In the midst of this pandemic, it’s easy to miss anniversaries that in normal times would had major attention. One of those occurred earlier this month. May 4 was the 50th anniversary of National Guardsmen killing 4 student protesters and wounding 9 at Kent State University. It was an indelible moment that helped turn public perception.
In 1970, I was a junior high school student in Manhattan. My friends and I were shocked. This hit close to home — those killed were just a few years older than we were, many of us had family members who were college students, and we lived in a city that had been having its share of protests.
Those of you who grew up in or near Newton – what are your memories of this? How did people here react?
Because of COVID-19, Kent State’s commemoration had to move online. You can see video, interviews, tributes, and articles at their May 4, 50th Commemoration website. It’s worth visiting, especially if you’ve never heard of Kent State or the 1960s are ancient history to you.
A few weeks after Kent State, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released Neil Young’s “Ohio” with a B-side of Steven Stills’ “Find the Cost of Freedom”. Listen and remember.
This from Wikipedia:
President Nixon and his administration’s public reaction to the shootings was perceived by many in the anti-war movement as callous. Then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said the President was “pretending indifference”. Stanley Karnow noted in his Vietnam: A History that: “The [Nixon] administration initially reacted to this event with wanton insensitivity. Nixon’s press secretary, Ron Ziegler, whose statements were carefully programmed, referred to the deaths as a reminder that ‘when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.'” Three days before the shootings, Nixon had talked of “bums” who were antiwar protestors on United States campuses, to which the father of Allison Krause stated on national TV: “My child was not a bum.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings
Language matters.
I was in 8th grade that year.
The day after the killings, my friend Tammy and I went to our middle school principal’s office and asked that he lower the flag in memory of the students killed – and let us use the ball field the next day for an after-school rally.
Much to our surprise he agreed to both of our requests.
What an enormous difference he made to our lives by empowering us as young activists.
What a wonderful principal you had! And how wonderful that you and your friend had the initiative to think of doing that and asking for it.
@Susan, so interesting (and not surprising!) to see that your persuasive activism began at such a young age.
@Meredith, thank you for this post. So many parallels to the current state of our country.