Oral+History+Cristina

Topic: MAY 4 SHOOTINGS AT KENT UNIVERSITY Subject: Mr. Robert J. Mitchell (Grandfather)and Mr. Robert J. Mitchell Jr.(Uncle)

-- All over the country there were protests against the Vietnam war. In 1968, President Nixon was elected. His message to the people was that he would end the war in Vietnam. The first couple of years he was in office, the US involvement began to decrease. But although it was decreasing, soon it expanded and Nixon announced American troops would invade Cambodia. The day after the message was heard, tons of protests and rallies occurred. At Kent University on May 1st, a rally was held at the Commons of the campus. A large amount of young students were at the rally against the war. On campus, there were many fiery anti-war speeches, and students made a demonstration of burying the Constitution because "Congress and Nixon murdered it anyway." Later that day, a group of people assembled downtown and in the bars. Everything was peaceful at first, until a police car drove by. One protester threw a beer bottle at it. Other police arrived and violence erupted. Some students took the chance to be wild. They started smashing windows of small business owners' stores. Many of the other students were telling them to stop, but that was no help. Police called in a 'state of emergency' and bars were closed early. This made people more angry, so tear gas was used to back the protesters up more towards the campus.  -- The next morning, the mayor of Kent was told false information on the students actions. He was afraid that radical revolutionaries had arrived wanting to destroy Kent and its university. He contacted the governor of Ohio, Governor Rhodes, for outside help. Governor Rhodes reacted by calling the National Guard. He was said to be a governor who called the National Guard more often than any other governor in the Unites States. There were reports of students coming in from other states' campuses. The National Guard arrived May 2nd, that same day. Small business owners were grateful for the National Guard. Later, a rally was held at the University. There was a HUGE crowd. They burned the Reserve Officers Training Corps building. The crowd cheered as the building caught fire. Firemen came in and tried to put the fire out, but they were prevented by students who yanked at the hoses and cut them. The firemen gave up. The fire went out and at that point there wasn't much damage to the building. Students began to turn away, but when they looked back they realized someone had set it on fire once again. This time when the fire trucks came, there were armed soldiers with them. A former Kent Student in the National Guard said, "I thought they were burning the city down" when he rode in. The building was destroyed. The next morning, students looked out their windows to find the sights of 150 tents, jeeps and tanks in the lawn and driving around. The National Guard occupied the campus. Their order was to drive around, not do anything, just make their presence known. Then Governor Rhodes gave a speech. In it he told his belief that these students, both from Ohio and out of state were rabble-rousers and worse than Communists. He believed they were creating a bad effect on the community. He said, "They're the worst type of people we have harbored in America". The governor's words fueled anger in the protesters. University officials handed out leaflets saying that any rallies were banned, but many students did not get the leaflets. Students rode downtown to participate in peaceful Sit-Ins on the streets. They wanted to speak to the University president about the presence of the military on campus. They were told that if they went back to campus, he would speak to them. They all retreated and no one showed up. They felt tricked, lied to, and extremely angry. An angry protest erupted. The National Guard reacted. The student threw rocks at them and taunted them //from// windows. The guardsmen threw the stones back //through// dorm windows. When the guardsmen were brought in, it was as if fuel was thrown onto a fire. There was little control of the guards. Students walked up to the guards, yelled at them, "flipped them off," and threw bags of excrement and rocks at them. The guards answered violently. One student was stabbed by a guard's bayonet, and one guard was really injured by the students. By the end of the day on May 3rd, there had been over 100 arrests. The students were subjected to a curfew and with the National Guard presence, the university was under "martial law." This angered the students and a new rally was set up for the next day, May 4th, 1970.

- At 11:00 a.m. students began to assemble. Many students hadn't heard about the banning of the assembly due to bad forms of communication. Those that knew gathered anyway. Over three thousand students were there. The guards started to form a line. It was a peaceful gathering, "A picnic type thing," was the way one protestor described the scene. No violence was being used by the students. The order to disperse was said to the crowd, to no effect. Police got into the jeep with armed guardsmen and they drove through the crowd spreading the message. The students reacted their usual way, throwing rocks. Tear gas was thrown near to the crowd, but the wind carried it towards the nearby spectators. People began to run, but many were not taking it all seriously; the guards were. The guards began to march towards the students. The students retreated over Blanket Hill. The Guard followed realizing too late that they had made a tactical mistake. They were surrounded on three sides by a chain-link fence. They announced to the students through a bullhorn, "We have you surrounded." Many of the students began to laugh because it was clear the guards were the one's who were surrounded. Students threw bricks at the guards and the guards threw them back. A group of guards got down on their knees and pointed their weapons into the adjacent parking lot. This was a bad move. No one knew what to make of it. Some students got scared and started to leave, others were afraid to, and some others were more angry. The guards then stood up and got into a huddle. Some believe they were talking about who to shoot, but some of the guardsmen say they were talking about how the situation had gotten out of control. They got out of the huddle and began to walk away. Many students were relieved, but one of the protesters threw a hunk of cement at them. The big chunk hit one guardsman in the back of the leg. The guard turned around and pointed his gun at the crowd. The other guardsmen did too. An order was shouted. The word "fire" was in there, but some believe they said, "Hold your fire" but "fire" was all the Guardsmen heard, so that is what they did. Some shot in the air, others into the crowd. 61-67 shots were fired in 13 seconds. In those 13 seconds, 4 students were killed and another 9 were injured, one of the injured was forever paralyzed from the waist down. Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheur and Wiliam Schroeder died on May 4, 1970. Only Allison and Jeffrey were active participants in the rally. Sandra was simply walking to a class, and William who had been an active ROTC member and was studying military science, was in the crowd merely watching.

- On that day nearly 100 other universities were protesting, Princeton among them. Hundreds more went on strike or witnessed demonstrations against the war and the killings at Kent State. These students were against the war in Vietnam and wanted to be heard. They were, but at the cost of lives. Kent State became a galvanizing call for all who protested against the war.

 media type="youtube" key="gkejULqgBgg" height="364" width="445" The four students who died on May 4, 1970:

Below is a trailer to a long video. The whole video is very informational. It gives both perspectives. It was one of my main sources. I would suggest watching the full video click [|here].

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http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Eras/Display.aspx?storyid=1187622&entryid=295849&issublink=true&fromsearch=false http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Eras/Display.aspx?storyid=1187622&entryid=280481&issublink=true&fromsearch=false http://www.factualtv.com/documentary/13-seconds-The-Kent-State-Shootings

