On May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.
Two days earlier, on May 2, National Guard troops were called to Kent to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The next day, scattered protests were dispersed by tear gas, and on May 4 class resumed at Kent State University. By noon that day, despite a ban on rallies, some 2,000 people had assembled on the campus. National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced against the students with bayonets fixed on their rifles. Some of the protesters, refusing to yield, responded by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops.
Minutes later, without firing a warning shot, the Guardsmen discharged more than 60 rounds toward a group of demonstrators in a nearby parking lot, killing four and wounding nine. The closest casualty was 20 yards away, and the farthest was almost 250 yards away. After a period of disbelief, shock, and attempts at first aid, angry students gathered on a nearby slope and were again ordered to move by the Guardsmen. Faculty members were able to convince the group to disperse, and further bloodshed was prevented.
The shootings led to protests on college campuses across the country. Photographs of the massacre became enduring images of the anti-war movement. In 1974, at the end of a criminal investigation, a federal court dropped all charges levied against eight Ohio National Guardsmen for their role in the Kent State students’ deaths.
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What I remember most about this incident was that our English teacher at school wore a black armband to class, she was a first year teacher fresh out of college. We had not seen eye to eye all year and I was a lowly freshman, not to mention this was a school way out in the Southern boondocks and had been fully integrated for about three years with a ratio now of Blacks of about six to one. She left after one year.
Anyway four years later walk into an English class at the University and low and behold there she is, now a full blown professor.
It was kind of one of those Seinfield and Newman moments. To be fair we got along well, guess we had both matured.
Ah memories. Oh wait, what happened, did the hippies put some flowers in the barrels of the Guard’s rifles.
And the beatings, and shootings, will continue…..
Until Morale improves….
the options prof was black armbanded day after black monday. in his favor, he wasn’t a damned academic. but he had to refi his mortgage.
completely different? same people. just different faces/names.
I seem to remember that there was a huge drop off nationally in both the number and size of the protests after the shooting. They were similar to today except that there were fewer paid protestors. The BLM paid crowds would disperse immediately with one pistol shot. As always it depends on who is getting paid to be a front group.
huge drop off nationally in both the number and size of the protests
Kent state,
http://mileswmathis.com/kent.pdf
And the Manson story,
http://mileswmathis.com/tate.pdf
Effectively ended the grass roots peace movements of the era.
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Sign in window…”They can’t kill us all!”
Really? How naive. How sad that people in college are actually that stupid.
At least we know it’s nothing new.
maybe 3rd leg your stool oughta be scrotumizer?
the ‘soldiers’ ‘feared for their safety’ blah-blah-blah
but … both ‘sides’ just following yellowbrick road social proofed-loaves orders.
individuals disappear in the dough that ‘smarter’ liars knead ….
CIA agent amongst the students fired his handgun at the national guardsmen to start an incident
Score Update:
Ohio National Guard 4
Kent State University 0
Damn hippies. Always foulin up the place, tryin to have a damn “hippie jam” protesting something. Next thing you know, it attracts other hippies, and you get a massive zombie crowd listening to Jerry Garcia, crapping all over the place for days and almost get overrun. Once it grows to critical mass, it keeps gettin bigger and bigger until it gets out of control. The only way to stop a “hippie jam” is with Death Metal. Hippies hate Death Metal. It spoils their buzz and they start wandering away unhappy….
The communist international does not stop and operates today within the democrat party. The protestors were thought by many to be under the guidance of the communists at the time, useful idiots and fellow travelers. Only when the state (run in fact by democrats, with the liberal Nixon at the head, he being elected as a howling protest of the state by middle America) bared its teeth and struck with force did the communists suffer a genuine public setback.
They don’t call themselves communists and angrily deny it now when one calls them out for what they are.
The movement took over the democrat party in the ensuing decades as those protesting kids aged into midlife and beyond. In either 80 or 84 the CPUSA stopped fielding national candidates, stating ‘we can achieve all our goals through the democrat party’.
The 2020 and 2022 elections demonstrate how far they have come toward realizing those goals.
The “school shooting” that should be mentioned every time other school shootings are brought up…kind of like how every bad earthquake is rehashed after any recent shaking.
Something we probably need to see again. Gotta thin out these morons some how, the clot shot isn’t working fast enough.
The face of Mary Vecchio became iconic … seen around the world in less than a day …
The teamsters had been on strike in the State of Ohio for about a week prior to the Kent State shooting … and Governor Rhodes had activated the Ohio National Guard during that period of fires and shootings by the union truckers, but forbade the ONG from carrying loaded weapons against the thugs.
Then the strike ended and Rhodes sent the ONG to KSU … and told them to ‘lock and load’ against unarmed students … and the result is what followed …
We had a local newswoman in Cleveland who was somewhat legendary — Dorothy Fuldheim … and she wept that day on the news at the sight of what happened … only the 2d time she had done so during her broadcast (the other was JFK’s assassination) …
https://denisegraveline.org/2016/05/famous-speech-friday-dorothy-fuldheim.html
‘Four Dead In Ohio’ … indeed … but CSNY should have titled it ‘Four Murdered In Ohio’ … truly a ‘day that will live in infamy’ … or should …
I blame the MIC owned Tricky Dick Nixon and the sub-human abomination who was the Gov. of Ohio at the time…Rhodes.
That was when the US Army National Guard declared war on the American people. The Government declared war on the American people long before that, but they lied and deceived the people about it. Now they do not care. Now we are at war with the government and the people stick their heads up their asses and refuse to admit it…..