Anniversary Today: Kent State Shootings of May 4, 1970

[shana]

Music to accompany this thread:

LINK

Better audio, this one:

[video=youtube;9GXtQfXBAmM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GXtQfXBAmM[/video]

 

[Thyme]

Been listening to Neil Baby tonight... god I love that man. I went on a walk out from high school in White Rock in May 1970..we walked all those miles to the Peace Arch border to protest the Vietnam war..on the way I stopped by my house and picked up my little brother..going for a walk Ma ;-)...and here we are 'Children of a Common Mother'.

 

[Astrella613]

OHIO, horrible, awful! Could one ever forget? I was of college age then. That had an awful impact on our generation. Could you even imagine that happening now?

 

[RLynne]

I was born a few years after the shootings at Kent State. The first time I ever really heard about it (as well as hearing "Four Dead in Ohio") was in a high school political science class. I remember going home and talking to my dad about it, because I thought the musical reaction was so cool...we then had a very interesting conversation about the Vietnam War ear (after he dug through his record collection and played the song for me).

It was interesting because, although my dad told me that a big part of the reason he participated in the ROTC as an undergrad (and continued on to grad school) was because he didn't want to be drafted (and filled me in on why), he also had some pretty strong views on the anti-war movement--he was a grad student at UW Madison at the time of the Sterling Hall bombing (and, in fact, his office was either in Sterling Hall, or next door, I can't remember). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing

 

[Betty P]

I was listening to this discussion about the Kent State Massacre on NPR Ideastream today while driving around. There are still quite a few unanswered questions and many misconceptions. I'll try to find a link to the audio of the interview.

For example, why did the Ohio National Guard (ONG) choose to use armour piercing bullets that day instead of rubber bullets normally used for crowd control?

Kent State University marks 55th anniversary of May 4 shootings

On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine students. Events are planned on campus from May 2–4 to commemorate the day.

www.ideastream.org

I'll also add some links to recent retrospective articles and interviews

Here are a couple from the 2020 anniversary

'It's a very bittersweet time': Kent State shooting victim reflects on 50 years

Joe Lewis was one of nine people wounded in the shootings on of May 4, 1970. He has returned many times to Kent State to commemorate the day's events.

www.cincinnati.com

Kent State shootings: Tired of telling his story, survivor refocused attention on student activism

Survivor Tom Case, shot in the foot on May 4, 1970, remembers laying on the ground listening to gunfire and thinking “When is this going to stop?”

www.cincinnati.com

In survivor Joe Lewis' interview above, it's surprising to read that some news outlets gave highly inaccurate reports of the Kent State shootings, claiming that the students were to blame:

“What I read in (The Massillon Independent) was a complete fabrication,” he said. “It was all lies. It said that students had attacked guardsmen with bricks and bottles and overturned cars and none of that happened at all to my knowledge, not an instant at all.

“So, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, my neighbors next door are reading that this is what I participated in?’”

Lewis’ outlook changed after May 4.

There were no bricks, bottles or overturned cars that day. The only person in the crowd with a gun was a self-described "gung ho" undercover police informant.

Kent State shootings: Does former informant hold the key to the May 4 mystery?

Terry Norman, a law-enforcement major and self-described "gung-ho" informant, was the only civilian known to be carrying a gun as the protest unfolded on May 4, 1970. Though Norman denies shooting his weapon and was never charged in the deaths that day, a review of hundreds of documents from...

www.cleveland.com