Kent State Shootings
On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired on unarmed students at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four and wounding nine others. The shootings became one of the defining moments of the Vietnam War era, deepening the divide in American society over the war and prompting one of the largest student strikes in the nation's history.
The immediate background was President Richard Nixon's announcement, on April 30, that U.S. and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. Many Americans had understood the war to be winding down, and the news set off protests on campuses across the country. At Kent, a small town in northeastern Ohio, a demonstration on May 1 spilled into downtown, where windows were broken and some bars were damaged. The mayor asked the governor for help, and Guard troops arrived the next day. That night, the university's ROTC building was set on fire and burned down; the identity of those responsible has never been conclusively established.
On Monday, May 4, several hundred students gathered on the campus Commons for a rally, despite an official ban on assemblies. Guardsmen ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced across the hillside, with some students throwing rocks and canisters back at them. After reaching a practice field, the troops turned and moved back up the hill. At around noon, a group of guardsmen fired for roughly thirteen seconds, with dozens of shots in all. Four students died: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. Some were protesters, while others were simply walking between classes. Why the shooting began remains disputed. Guardsmen said they feared for their lives, while critics pointed to the distance of the victims and the absence of any clear order to fire. Investigations have not settled the question of whether such an order was given.
The reaction was swift. Hundreds of colleges and universities closed or went on strike, and a large demonstration followed in Washington, D.C. Days later, police shot and killed two students at Jackson State College in Mississippi, an event that received far less national attention. A presidential commission on campus unrest concluded that the shootings were unjustified, though a state grand jury indicted several students and others rather than the guardsmen. Federal charges against eight guardsmen were brought in 1974 but ended in dismissal of the case. In 1979, a civil suit was settled with a statement of regret and a payment to the victims and their families.
Kent State remains a powerful symbol of the cost of political polarization and of the limits of state force against protest. The university now maintains a memorial and a May 4 visitors center, and the events are commemorated each year.