On May 4, 1970 four unarmed students at Kent State University were killed and nine wounded when the Ohio national guard fired on them during a rally to protest the Vietnam war.
How did it happen?
Richard Nixon had promised to bring an end to the war in Vietnam, but on April 30, 1970 he announced the invasion of Cambodia, which started a nationwide protest across college campuses.
May 1, 1970 about 500 students gathered at Kent State University for a peace rally. What I found interesting is that at that rally, a group of students burned a copy of the Constitution to symbolize "the murder of the Constitution because Congress had never declared war". This is a good question, how many wars since World War II has Congress actually declared a War, none. What happened to democracy and the voices of the people in this country?
May 2 and 3 1970, Mayor Stratton and asked Governor Rhodes to send the Ohio national guard to Kent because a group of protesters had confrontations with police in downtown Kent the night before. Now there were almost 1000 guardsmen at the campus and the night of May 3rd students tried to hold another rally. They were met by guardsmen who used tear gas to disperse the crowd and also curfew was enforced.
On May 4th about 3,000 students gathered on the campus Commons for another rally. Before noon there was a decision made for protesters to disperse. The protesters refused and again tear gas was fired into the crowd. Guardsmen marched across the campus Commons, the protestors moved up a hill (Blanket Hill) and then down the other side onto the Prentice Hall parking lot as well as a practice football field. Many Guardsmen followed the students directly and soon found themselves trapped on the practice football field so they began to go from the practice football field back up Blanket Hill. When they arrived at the top of the hill, 28 of the Guardsmen turned and fired their guns. Many of the guardsmen fired into the air or the ground. But a small portion fired directly into the crowd killing four and wounded nine other unarmed students.
The Aftermath
After that, college campuses and schools across the country began to protest with the largest student strike in US history. This resulted in the closing of hundreds of schools and then 5 days after about 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, DC against the killing of the students.
In the end, no criminal charges were ever obtained against any guardsman, only an out of court settlement and a statement signed by the defendants .
What is rarely talked about is the Jackson State University shooting.On May 14th, 10 days after the Kent State shooting, 2 students were killed and 12 wounded by police at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi. But this did not receive as much attention Nationwide as the Kent State University shooting because of racial injustice at the time. Also just like the Kent State University shooting, it was found to be unjustified but no one was ever arrested.
My mother was in high school at the time of the shootings, she said that her school also had a student strike. Her and other students sat outside the classrooms the day after the shootings. She also said that the teachers were sympathetic and also upset at what had happened so they allowed them to do this.
She talked about how united many people in this were to end the Vietnam war. I think the shootings dramatically changed our country, helped turn public opinion against the war and also helped antiwar activism today.
Both the Kent State and Jackson State shootings are a stark reminder that the violence we perpetrate across the globe will always eventually be used against us here at home. That is why peace should always be the answer to conflict and why we need the antiwar movement united now more than ever before.
Christy Franklin lives near Jackson Hole Wyoming. She’s been an activist and social media influencer for over two years.