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The Kent State shootings, also known as ''' May 4 ''' or the '''Kent State massacre''', occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent , Ohio , and involved the shooting of students by the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4 1970 . The altercation killed four students and wounded nine others. The shootings were the culmination of four days of increasingly agitated demonstrations by members of the student body. The students were protesting the American Invasion Of Cambodia which President Richard Nixon launched on April 25 , and announced in a Television address five days later. There were significant national consequences to the shootings; hundreds of universities and colleges closed throughout the United States fearing similar outbreaks, and the event further divided the country along political lines. LEAD UP TO THE SHOOTING Richard Nixon had been elected President in 1968, promising to end the Vietnam War . In November 1969 the My Lai Massacre was exposed, prompting widespread outrage around the world and leading to reduced public support for the war. In addition, the following month saw the First Draft Lottery instituted since World War II . Since the war had appeared to be winding down throughout 1969, a new invasion into Cambodia angered many people who felt it only exacerbated the conflict. Many young people, including college students, were concerned about the risk of being drafted, and the expansion of the war into another country appeared to increase that risk. Across the country, campuses erupted in protests in what '' Time Magazine '' called "a nation-wide student strike." FRIDAY, MAY 1 At Kent State, a massive demonstration was held on May 1 on the Commons (a grassy area in the center of campus traditionally used as a gathering place for rallies), and another was planned for May 4 . There was widespread anger, and many protesters issued a call to "bring the war home." Trouble erupted around midnight when intoxicated bikers left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at cars and breaking downtown store fronts including a bank window which set off an alarm. The news spread quickly and it resulted in several bars closing early to avoid trouble. Before long more people joined the vandalism and looting, with others remaining as bystanders. By the time police arrived to restore order, a crowd numbering about 100 had already gathered and several from the crowd had lit a small bonfire in the street. The crowd appeared to be a mix of bikers, students, and out-of town youths who regularly came to Kent's bars. A few members of the crowd (believed to be bikers) began throwing beer bottles at the police, and the crowd began yelling obscenities at them. The disturbance lasted about an hour before the police restored order. By that time most of the bars were closed and the downtown and campus were quiet. SATURDAY, MAY 2 Kent's Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a State Of Emergency on May 2 and, later that afternoon, asked Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes to send the National Guard to Kent to help maintain order. When the National Guard arrived in town that evening, a large demonstration was under way and the campus Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) building was burning. Many believe the fire may have been set in protest, but the Arson ists were never caught. Luckily no one was trapped in the building and killed in the fire, because the ROTC building was already boarded up and scheduled for demolition. Over a thousand protesters surrounded the building and cheered the building's burning. While attempting to extinguish the fire, several Kent firemen and police officers were pelted with rocks and other projectiles by those standing near the fire. More than one fire engine company had to be called in because protesters carried the fire hose into the Commons and slashed it. Again, a call for assistance went out. At 10:00 p.m., the National Guard entered the campus for the first time and set up camp directly on campus. Many arrests were made, Tear Gas was used, and at least one student was Bayonet ed.[http://www.may4archive.org/chronology.shtml SUNDAY, MAY 3 By Sunday, there were nearly a thousand National Guardsmen on campus to control the students. Some shop owners in Kent said they received anonymous threatening phone calls telling them to post signs in their windows saying "Guard Go Home" and other anti-Guard slogans. During a press conferences, Governor Rhodes called the protesters un-American and referred to the protestors as revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio. ''"They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the nightriders and the vigilantes,"'' Rhodes said. ''"They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."'' {Link without Title} He also claimed he would obtain a court order declaring a state of emergency, banning further demonstrations, and gave the impression that a situation akin to Martial Law had been declared. (Rhodes didn't declare the state of emergency, which would have made the May 3 and May 4 protests illegal; this was not known by either the students or the National Guard at the time. {Link without Title} ) During the day some students came into downtown Kent to help with cleanup efforts after the rioting, which met with mixed reactions from local businessmen. Mayor Satrom, under pressure from frightened citizens, ordered a curfew until further notice. Around 8:00 p.m., another rally was held on the campus Commons. By 8:45 p.m. the Guard used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the students reassembled at the intersection of Lincoln and Main Streets, holding a sit-in in the hopes of gaining a meeting with Mayor Satrom and President White. At 11:00 p.m., the Guard announced that a curfew had gone into effect and began forcing the students back to their dorms. A moving battle took place, with 10 Guardsmen injured. {Link without Title} In the process, at least one student was Bayonet ed by the Guard (Eszterhas and Roberts, 121). MONDAY, MAY 4 On Monday, a protest was scheduled to be held at noon, as had been planned three days earlier. University officials attempted to ban the gathering, handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was cancelled. Despite this, an estimated 2,000 people gathered on the university's Commons, near Taylor Hall. The rally began peacefully, with the campus's iron victory bell (which had historically been used to signal victories in football games) rung to signal the beginning of the rally, and one speaker started to speak. However, Companies A and C, 1/145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2/107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio ANG, the units on the campus grounds, chose to disperse the students, fearing that the situation might escalate into another violent protest. The legality of the dispersal was later debated at a subsequent wrongful death and injury trial. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled that authorities did indeed have the right to disperse the crowd. One of the judges on the court was alleged to have said "You're going to have to use the Final Solution on these kids!" on this day. Late in the morning, a police official, riding in a Guard Jeep, approached the students and read them an order to disperse or face arrest. The protesters pelted the Jeep with rocks, forcing it to retreat. One Guardsman was injured by shattered glass from the windshield and was the first of 50 soldiers who would be hurt in the next hour. Just before noon, the Guard ordered the crowd to disperse and fired Tear Gas . Because of wind, the tear gas had little effect on dispersing the crowd, some of whom were now responding to the Tear Gas with rock-throwing and chants of "Pigs off campus!". Some students began to pick up the tear gas canisters and throw them back at the National Guardsmen. The only protection the soldiers had was their steel helmets. They had no body armor or face shields, though they did wear protective masks. A group of 77 National Guard troops advanced on the hundreds of protesters with bayonets fixed on their loaded weapons, in an attempt to disperse the crowd. The Guardsmen were wearing gas masks and had little training in riot control. They soon found themselves trapped on an athletic practice field which was fenced on three sides, where they remained for ten minutes. The Guardsmen then began to withdraw back in the direction from which they had come, followed by some of the protesters. Company C had six men hurt, three of whom needed hospital treatment including one man hit in the mouth, breaking some teeth. Ten men in company A were injured, one of whom was struck seven times by projectiles. Thirty three soldiers in troop G were hit. Several of had broken bones and cut faces. When they reached the top of a hill, 29 of the 77 guardsmen fired 67 shots at the unarmed students. Although the firing was later determined to have lasted only thirteen seconds, a '' New York Times '' reporter stated that "it appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer." The question of why the shots were fired is widely debated. The Adjutant General of the Ohio National Guard told reporters that a sniper had fired on the guardmen, which itself remains a debated allegation. Many guardsmen later testified that they were in fear for their lives, which was questioned partly because of the distance of the wounded students. Time magazine later concluded that "triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State"—a conclusion also reached by several studies about the tragedy. The President's Commission on Campus Unrest avoided the question of why the shootings happened, but harshly criticized both the protesters and the Guardsmen, concluding that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable." The shootings killed four students and wounded nine. Two of the four students killed, Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller , had participated in the protest, and the other two, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder , were simply walking from one class to the next. Schroeder was also a member of the campus ROTC chapter. Of those wounded, none was closer than 71 feet (22 m) to the guardsmen. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was 265 feet (81 m) away. According to Guard records based on a medical examiner's report, one of the students was struck by a non-military round in the back of the head, though the bullet was never produced as evidence. ''Killed (and approximate distance from the National Guard):''
''Wounded: (and approximate distance from the National Guard)''
Immediately after the shootings, many angry students were ready to launch an all-out attack on the National Guard. Many faculty members, led by geology professor and faculty marshal Glenn Frank , pleaded with the students to leave the Commons and to not give in to violent escalation. After 20 minutes of speaking, the students left the Commons, as Ambulance s tended to the wounded, and the Guard left the area. AFTERMATH AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS A photograph by photojournalism student John Filo which was taken shortly after the shooting depicts a teenager identified as Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over Jeffrey Miller 's body as she cries in despair. The photograph, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Filo while still a student at Kent State, became the most enduring image of the tragedy ('' Illustration Above '') and one of the most enduring images of the anti-Vietnam War movement in general. It gave the impression among many observers that Vietnam protesters included not only Hippie s, but also "decent suburban kids". (Vecchio was a fourteen year old runaway hanging out at campus.) The photograph was distributed around the world and solidified anti-war feelings. In response to the attacks, President Nixon gave a speech, saying "This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy." In the following days, Nixon repeatedly expressed regret for the tragedy and invited some of the Kent State students to the White House . Shortly after the shootings took place, the Urban Institute conducted a national study that concluded the Kent State shootings was the single factor causing the only nationwide student strike in history - over 4 million students protested and over 900 American colleges and universities closed during the student strikes. There was wide discussion in some ranges of the press as to whether these were legal shootings of American citizens or not, and whether the protests were legal or not. These debates served to further galvanize uncommitted opinion by the terms of the discourse. The term "massacre" was applied to the shootings by some individuals and media sources, as it had been used for the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five were killed and several more wounded. The shootings led to protests on college campuses throughout the United States , causing hundreds of campuses to close because of both violent and non-violent demonstrations. The Kent State campus remained closed for six weeks. Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against the war. In September 1970, twenty-four students and one faculty member were indicted on charges connected with the May 4 demonstration or the ROTC building fire three days before. The individuals, who had been identified from photographs, became known as the "Kent 25." Five cases, all related to the burning of the ROTC building, went to trial; one non-student defendant was convicted on one charge and two other non-students pleaded guilty. One other defendant was acquitted, and charges were dismissed against the last. In December 1971, all charges against the remaining twenty were dismissed for lack of evidence. {Link without Title} {Link without Title} The years following the shootings (1970 to 1979) were filled with lawsuits filed by families of the victims who were hoping to place blame on Governor Rhodes and the Ohio National Guard. Trials were held on both the federal and state level but all ended in acquittals or were dismissed. There was one civil trial for wrongful death and injury that was originally dismissed but eventually overturned in Cincinnati due to the judge excluding evidence. The plaintiffs were awarded approximately $63,000 per victim and the defendants were forced to say they regretted their actions. {Link without Title} The Kent State incident forced the National Guard to re-examine its methods of crowd control. The only instruments the Guardsmen had that day to dispel demonstrators were bayonets, CS gas grenades, and .30-06 ball ammunition. In the years that followed, the U.S. Army began developing non-lethal means of dispersing demonstrators (such as rubber bullets) and improved its crowd control and riot tactics to not cause casulties amongst the demonstrators. Many of the crowd control improvements brought on by the Kent State tragedy are used today by police forces when facing similar situations. On May 14 of the same year, two students at the historically Black Jackson State University were shot to death and several others wounded, under more questionable circumstances, and without arousing as much nationwide attention as the Kent State shootings had. For more on this incident, see Jackson State Killings or the information at the African American Registry. One outgrowth of the tragedy was the Center for Peaceful Change, which was established at Kent State University in 1971 "as a living memorial to the events of May 4, 1970." {Link without Title} Now known as The Center for Applied Conflict Management (CACM), it developed one of the earliest Conflict Resolution undergraduate degree programs in the United States. MEMORIALS Each May 4 from 1971 to 1975 the Kent State University administration sponsored an official commemoration of the tragedy. Upon the university's announcement in 1976 that it would no longer sponsor such commemorations, the May 4 Task Force, a group made up of students and community members, was formed for this purpose. 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. In 1990, a memorial commemorating the events of May 4 was dedicated on the campus on a 2.5 acre (10,000 M&2 ) site overlooking the University's Commons where the shootings occurred. Even the construction of the monument became controversial and in the end, only 7% of the design was constructed. The memorial does not contain the names of those killed or wounded in the shooting.[http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:6mo_ygBl88QJ:dept.kent.edu/may4/memorial.htm+%22Unfortunately,+the+memorial+as+it+exists+is+only+7+percent%22&hl=en] In 1999, at the urging of relatives of the four students killed in 1970, the university constructed memorials for each of the students in the parking lot between Taylor and Prentice halls. Each of the four memorials is located on the exact spot where the student died. They are surrounded by a raised rectangle of concrete featuring four lightposts approximately four feet high, with the student's name engraved on a triangular marble plaque in one corner. {Link without Title} [http://www.may41970.com/Prentice%20Update%20May%201999/Prentice%20Dedication%20Sept%20,%201999/PreticeLotDedication.htm ] (the biblical Abraham poised to sacrifice his son Isaac) too controversial. The sculpture was accepted in 1979 by Princeton University , and presently rests between the university chapel and library. {Link without Title} An earlier work of in January 1970. {Link without Title} Shortly after the tragedy, an inscription was added that recontextualized the work in such a way that it came to be associated by some with the event. ARTISTIC TRIBUTES Music , Stills , Tom Grace and Crosby on campus in 1997]]The best known response to the Kent State University tragedy was the Protest Song " Ohio ", written by Neil Young within weeks of the incident for Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young . 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. Much less well known was . Also comparatively little known was the '' LP. The lyrics directly reference Kent State, and share the tune of Leiber & Stoller 's "Riot in Cell Block Number Nine". Jon Anderson has said that "Long Distance Runaround" (on the album '' Fragile '' by Yes , released 1971) are also in part about the shootings, particularly the line "hot colour melting the anger to stone". In 1970-71 Halim El-Dabh , a Kent State University music professor who was on campus when the shootings occurred, composed ''Opera Flies'', a full length Opera , in response to his experience. The work was first performed on the Kent State campus on May 8 1971 and was revived for the 25th commemoration of the tragedy in 1995. In 1971 Kent State alumni composer and pianist Bill Dobbins composed ''The Balcony'', a Jazz Band LP inspired by the shootings. The work was first performed in May 1971 for the first anniversary, and again in 2000 for the 30th anniversary. Dave Brubeck 's 1971 oratorio ''Truth Has Fallen'' also has the Kent State tragedy as its subject; the work was premièred in Midland, Michigan on May 1 1971 and subsequently released on LP. {Link without Title} Holly Near 's "It Could Have Been Me", her personal response to the shootings, was released on her 1974 ''A Live Album''. A commemorative 2-CD compilation featuring music and interviews was released by the May 4 Task Force in May 2005, in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the shootings. Poetry The incident is mentioned in Allen Ginsberg 's 1975 poem '' Hadda Be Playin' On A Jukebox '' Plays
Multimedia In her 1996 multimedia work ''Partially Buried'', visual artist Renée Green explores the history of the shootings within a wider historical and cultural context. FILMS Documentary
Drama
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
Listening
Video FURTHER READING
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