Although most fired into the air or ground, some shot directly into the crowd. 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. Nixon had been trailed by White House Deputy for Domestic Affairs Egil Krogh, who saw it differently, saying, "I thought it was a very significant and major effort to reach out. 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. Like our boys in Vietnam.[36]. Start studying Kent State Shootings. The news spread quickly and it resulted in several bars closing early to avoid trouble. According to The Plain Dealer, this new analysis raised questions about the role of Terry Norman, a Kent State student who was an FBI informant and known to be carrying a pistol during the disturbance. The Kent Legal Defense Fund was organized to provide legal resources to oppose the indictments. Log in Sign up. Rhodes wasn't the only one who disparaged the protestors during the days leading up to the tragedy. Norman was present during the May 4 protests, taking photographs to identify student leaders,[69] while carrying a sidearm and wearing a gas mask. When did the shootings occur? But that all changed when Gov. However, in November, 1969, the My Lai Massacre by American troops of between 347 and 504 civilians in a Vietnamese village was exposed, which heightened opposition especially among younger people around the country. [71], Throughout the years since the shootings, debate has continued on about the events of May 4, 1970. University officials attempted to ban the gathering, handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was canceled. "[32] The question of why the shots were fired remains widely debated. Match. [12], On April 10, 1970, Jerry Rubin, a leader of the Youth International Party (also known as the Yippies), spoke on campus. iUniverse, 2005. [16] Satrom met with Kent city officials and a representative of the Ohio Army National Guard. [53][54][55], Students from Kent State and other universities often got a hostile reaction upon returning home. Authorities never found out who was responsible for the fire, and protesters cut fire hoses to prevent the fire department from putting out the blaze [source: Heineman]. President Nixon announced that the "Cambodian Incursion" had been launched by United States combat forces. Although the deaths in Mississippi 17. Kent State was not an example of "political killings." The Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence, an interdisciplinary program dedicated to violence prevention, was established in 1998. When it became clear that the crowd was not going to disperse, a group of 77 National Guard troops from A Company and Troop G, with bayonets fixed on their M1 Garand rifles, began to advance upon the hundreds of protesters. National Geographic Channel: "How It Was: Death at Kent State," 2008. The nature of military participation also changed on Dec. 1, 1969, when the first draft lottery since World War II took place. While on the practice field, the guardsmen generally faced the parking lot, which was about 100 yards (91 m) away. [65] 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. Each May 4 from 1971 to 1975, the Kent State University administration sponsored an official commemoration of the shootings. Test. The protest began with the ringing of the campus's iron Victory Bell (which had historically been used to signal victories in football games) to mark the beginning of the rally, and the first protester began to speak. In 1970, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover responded to questions from then-Congressman John M. Ashbrook by denying that Norman had ever worked for the FBI, a statement Norman disputed. 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. The entire Kent police force was called to duty as well as officers from the county and surrounding communities. PKM: “Kent State” has become an almost mythological, overarching term for the crushing end days of 1960s student idealism. "[51], Karnow further documented that at 4:15 a.m. on May 9, 1970, the president met about 30 student dissidents conducting a vigil at the Lincoln Memorial, whereupon Nixon, "treated them to a clumsy and condescending monologue, which he made public in an awkward attempt to display his benevolence." April 26, 2004. That's not student protest, that's civil war. On May 12, 1977, a tent city was erected and maintained for a period of more than 60 days by a group of several dozen protesters on the Kent State campus. Kent State University Men's Soccer: The Stories Behind the Stats. He never did make the declaration, but most of the guardsmen and university officials assumed that martial law had taken effect. Kent State shootings May 4, 1970. By 8:45 p.m., the Guardsmen used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the students reassembled at the intersection of Lincoln and Main, holding a sit-in with the hopes of gaining a meeting with Mayor Satrom and University President Robert White. [9] Following the meeting, Satrom made the decision to call Rhodes and request that the National Guard be sent to Kent, a request that was granted immediately. It was total, utter bullshit. Before the Guard arrived, a crowd of about 1,000 protesters gathered around an ROTC building on Kent State's campus and burned it to the ground. Then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said the President was "pretending indifference". The Vietnam War had escalated under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson before Richard Nixon took office. The victims and the families of the students killed received the collective sum of $675,000, which the State of Ohio paid [source: Bills and Bills]. A ROTC building was burned to the ground, other campus buildings were vandalized, and demonstrations grew to be very large, disrupting the functioning of the campus. They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes. Verifying documents are in the Special Collections archive at the Kent State University library. The B-side of the single release was Stephen Stills' anti-Vietnam War anthem "Find the Cost of Freedom".[129]. In 1968, Richard Nixon won the presidency partly based on a campaign promise to end the Vietnam War. Many of the crowd-control changes brought on by the Kent State events are used today by police and military forces in the United States when facing similar situations, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots and civil disorder during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The highest-ranking officer, Gen. Robert Canterbury, fruitlessly ordered an end to the rally, calling out to protestors with a bullhorn as he was driven around the commons in a jeep. [76], In 2007 Alan Canfora, one of the wounded students, located a static-filled copy of an audio tape of the shootings in a Yale library archive. Several fire engine companies had to be called because protesters carried the fire hose into the Commons and slashed it. If you don't disperse right now, they're going to move in, and it can only be a slaughter. [68] 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. Guardsman advanced, driving students past Taylor Hall. In December 1971, all charges against the remaining twenty were dismissed for lack of evidence.[63][64]. Nevertheless, all parties agree that it was an avoidable tragedy. Today, the events of Sunday, May 3, 1970, and the life of freshman Allison Krause. Oxford University Press, 2006. There are a number of lesser-known musical tributes, including the following: Strubbe Tape and further government reviews. U.S. National Register of Historic Places, role of the United States in the Vietnam War, Learn how and when to remove this template message, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, May 4, 1970 Site Makes National Register of Historic Places, List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States, List of National Historic Landmarks in Ohio, "Announcements and actions on properties for the National Register of Historic Places for March 5, 2010", "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Kent State Shootings Site", "The Kent State Shootings, 35 Years Later", "Congressman Tim Ryan Gives Speech at 37th Commemoration of Kent State Massacre", Shots Still Reverberate For Survivors Of Kent State, Dean Kahler: Visitors' Center helps him move past May 4, 1970, "The May 4 Shootings At Kent State University: The Search For Historical Accuracy", "Weekly Highlight 03/05/2010 Kent State Shootings Site, Portage County, Ohio", "Kent State 1970:Description of Events May 1 through May 4", "ROTC building arson May 2, 1970: Witness statements taken August 6, 1970, p. 6", "ROTC building arson May 2, 1970: Witness statements taken August 6, 1970, p. 4", "ROTC building arson May 2, 1970: Witness statements taken August 6, 1970, p. 5", "President's Commission on Campus Unrest", "Full History of Familiar Kent State Sculpture Comes to Light after Decades", "Kent State Shootings: 1970 Year in Review", "How the Kent State massacre helped give birth to punk rock", "Devo's Jerry Casale on the Kent State Massacre, May 4, 1970", "The Kent State Shootings and the "Move the Gym" Controversy, 1977", "Alan Canfora, May 4 Kent State University shooting survivor and expert, dies at 71", "The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, William W. Scranton, Chairman", "U.S. Justice Department 1970 Summary Of FBI Reports (truthful excerpts)", "John Filo: Iconic Photos of the Vietnam War and Their Influence on Collective Memory", "Nixon puts 'bums' label on some college radicals", "Campus Unrest Linked to Drugs Palm Beach Post May 28, 1970", "Bob Woodward Shares 'Chilling' Words from Former President Richard Nixon About May 4 Shootings", "Iconic image from Kent State shootings stokes the fires of anti-Vietnam War sentiment", "Attorney for Students who were Shot at Kent State Dies in New York", "Joseph Kelner, attorney who sued sitting Ohio governor over Kent State slayings, is dead at 98", "The Kent State Conspiracies: What Really Happened On May 4, 1970? However, the atmosphere was surprisingly friendly and relaxed, and many students chatted with the guardsmen. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics… The Listener. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was 265 feet (81 m) away, and their average distance from the guardsmen was 345 feet (105 m). (May 1, 2009) http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm, Lytle, Mark H. "America's Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon." The decision to close the bars early only served to increase tensions in the area. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. I was a white hippie boy and then I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. [12], In the fall of 1968, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and a campus Black Student Organization staged a sit-in to protest police recruiters on campus. Around 8 p.m., another rally was held on the campus Commons. Kent State shooting, the shooting of unarmed college students at Kent State University, in northeastern Ohio, by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, one of the seminal events of the anti- Vietnam War movement in the United States. I got up, I saw four or five students lying around the lot. There is also evidence to suggest that the burning was planned beforehand: railroad flares, a machete, and ice picks are not customarily carried to peaceful rallies. The report said: Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. Another 1,000 weren't actively participating -- they just came to show their support for the rally. [78][79], In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice determined that there were "insurmountable legal and evidentiary barriers" to reopening the case. [88] Segal's completed cast-from-life bronze sculpture, Abraham and Isaac: In Memory of May 4, 1970, Kent State, was instead accepted in 1979 by Princeton University and currently resides there between the university chapel and library. ; William Perkins, 38 of Canton, Ohio; and Ralph Zoller, 27, of Mantua, Ohio. participated in the events leading up to and including the Kent State shooting and the effect that it had on the political process • C.12.14 Explain and analyze how different political and social movements have sought to mobilize public opinion and obtain governmental support in order to achieve their goals. Compared to nearby Ohio State University, the Kent State student body was generally less liberal and more blue-collar [source: Lytle]. Professor Frank's son, also present that day, said, "He absolutely saved my life and hundreds of others".[40]. I can describe student protests about the Vietnam War and the events leading to the Kent State shootings. By 1970, thousands of people in the United States were actively protesting the Vietnam War. The shooting was determined to have lasted 13 seconds, although John Kifner reported in The New York Times that "it appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer. Davies, Peter and the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church (1973). In 2016, the site of the shootings was named as a National Historic Landmark. Even though tbe story is short, younger readers readers without background knowledge of the events will find it challenging. But in uniform. The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, 1970. This is a nation at war with itself. The case went through court in several trials. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators. Match. Photographs of the dead and wounded at Kent State that were distributed in newspapers and periodicals worldwide amplified sentiment against the United States' invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War in general. To understand the context of the tension, let's sum up the background on the war. [57], On June 13, 1970, as a consequence of the killings of protesting students at Kent State and Jackson State, President Nixon established the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, known as the Scranton Commission, which he charged to study the dissent, disorder, and violence breaking out on college and university campuses across the nation.[58]. At about 5 p.m., Satrom asked Gov. May 4 1970. Some historians who've investigated the shootings have accused the guardsmen of conspiring to shoot into the crowd before they retreated back up Blanket Hill. The mobs were smashing windows, slashing tires, dragging parked cars into intersections, even throwing bedsprings off overpasses into the traffic down below. Write. Reading the events that led up to the massacre showed me that, while what happened at Kent State should never happen again, it very well could, especially when we have a President in office who will use concussion grenades to clear a path from the White House to a church for a ridiculous photo op. PLAY. This symbolic act was meant to represent how Congress was violating the document by waging a war that it had never officially declared [source: Lewis]. NBC's Emmy award winning docudrama: Kent State, Thank You for Smoking (2005) - Quotes - IMDb, "Event Releases: '4 Dead in Ohio' explores modern event through ancient story", "NC Writers' Network Blog › Poetry in Summer", "Kent State shooting victim Sandra Lee Scheuer inspired B.C. However, it's thought that outside agitators helped escalate the violence and intensity of the protests. Everything slowed down and the silence got heavier. We hope that the agreement to end the litigation will help to assuage the tragic memories regarding that sad day. STUDY. Scheuer and Schroeder weren't participating in the protest -- they were merely walking to class [source: Chermak]. Some were told that more students should have been killed to teach student protesters a lesson; some students were disowned by their families. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. The shots were definitely coming my way, because when a bullet passes your head, it makes a crack. Agnew admitted in response to a question that what happened at Kent State was murder, "but not first degree" since there was – as Agnew explained from his own training as a lawyer – "no premeditation but simply an over-response in the heat of anger that results in a killing; it's a murder. And personally, I was standing there saying, they're not going to shoot, they can't do that. In 1970, tensions came to a fever pitch when tragedy struck on one college campus. The event gained national press coverage and the issue was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court. It is the only known recording to capture the events leading up to the shootings. Better ways must be found to deal with such a confrontation. The guardsmen pursued the protesters over the hill, but rather than veering left as the protesters had, they continued straight, heading toward an athletic practice field enclosed by a chain link fence. Companies A and C, 1-145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2-107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio National Guard (ARNG), the units on the campus grounds, attempted to disperse the students. [101], A 17.24-acre (6.98 ha) area was listed as "Kent State Shootings Site" on the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 2010. In the succeeding years, many in the anti-war movement have referred to the shootings as "murders," although no criminal convictions were obtained against any National Guardsman. The incident marked the first time that a student had been killed in an anti-war gathering in United States history. Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, whose statements were carefully programmed, referred to the deaths as a reminder that 'when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.'" Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom declared a state of emergency, called the office of Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes to seek assistance, and ordered all of the bars to be closed. "[10] 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. Protestors called for another rally to be held on Monday, May 4. [89][90], In 1990, twenty years after the shootings, a memorial commemorating the events of May 4 was dedicated on the campus on a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) site overlooking the University's Commons where the student protest took place. [37] While speaking to the Vermont Review in 2005, he recalled what he saw: All I can tell you is that it completely and utterly changed my life. Trouble exploded in town around midnight, when people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police cars and breaking windows in downtown storefronts. The shootings led to protests on college campuses throughout the United States, and a student strike, causing more than 450 campuses across the country to close with both violent and non-violent demonstrations. Spell. It begins on Friday, May 1 -- the day after President Nixon made his announcement about sending troops into Cambodia. Ray Price, Nixon's chief speechwriter from 1969 to 1974, recalled the Washington demonstrations saying, "The city was an armed camp. That night, the town of Kent was restless . Lawrence Shafer, was injured enough to require medical treatment, approximately 10 to 15 minutes prior to the shootings. According to FBI reports, one part-time student, Terry Norman, was already noted by student protesters as an informant for both campus police and the Akron FBI branch. When National Guards could not. Disturbances in downtown Kent that night caused city officials to ask Governor James Rhodes to send the Ohio National Guard to maintain order. ...this is when we're going to use every part of the law enforcement agency of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. [100] The center was officially opened in May 2013, on the anniversary of the shootings. The Ohio National Guardsmen who fired on students and antiwar protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 were given an order to prepare to … 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. (May 1, 2009) http://hnn.us/articles/4525.html, Wells, Tom, Todd Gitlin. As this student fell behind the car, I saw another student go down, next to the curb, on the far side of the automobile, maybe 25 or 30 yards from where I was lying. What started out as a peaceful protest culminated into 4 days of unrest that ended in tragedy. "The War Within: America's Battle Over Vietnam." In her 1996 still/moving photographic project. The governor also suggested that he would do something unprecedented and seek a court order to declare a state of emergency. They are surrounded by a raised rectangle of granite[94] featuring six lightposts approximately four feet high, with each student's name engraved on a triangular marble plaque in one corner.[95]. In response, the university revoked the Kent State SDS chapter charter. 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.[44]. 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 event turned out to be an anti-napalm teach-in.[12]. History News Network. He successfully pleaded with the students for 20 minutes not to provoke the guardsmen any further. This student lay wounded on the ground in the wake of the shootings. According to the report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest: Information developed by an FBI investigation of the ROTC building fire indicates that, of those who participated actively, a significant portion weren't Kent State students. [31] A number of guardsmen nearest the students also turned and fired their rifles at the students. Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C., against the war and the killing of unarmed student protesters. The country was fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam that was instigating a wave of protests. The news of the Kent State University shootings shocked the public. Every year on the anniversary of the shootings, notably on the 40th anniversary in 2010, students and others who were present share remembrances of the day and the impact it has had on their lives. Three days before the shootings, Nixon had talked of "bums" who were antiwar protestors on United States campuses,[50] to which the father of Allison Krause stated on national TV: "My child was not a bum. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website. To learn more about the events at Kent State University, visit The May 4 Visitors Center website. But the real story of what happened at Kent State begins a few days before the tragic shootings took place. [97], Front side of Ohio Historical Marker #67-8:[98]. The federal court civil action for wrongful death and injury, brought by the victims and their families against Governor Rhodes, the President of Kent State, and the National Guardsmen, resulted in unanimous verdicts for all defendants on all claims after an eleven-week trial. They shot into a crowd that was running away from them! This is not the greatest free democracy in the world. As a result, patrons spilled out into the street and joined the rioting crowds. I went to OSU, lived in Columbus for 17 years, and those riots barely ever came up. Finally, the police dispersed the crowd using tear gas and encouraged students to return to campus. Stanley Karnow noted in his Vietnam: A History that: "The [Nixon] administration initially reacted to this event with wanton insensitivity. Sunrise brought a fragile calm to the Kent State University campus, and the warm, breezy spring day lured students out of their dorms. Get Set! "Camus Wars: the Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era." (October 8, 1970) 472-473. Test. Events Leading Up to the Kent State Shootings, Bills, Shirley, Scott L. Bills. In her 2015 autobiography she described what she saw: Then I heard the tatatatatatatatatat sound. The guardsmen pushed the protesters past the commons and up and over the steep Blanket Hill into the Prentice Hall parking lot and a practice football field. On May 2, reporters overheard President Nixon referring to them as "Bums… blowing up campuses" [source: Bills]. I hit the ground behind the curve, looking over. Dean R. Kahler; 300 ft (91 m); back wound fracturing the vertebrae; permanently paralyzed from the chest down. In the span of 13 seconds, guardsmen fired between 61 and 67 shots [source: Lewis]. The 25th Amendment: The Other Constitutional Way to Remove a President. Another witness was Chrissie Hynde, the future lead singer of The Pretenders and a student at Kent State University at the time. Flashcards. In particular, the camera of Kent State photojournalism student John Filo captured a 14-year-old runaway, Mary Ann Vecchio,[45] screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller, who had been shot in the mouth. Woodward labelled the previously-unheard remarks "chilling" and among the "most outrageous" of the President's statements. Among them are Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team who was a freshman in 1970;[104] surviving student Tom Grace, who was shot in the foot;[105] Kent State faculty member Jerry Lewis;[106] photographer John Filo;[40] and others. Former KSU Professor discusses the roots of student/administration/town relations with regard to events of 1968-69. The Kent State shootings, ... audio experts", concluded that the guardsmen were given an order to fire. The rally had been planned since Friday, but on Monday morning, university officials with the impression that the campus was under martial law issued 12,000 flyers to notify students that all rallies were banned [source: Lewis]. 10 Things You Didn't Know About the U.S. Constitution, Information about the device's operating system, Information about other identifiers assigned to the device, The IP address from which the device accesses a client's website or mobile application, Information about the user's activity on that device, including web pages and mobile apps visited or used, Information about the geographic location of the device when it accesses a website or mobile application. Under Johnson, the number of American troops in Vietnam soared from 16,000 when he replaced Kennedy in 1963 to more than 500,000 in 1968 but with no tangible results. A love story set on campus of Kent State University during the events leading up to the May 4, 1970 tragedy. We deeply regret those events and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others which resulted. Then, "All right, prepare to fire!" The new procedure eliminated deferments allowed in the prior draft process, leaving many college students and teachers unsure of their immediate futures. They testified that the protesters advanced on them in a threatening way that warranted shooting. As protests became more heated, the Ohio National Guard was summoned to Kent. The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest concluded that the shootings were "unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable. Key Concepts: Terms in this set (10) Why were students protesting at Kent State? Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, was one such campus where tense protests were held. Another student tried to pull him behind the car, bullets were coming through the windows of the car. 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. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. When singer/songwriter Neil Young saw the photos taken at the scene, he wrote the song "Ohio" in commemoration of the tragedy. Four students were killed: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. Robert Follis Stamps; 495 ft (151 m); hit in his right buttock. We're not going to treat the symptoms. By the time I made my way to where I could see them it was still unclear what was going on. "Kent State: 'One or two cracks of rifle fire ... Oh my God! [19][20][21] The National Guard made numerous arrests, mostly for curfew violations, and used tear gas; at least one student was slightly wounded with a bayonet.[22].
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