Kent+State

=THE KENT STATE SHOOTINGS=

toc May 4, 1970, was a fateful day in American history. Many American baby-boomers still remember where they were when they heard about the assassinations of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They also vividly recall the shootings that occurred on the campus of Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio. Four students - Jeffrey miller, William Schroeder, Allison Krause, and Sandra Scheuer - were killed that day and nine more wounded by the Ohio National Guard. The shooting lasted for thirteen seconds. American troops had killed American students and the entire nation was stunned.

Why it all Started
President Richard Nixon was bogged down in the Vietnam War. The youth of America were protesting on college campuses across America. The draft was necessary to provide enough soldiers. Needless to say, the Vietnam War was not popular, especially among the young people. When Nixon admitted to bombings in Cambodia, protests blanketed the nation.

Timeline of the Events
Thursday, April 30, 1970

On Thursday evening, President Nixon announced to a national television audience that American troops were entering Cambodia. Cambodia was located West of Vietnam. The U.S. had already been bombing in Cambodia for a year, befor this, Nixon had been promising that the south Vietnamies would be replacing U.S. soildgers and that the U.S. soildgers would be coming home soon. People were shocked and angry and responded with protest accros the country.

Friday, May 1st, 1970

Most demonstrations at Kent State University were held in the center of the campus on a grassy knoll. On May 1st, about five hundred students gathered to peacefully protest Nixon's announcement. Many protestors were very angry, and they felt that the U.S. Constitution was being completely ignored. they symbolically buried a copy of it and at least one student burned his draft card. In town that evening, trouble ensued. There was looting and vandalism. The police had to restore order in the town of Kent.

Saturday, May 2nd

The mayor of Kent became very concerned and asked the governor of Ohio to send in the National Guard. On Saturday, May 2, they rolled into town about 10 P.M. A big demonstration was happening at the ROTC building on campus. The ROTC building was not in use and was, in fact, scheduled for demolition.Someone intentionally caught the building on fire. Over 1,000 people were applauding the destruction of the building. Firemen and policemen were attacked while trying to extinguish the flames. Rocks and other objects were hurled at them. At least one fire hose was slashed. Arrests were made by the protestors.

Sunday, May 3rd

The Governor of Ohio held a press conference and stated that the protestors were trying to destroy higher education. He felt that those who demonstrated were "un-American". He 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." The Governor said he as going to declare a state of emergency. Some students tried to help clean up the mess left by the demonstrations, but the mayor of the town ordered a curfew. Another demonstration was held on campus that evening and tear gas was used by the National Guard to break it up. The students then started a sit-in on Main Street. At 11 P.M. the curfew was announced and the Guard forced students to go home. Some people were injured.

Monday, May 4th

A protest was scheduled for noon that day on the campus of Kent State. The officials tried to prevent the gathering by disersing leaflets saying that the protest had been canceled. The Victory Bell, usually rung to let all know about a football victory, rang to signal the beginning of the demonstration. Units of the National Guard, fearing violence, attempted to dispell the crowd of two thousand students. Campus police officials told the kids to leave or face arrest. The students responded by throwing rocks and injuring at least one guardsman. Just before 12 o'clock, the Guard once again tried to order the protest to end. The Guard began lobbing tear gas cannisters into the crowd and many of the sudents lobbed them back at the Guard. The Guard used weapons with bayonetts affixed to advance into the demonstrators. The demonstrators fell back. the Guard kept coming, but instead of following the route the protestors had mainly taken, they kept going straight towards the athletic fields. They reained there for about ten minutes. Most of the protestors congegated in front of the guardsmen or to the left of them. Many were dispersing as they had been ordered to do. At some point, some of the gusrdsmen knelt and loited their weapons towards the parking lot and then rose. Most of the crowd had left, but some were still angrily confronting the troops. Then the Guard began returning over the same ground previously covered. At 12:22 P.M. a small group of guardsmen on top of a hill turned and fired their rifles at students who were not close to them. Some guardsmen fired into the ground. The shooting lasted only thirteen seconds, and the question of why they shot is still being debated to this day. The shooting killed four students and wounded nine more. Two who were killed participated in the protest and two others were walking between classes.

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Aftermath
The photos of the carnage at Kent State appeared everywhere. They have become symbols of the anti-war movement in America. Students called for a nation wide strike and 450 campuses across the nation closed. Students felt that their own government was trying to silence and kill them. Five days after the shootings, over one-hundred thousand converged on Washington, D.C. to protest the war and the killings of the students. Ray price, a speechwriter, recalled the demonstrations saying, "The city was an armed camp. The mobs were smashing windows, slashing tires, dragging parked cars into intersections, even throwing bedsprings off overpasses into the traffic below. This was the quote, student protest. That's not a student protest. that is civil war." This was truly a turning point in American history. The country was inded close to civil war. The administration's attitude of ignoring the events made them appear indifferent. On May 14, police killed two students at Jackson State University, but this did not become a rallying call for the disenfranchised. A commision organized to investigate the shootings reported that they sere unjustified. Eight of the Guardsmen were indicted by a Grand Jury, but the case was dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence. A guardsman who admitted to firing, said, "I never heard any command to fire. That's all I can say on that." In the end, the families of the victims were awarded $63,000 per victim and the state of Ohio said it regretted its actions.