Kent State University Shootings by National Guard - 50 years ago

It was only a few weeks ago that a documentary aired on t.v., I think it was called 13 seconds or something like that. It did show there was more going on than I'd read about in the distant past. I hadn't read, for example, about the kids who were setting fires to buildings, etc.
All in all, it should have been handled differently.
 
JaniceM said:
It was only a few weeks ago that a documentary aired on t.v., I think it was called 13 seconds or something like that. It did show there was more going on than I'd read about in the distant past. I hadn't read, for example, about the kids who were setting fires to buildings, etc.
All in all, it should have been handled differently.
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Back in the day, the general feeling about the National Guard was that they existed to protect us. That is what was so shocking - they shot our citizens.
 

Em in Ohio said:
Back in the day, the general feeling about the National Guard was that they existed to protect us. That is what was so shocking - they shot our citizens.
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Not meaning to be nosy, but noticing your location- did you live in Ohio at the time?
One book I read long ago included interviews from Kent residents, and one woman went as far as to say she believed students should be shot for nothing more than going around barefoot!
The other upsetting part was some of the students who were shot were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time- walking to their classes, etc.
 
Will never forget ....
We were there on campus, and talked with National Guard troops that day in their tank. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until we got home (hubby was graduate student at Kent, and we lived off campus) ...

Could not believe what we watched on TV news that night !!! SURREAL !!!
 
JaniceM said:
Not meaning to be nosy, but noticing your location- did you live in Ohio at the time?
One book I read long ago included interviews from Kent residents, and one woman went as far as to say she believed students should be shot for nothing more than going around barefoot!
The other upsetting part was some of the students who were shot were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time- walking to their classes, etc.
Click to expand...
Yes. I would go to Kent to party with friends who attended KSU - great bands and a reputation as a party school. It was a large protest over our continued US involvement in Vietnam - but children, not even a part of it, were victims. But, as tragic and shocking as it was, the bad press did put pressure on the government to withdraw from this lengthy, horrible war: from the History channel - "On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard trying to disperse a crowd of student demonstrators at Kent State University opened fire, killing four students and wounding nine others.

More than any other single event, the Kent State shootings would become a focal point of the ongoing, bitter divisions among Americans over the Vietnam War. The deadly outburst marked the culmination of several days of confrontations between law enforcement and protesters, which had begun after President Richard M. Nixon announced in a TV broadcast that he had authorized U.S. troops to invade Cambodia.

Nixon’s decision, which expanded the Vietnam War at a time when the United States had been in the process of withdrawing its troops, immediately sparked anti-war protests at colleges across the country—including Kent State."
 
This happened a year after I graduated from KSU. There is a long story behind my going to KSU and then the Marines, but I won’t bore anyone with it and it’s not important anyway. I went back 25 years after I graduated for a reunion. I spoke to grown men and women that were students and were involved in the demonstrations on that day. Again, no use in rehashing the details.

It was a horrible event, but I went back to Kent just last summer and as I drove through the village, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed. It is a really nice little college town.
 
I organized my high school's walkout, in protest of the Kent State shootings. The Chicago Riot Squad held off, two blocks from our campus. Everything went reasonably peaceful, so the police stayed away. I was called into the Principal's office the next day, where I was told, "Don't do that, again!" Ooh.......
 
oldman said:
This happened a year after I graduated from KSU. There is a long story behind my going to KSU and then the Marines, but I won’t bore anyone with it and it’s not important anyway. I went back 25 years after I graduated for a reunion. I spoke to grown men and women that were students and were involved in the demonstrations on that day. Again, no use in rehashing the details.

It was a horrible event, but I went back to Kent just last summer and as I drove through the village, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed. It is a really nice little college town.
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? ROTC ? Just curious. I haven't been back to Kent in ... oh my, I don't want to say! But, I was introduced to reggae music there at a stage in my life when I really could dance all night. I try to remember the good times, not the horror. Found it hard to believe it has been 50 years.
 
oldman said:
This happened a year after I graduated from KSU. There is a long story behind my going to KSU and then the Marines, but I won’t bore anyone with it and it’s not important anyway. I went back 25 years after I graduated for a reunion. I spoke to grown men and women that were students and were involved in the demonstrations on that day. Again, no use in rehashing the details.

It was a horrible event, but I went back to Kent just last summer and as I drove through the village, I couldn’t believe how much it had changed. It is a really nice little college town.
Click to expand...
EM......Do you live in NE Ohio?
 
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