Kent State

May 4, 1970

On Friday, May 1, about 500 students quietly protested the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

The students went out that night and caused problems, such as hitting a police car with a beer can and starting a fire in the middle of the street.

The mood turned violent and police were brought in with riot gear.

After this, a 8:00 p.m. curfew was put into effect. For the next few days, the streets are quiet at night.

At 6:00 p.m. on May 2, students begin a protest on the school grounds. In two hours the crowd grew to 600 people.

After 8:00 p.m. the crowd is well over a thousand. The crowd tossed rocks at the ROTC building and start it on fire. The protesters hacked up the fire hoses and let the building burn.

Shortly after, 900 National Guard members station themselves on the campus. They use tear gas and rifles to control the crowd.

Sunday, May 3rd, there were helicopters hovering the campus. Ohio governor, Rhodes, arrives to have a meeting with the student body president. This results in conflicting views.

Students received a flyer telling them not to rally, and a curfew of 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on campus. But not every student saw this flyer.

9:00 p.m. on Sunday, the students hold a peaceful rally. The crowd is told to go home. When they do not, guardsmen fire tear gas into the crowd. This makes the crowd turn violent.

Monday, May 4th. The students begin to gather around noon.

More than two thousand students were gathered in the commons area. Although they were not rallying, guardsmen began to patrol.

Students throw rocks and guardsmen fire tear gas. The guardsmen were outnumbered and found themselves trapped between the crowd and a fence.

The guardsmen fired 65 shots, some into the air, others into the crowd.

Many of the students believed that the guardsmen were shooting blanks.

Four students were killed: Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and Jeffrey Miller. Nine others were wounded.

Although students were scared, they were more angry and refused to leave campus.

Within the next few days, all students, faculty and staff were ordered to leave.

The students finished their classes by mail.

More than 200 colleges across the country were shut down in fear of peace rallies causing similar events.

People pushed for a trial of the guardsmen who killed the students.

It took five years, but the guardsmen were brought to trial. The jury agreed with the National Guard and the families of the dead received nothing.

A retrial in 1978 gave the victims $675,000 to be split 13 ways.

This photograph won the Pulitzer Prize and became eerily famous

Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: Released 10 days after the shooting Tin soldiers and Nixon's

coming

We're finally on our own

This summer I hear the drumming

Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it Soldiers are gunning us

down Should have been done

long ago What if you knew her and Found her dead on the

ground How can you run when

you know