Kent State - Forty Years Later

The shootings at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard during an antiwar demonstration, which took place forty years ago today, was a turning point for public protest in America. Four students were killed and nine were wounded, casting a shadow on the right of public assembly and redress of grievances in America. What had begun in the spring of 1970 as a demonstration against President Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam War in Cambodia ended with an act of violence by an American military unit against the civilians they were supposed to serve, effectively inhibiting those who sought to exercise their right to protest.

Something went horribly wrong when the Guardsmen were sent to Kent, Ohio to deal with the riots that erupted after Nixon's act, and Ohio governor James Rhodes only fanned the flames by dismissing protesters as un-American. The vandalism and looting that had begun in Kent three days earlier had been relatively minor, and arguably did not demand the heavy-handed response of Rhodes to send in the Guardsmen at the request of the mayor of Kent, who had declared a state of emergency. Responding to violence with major force only begat more violence - the arson against Kent State's Reserve Officer Training Corps building (vacant and slated for demolition) on May 2, which was followed by students's attempts to keep local fire crews from extinguishing it, and then came the use of tear gas and bayonets against demonstrators on May 3. Too much ugliness had been visited upon Kent State, and the situation dissolved into a blood feud between the antiwar element and the state militiamen. On May 4, the unthinkable happened when the Guardsmen, acting overzealously and irrationally, fired into a crowd of protesters at will. Two of the four students killed were not even part of the protests - they were on their way to class.

Much of the blame for the violence belongs to the National Guard for its reckless actions and to Governor Rhodes, for overreacting to the initial looting and allowing the situation to spin out of control once the Guard was sent in. The disregard both Rhodes and Nixon had for the antiwar movement on the basis of simply disagreement with the government's foreign policy, ultimately, sowed the seeds of the violence and the shootings. The events of May 4, 1970 opened a new and frightening chapter in American history, where the perceived failure of protest to bring about change - especially peaceful change - made Americans more cynical and, ultimately, more detached. The biggest effect was the the fear of protest and resignation to the upper hand of authority; people who thought they could change public policy with free speech were suddenly taking their lives into their hands by doing do in such an open fashion.

The killings were stupid and shameful. It was government suppression at its worst. The best way to honor the four dead at Kent State is to continue to speak out against unjust policies and misguided leadership and not to be afraid to stand up and speak out - and to make sure that such an act can never happen again.

Remember today the fourth of May.