Kent State Shootings
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The Riot
May 4, 1970 marks the day that four students at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, were shot and killed by the United States National Guard. The event bears different names, generally stemming from which angle one views the demonstrations. On one hand, people called the event a “massacre,” but more conservative minded people tended to label the occurrence as a “riot.”
The event at Kent State began as a peaceful demonstration following President Richard Nixon’s speech on April 30, 1970 about expanding the Vietnam War by invading Cambodia. The speech affected students and faculty alike at Kent State, as it did in various places around the nation. Responding to a bell that hadn’t been rung for years, Kent State students congregated in the campus commons, where they refused to leave after being ordered to do so.
The National Guard Response
Responding to the defiance of the Kent State students, Mr. Leroy Satrom, Ohio’s mayor, contacted the Ohio National Guard to send members to the school in order to disperse the demonstration. Referred to by many students as the “Death Squad,” the Ohio National Guardsmen from Troop G traveled to the school and attempted to squash the protest.
The Guardsmen came to the campus equipped with tear gas, grenade launchers to help fire the tear gas, firearms, and bayonets. Students, acknowledging the weapons brought to against them, retaliated further by bearing their own weapons with which to fight off the Guardsmen. Tear gas was countered with rocks and other sharp objects. Students ran toward the Guardsmen with torches.
In response to the Guardsmen’s presence, students began to jeer and chant phrases such as “Pigs off campus,” which continued until shots rang out. The initial shot was followed by several more. At the end of the shooting, between sixty-one and sixty-seven shots were fired in a mere thirteen seconds. When the gunfire ceased, four Kent State students were dead and nine other students were injured. The campus – and the rest of the nation – was dumbstruck.
Aftermath
Two young men and women died in the shootings. Their names were Allison Krause, William (Bill) Shroeder, Sandra Scheur, and Jeffrey (Jeff) Miller. The autopsies performed in the murdered students concluded that they were fleeing from the scene. Allison’s body showed that a bullet penetrated the left side of her body through her arm and chest when she was about 343 feet away from the Guardsmen. Bill was shot and killed from 382 feet away. Sandra was 390 away and was shot through her throat. Jeff, approximately 265 feet away from Troop G, was killed with a shot through the throat.
Injuries found on the rest of Kent State’s wounded pushed more blame onto the Ohio National Guardsmen. The other nine injured students were: Alan Canfora, John Clearly, Thomas (Tom) Grace, Dean Kahler, Joseph (Joe) Lewis, Scott Mackenzie, James (Jim) Russel, Robert (Robby) Stamps, and Douglas (Doug) Wrentmore. Of their wounds, the majority were found on and in the sides and backs of students. Furthermore, some of the students were simply walking from their classes and other daily activities and were just spectators on the scene.
After the shootings, the school was immediately closed, first by the university’s president Robert White, and then by the Portage County Prosecutor Ronald Cane under an injunction from Common Pleas Judge Albert Caris. Through the massive efforts of Kent State faculty, students were able to finish the semester through an extensive mail system and off-campus meetings.
The entire nation responded to the shootings at Kent State. A wave of animosity spread against the actions taken by the National Guard, especially by students and teachers at all levels. More than four hundred and fifty universities and colleges throughout the country responded with their own riots and a number of universities closed their doors in response to the chaos that ensued on their campus. For those that remained open, such as Kenyon College, massive adjustments in daily life commenced in order to address the national issue.
Despite the drama created by the event at Kent State, no one faced legal ramifications for the deaths of the four students and the wounded victims. The Guardsmen of Troop G were later tried for murder but were not convicted.
Reaction at Kenyon
Immediate Reaction
Protests ensued as word of the Kent State shootings spread across the nation. A study conducted by the Urban Institute listed the Kent State shootings as the largest single factor to evoke student strikes and demonstrations in history: over 4 million students protested, leading to the closing of over 900 American universities and colleges across the country.
Kenyon College, however, was noted for its tactfulness and efficiency during this time period. As students came to the faculty with their grievances and suggestions of how to handle the remainder of the year, compromises were made to acknowledge the unique and emotional time.
Changes in Schedule
Mostly the effects dealt with the short period between early May and the closing of the school year. A motion was passed on May 9, 1970 that modified the school’s calendar in the following way:
1. No examinations of any kind will be given during the week of May 10 through May 16. This includes senior course examinations, senior seminar examinations and junior honors comprehensive examinations.
2. The examination schedule will start May 20 and end on May 29. The period of May 16 through May 19 will be designated a reading period.
3. Seniors will have the option to take course examinations. Seniors who elect to take course examinations should take each of them when regularly scheduled for non-seniors if the course examination does not conflict with the integrating exercise. In case of conflict, the senior student should arrange with the instructor an alternate time and place for the course examination but in no case will the examination be scheduled later than May 25. Senior course examinations will be permitted on May 18 and 19. Seniors must declare their decision to take a course examination no later than noon, May 13.
An Open Forum
Changes throughout the college were made “in full recognition that these are extraordinary times not conducive to the normal order of business.” In response to this, a proposal was passed keeping the college open with a wide range of symposiums, open forums, and teach-ins scheduled. The subjects of these events were the war in Indochina; the right, manner, and limits of dissent; the use of force on campus; the psychology and history of violence; etc. Every morning, the program was announced at an assembly and began at 10am for all students not taking exams. Every day, following the learning events, a brief service of silent prayer was held at the chapel. The school took great lengths to include members of the Mount Vernon community also.
Twenty-six seminar groups were formed and held on May 13, 14, and 15. Some of the topics for symposiums and seminars were as follows:
- Regimentation, Propaganda, and Social Conformity: "To seek the causes of the sense of ‘powerlessness’ among American students by examining the instruments used in different societies — China and the U.S. – for inducing social conformity among youth."
- Student Power and Administrative Responsibility: "The purpose of the seminar is to discuss both in general and with specific reference to Kenyon’s Campus Government (and its forthcoming revision) the role of students in the government of the college or university."
- Question: What does alienation mean? What does fragmentation mean? What are the roots, the causes, and the manifestations of alienation and fragmentation?
- The Student Generation: “readings and discussions will focus on some effort by sociologists and social psychologists to explain the related phenomena of student discontent, student consciousness, and student alienation.”
The Mobilization Committee
The Mobilization Committee, known as the "Mobe" was founded after the riots with the purpose of drawing Kenyon students and members of the Mount Vernon] Community together. The ultimate goal of the group was an “upward progress” to make the community an effective force in local, sate, and national governments. The group planned to achieve its goals in three phases:
1. Work with the Mount Vernon community to accept the Kenyon students in a reciprocal relationship;
2. Through this relationship, establish trust between the two parties involved;
3. Convince the people of Mount Vernon to realize the “futility of the war in Southeast Asia.”
Reaction to Kenyon's Course
The outside community acknowledged Kenyon’s approach to facing the effects of the Kent State shootings. On May 12, 1970 the Mount Vernon News printed an editorial entitled “Kenyon Chooses a Course” which concluded by saying:
“Kenyon is one of the Ohio colleges still open and in session. Its faculty, students, and administration showed that they have the ability to meet crises and try to overcome problems sanely and without violence and destruction. If Kenyon can continue on this path, its students will have demonstrated to the collegiate world that it is possible for people to sit down and talk their way to acceptable decisions. Perhaps it is this quality which has long kept Kenyon in the top rank of American colleges.”
The 1969-1970 academic year ended with Commencement on May 31 and with the understanding that simply making it to that point was something truly extradordinary.
Resources in the Kenyon College Archives
- Student Demonstrations -- collected materials
- Greenslade, Thomas Boardman. Kenyon College: Its Third Half Century. Gambier, Ohio: Kenyon College, 1975. KNA Press, Inc. [Find in Kenyon's Library]
External Links
- "Kent State Massacre": http://www.bookrags.com/history/popculture/kent-state-massacre-bbbb-04/;
- "Kent State Shootings": http://www.answers.com/topic/kent-state-shootings
