On this Day: Kent State Students Shot by Ohio National Guard

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day--Kent-State-Students-Shot-by-Ohio-National-Guard.html

On this Day: Kent State Students Shot by Ohio National Guard
May 04, 2008 12:10 AM

On Sunday, May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on antiwar protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

30-Second Summary
Students had gathered to protest the invasion of Cambodia, which had been announced on April 30. On May 1, a crowd of student protestors and locals became unruly, and there was some property damage. Kent mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency and Ohio governor James Rhodes sent in the Ohio National Guard.

On May 4, the Guard prepared to break up a rally scheduled for noon in the university Commons area. With guns drawn, the Guard used tear gas canisters to disperse a crowd of students.

The Guard then marched up a hill, turned around and opened fire on students in a parking lot. Firing 61 shots in 13 seconds, the Guard killed four students and wounded nine.

The shootings were widely reported in national newspapers, stirring support for the antiwar movement and provoking student protests and strikes. Even conservative campuses became engulfed in student activism and 100,000 students marched through Washington.

A photograph of a girl weeping over the body of victim Jeffrey Miller became the defining image of not only the shootings, but also the antiwar movement as a whole.

President Richard Nixon was unsympathetic to the protesters, saying, “This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy.” Under intense pressure for his handling of Cambodia and Kent State, he lost the support of the American people and his administration began to unravel.

Today, the shootings are memorialized annually at Kent State and the four students are remembered as martyrs of the antiwar movement.

there was another shooting two years before that, I believe, in SC? for some reason, that one got no national attention.

I didn't learn about this until about 10 or so years ago. I "knew" about Kent State for years before I was informed of the Massacre in SC. How sad is that?

Ironic isn't it?

Don

:(

I wonder what it would take, now?

:cry:

The national mood now seems to be, "the tougher the better". Don't cry, don't empathize, don't be moved to tears... just be TOUGH.

the shootings were murder, and nothing more. What made it unusual, even today, was that the victims were the same type people as made up the nat guard itself, and deep in many hearts arose the understanding that the 4 victims coulda been anybody, on any campus, and vast swaths of voters turned on nixon- the warpigs all remained in the shadows, pretending they had nada to do with it. Now they got 911 hung around their necks, and they know there's no going back...

I Wasn't Surprised
(Kristin Lems)
2005-01-19
words and music by Kristin Lems c 2005

dedicated to the two black students slain at Jackson State just after the slaying of four white students at Kent State university in 1970, this song is an early attempt to address racism's many double standards.

When our towns were in flame and yet we got the blame
I wasn�t surprised
When police stormed the streets and no one came to our needs
I wasn�t surprised
Well it wasn�t our last and it wasn�t our first
My people are killed even right in our church
And maybe I�m wise from too many cries
But I wasn�t surprised.

When they shot Fred and Mark as they slept in the dark,
I wasn�t surprised
When the commission contends it was in �self defense�
I wasn�t surprised
Well it wasn�t our last and it wasn�t our first
My people are killed in their sleep, in the church
And maybe I�m wise from hearing his cries,
But I wasn�t surprised.

In a Southern jail cell, a guard gave a girl hell, and
I wasn�t surprised
She fought back and defied, became an outlaw statewide
And I wasn�t surprised
And I wasn�t surprised
Well it wasn�t our last and it wasn�t our first
My people are killed in the prisons and church
And maybe I�m wise from too many cries
But I wasn�t surprised.

Well right down the block, a young boy picked a lock
And I wasn�t surprised
The police shot him dead, he was hungry, how he bled!
I wasn�t surprised
It wasn�t our last and it wasn�t our first
My people are killed down the block, in the church
And maybe I�m wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn�t surprised.

When they shot down my son, nothing wrong had he done
I wasn�t surprised
He was walking to class �cross the Jackson State grass
And I wasn�t surprised
Well it wasn�t our first and it wasn�t our last
My family is killed even crossing the grass
And maybe I�m wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn�t surprised.

I�ve seen your children fall and I grieve for you all,
But I wasn�t surprised
I have known all along that they�re mean and they�re strong
So don�t be surprised
Well it wasn�t your last, it was only your first
The day will come round that they�ll kill you in church
And maybe I�m wise from too many lies
But I wasn�t surprised.

Well I�m bitter as hell, but one thing I�ll tell you
You might be surprised
If we stand side by side to stop this genocide
They will be surprised
For as long as we�re silent, as long as we�re still
They�ll gun us and shun us, you know that they will
So raise your voices high in one unified cry
And we�ll see who�s surprised!

Thanks for sharing this. I remember watching an interview with a Kent, Ohio resident at the time(a middle aged woman) and being stunned at her evident glee that the U.S. government had murdered young people in her community, and that she wished they'd killed more of them. Stunned, but not surprised. The hate that some people are capable of still stuns me, and yes, continually surprises ( and obviously saddens) me. BTW , if anyone is unfamiliar with the reference to "Fred and Mark", these were two local Chicago area Black Panthers, Fred Hampton, and I think the other young man's last name was Clark; executed by an assassination squad of, if my memory is correct, the State's Attorney's office. Shot in the back while they slept, in of course "self-defense".

it sounds like it was horrific. :(

I'm sure it had nothing to do with the anniversary, the classic rock station I must listen to at work has a pretty strictly followed playlist and it was probably just 'in rotation'.

I was born in'63 and certainly didn't hear the song until long after the event. But it always strikes me numb.

'Gotta get down to it,
Soldiers are cutting us down,
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her,
and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?'

Do people ever listen to the lyrics of popular music? Or do they just hum along and pretend they're 18 again?

I was in New York at that time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3243484&mesg_id=3243484

It's a day I will never forget. Another tragic chapter in our national history.