shootings&oldid=1160069468, National Register of Historic Places in Portage County, Ohio, United States military killing of American civilians, University and college killings in the United States, University and college shootings in the United States, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2023, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2021, Articles needing additional references from May 2020, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2021, Articles with trivia sections from January 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0. [138] Crosby, Stills, and Nash visited the Kent State campus for the first time on May 4, 1997, where they performed the song for the May 4 Task Force's 27th annual commemoration. A. to oppose the use of bombs by the militant Weathermen group B. to oppose Nixon's order to send troops to Cambodia C. to protest the killing of college students at Jackson State University D. to protest police brutality against African Americans In the President's Commission on Campus Unrest (pp. 1968, protesting the university's refusal to grant them amnesty from being charged with disorderly conduct after a sit-in by BUS and Students for a . The guardsmen gave no verbal warning to the protesters before opening fire. Before advancing, Company C was instructed to only fire into the air and only a single guardsman fire. Some believed the Guard was firing blanks and only reacted after they noticed the bullets striking the ground around them. [18][19][20] The National Guard made numerous arrests, mostly for curfew violations, and used tear gas; at least one student was slightly wounded with a bayonet.[21]. In an interview broadcast in 1986 on the ABC News documentary series Our World, Shafer identified the person that he fired at as student Joseph Lewis, who was shot and wounded in the attack. Troops put on alert Saturday afternoon were called to campus Saturday evening after an ROTC building was set on fire. [65], On May 14, ten days after the Kent State shootings, two students were killed (and 12 wounded) by police at Jackson State University, a historically black university, in Jackson, Mississippi, under similar circumstances the Jackson State killings but that event did not arouse the same nationwide attention as the Kent State shootings. Three persons were interviewed regarding a reported conversation by Sgt Lawrence Shafer, ONG, that Shafer had bragged about "taking a bead" on Jeffrey Miller at the time of the ONG shooting and each interviewee was unable to substantiate such a conversation.[53]. Norman was present during the May 4 protests, taking photographs to identify student leaders,[75] while carrying a sidearm and wearing a gas mask. In remarks reported locally, he said: "The first part of the Yippie program is to kill your parents. So deputy sheriffs went out and deputized citizens. Four students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard while attending a protest after the events in Cambodia. Kent State University - Profile, Rankings and Data | US News Best Colleges What were the name of the four students killed? [109] Contributing resources in the site are: Taylor Hall, the Victory Bell, Lilac Lane and Boulder Marker, The Pagoda, Solar Totem, and the Prentice Hall Parking Lot. Here they remained for about 10 minutes, unsure of how to get out of the area short of retracing their path: they had boxed themselves into a fenced-in corner. May 4, 1970: Kent State Massacre - Zinn Education Project In all, at least 29 of the 77 guardsmen claimed to have fired their weapons, using an estimated 67 rounds of ammunition. What happened at Kent. 50 years ago, the Kent State shootings changed the country - Yahoo News Another student tried to pull him behind the car, bullets were coming through the windows of the car. Barry Morris, 30, of Kent, Ohio; Leon Smith, 27, of Beach City, Ohio; and Matthew McManus, 28, of West Salem, Ohio, were indicted on misdemeanor charges. Initial newspaper reports had inaccurately stated that several National Guard members had been killed or seriously injured. Despite these efforts, an estimated 2,000 people gathered[26] on the university's Commons, near Taylor Hall. We will update the university community when . [12] A sign was put on a tree asking: "Why is the ROTC building still standing? [28], Just before departing the practice field, some members of Troop G were ordered to kneel and aim their weapons toward the parking lot. Read Edit View history Tools The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre [3] [4] [5]) resulted in the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard, on the Kent State University campus. [103], Front side of Ohio Historical Marker #67-8:[104]. It was open season the students. Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on an antiwar protest at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. [14] There were unconfirmed rumors of students with caches of arms, plots to spike the local water supply with LSD, and of students building tunnels to blow up the town's main store. [11], On April 10, 1970, Jerry Rubin, a leader of the Youth International Party (also known as the Yippies), spoke on campus. Everything slowed down and the silence got heavier. [28] Campus patrolman Harold Rice,[32] accompanied by three guardsmen, then approached the crowd in a National Guard Jeep, again using the bullhorn to order the students to disperse.
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