how did the kent state shootings affect america

And some of us - many students went home but some of us stayed on to try to bring attention to what had happened on the campus of Jackson State that morning. Jerry Lewis, professor emeritus of sociology, Kent State University. And that political activity, for the most part, was against the war. And it not only affected those of us who got shot, but it affected a whole generation of students who went to Kent State University in 1970 and had been labeled this. So, just thought I'd make that comment. Joseph Lewis was the student closest to the Guard at a distance of about 60 feet; he was standing still with his middle finger extended when bullets struck him in the right abdomen and left lower leg. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. Dr. LEWIS: Well, Governor Rhodes said in his famous press conference on Sunday, May 3rd, that the campus would not be closed. Alan Canfora was 225 feet from the Guard and was struck in the right wrist. The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Thank you so much for joining us. I was working in the business office of a local university with several retired military men. Several Guardsmen could be seen huddling together, and some Guardsmen knelt and pointed their guns, but no weapons were shot at this time. (1978). Because there were so many race riots going on, we were held in reserve. I didn't have any exams scheduled that day. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. I know our country has had a long history of using vitriolic language in political speech, but it does have consequences. A photograph of Mary Vecchio, a 14-year-old runaway, screaming over the body of Jeffery Miller appeared on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout the country, and the photographer, John Filo, was to win a Pulitzer Prize for the picture. 1970 Jackson State Shootings Widely Forgotten, Explore WKSU's Online Archive Of Audio, Photographs And Video. Did the banning of the rally violate First Amendment rights? Seven thousand students responded, and although this is not a random sample, it has the best data available about the views of Kent State students about May 4. Four Kent State students died as a result of the firing by the Guard. The financial settlement provided $675,000 to the wounded students and the parents of the students who had been killed. And so, I actually hit some students who were in front of me, who turned around and gave me the finger and swore at me. Controversy continues to exist regarding who was responsible for setting fire to the ROTC building, but radical protestors were assumed to be responsible because of their actions in interfering with the efforts of firemen to extinguish the fire as well as cheering the burning of the building. Hare, A. Paul (Ed.) When they turned and started to fire, I said to myself, they're going to shoot, and I jumped on the ground and had no place to hide. Mayday: Kent State. Then the Guard all of a sudden turned around, started heading right back up the hill where they came from. They came out and said that they were gathered illegally. When the smoke cleared, four students were dead and nine were wounded. He's a professor of emeritus - professor emeritus of sociology at Kent State University. (l971). I'm Rebecca Roberts. Police three fired on a group of students, killing two and injuring twelve others. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Nine Kent State students were wounded in the 13-second fusillade. The next day, Saturday, May 2, Mayor Satrom met with other city officials and a representative of the Ohio National Guard who had been dispatched to Kent. Steve(ph) in Bemis Point, New York, says: I was a senior at Notre Dame. Third, many saw as one of the faculty's challenges to develop alternative forms of protest and conflict resolution to help prevent tragedies such as the May 4 shootings and the killings at Jackson State 10 days after Kent State. And thank God, of the 71 Guardsmen on the hill, only 28 fired their weapons. Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest. This decision was appealed, however, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a new trial had to be held because of the improper handling of a threat to a jury member. Go to npr.org and click on TALK OF THE NATION. Thank you so much. ROBERTS: Give us a quick history lesson. PUBLISHED IN REVISED FORM BY THE OHIO COUNCIL FOR THE SOCIAL STUDIES REVIEW, VOL 34, NUMBER 1 (SUMMER, 1998) PP. And there was this crazy war going on, and it just felt like a time of real insanity in the country. Jackson State shootings The - we - the victims, were blamed for this, and that was primarily because in the late '60s and into the early '70s, the speeches by our political leaders who supported the war basically said that if you were against us, then you were a communist or you were a dirty hippy. We were escorted by a convoy of other National Guard. It's an extremely conservative part of the state and still is. And shortly after midnight, a bottle broke on the pavement and law enforcement officials fired over 200 rounds of bullets into a women's dormitory from the bottom floor to the top floor. ROBERTS: That is Dean Kahler. (1970). So it radicalized me at the same time, to the point where I became very involved in politics. I had a three-month-old baby, a husband who turned in a master's degree and was arrested during that time. And still, the bullets were hitting the ground around me. The decision to bring the Ohio National Guard onto the Kent State University campus was directly related to decisions regarding American involvement in the Vietnam War. kent state shootings And so there was really no reason to assume that the students burned the building down. In a matter of weeks, I was going to graduate and be commissioned as a Navy officer and get married. Courtesy of John Filo via WKSU Yeah. I know that you have to go. And not only do we mention the students who were shot here at Kent, but on the 15th of May, you know, students were killed in Jackson State. Dr. JERRY LEWIS (Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Kent State University): Thank you very much. We have posted an audio slideshow of the events of that day with the help of WKSU, our member station at Kent State. Shortly after the shootings, the Urban Institute conducted a national study that concluded the Kent State shooting was the first nationwide student strike in U.S. history; over 4 million students We are also joined by Jerry Lewis, a professor emeritus of sociology at Kent State University. 1.7k Views. And after spending some time in the morning with my friends on the floor, I ate lunch, and with a group of them, we walked over to the commons. This analysis looks at the photo, the photographer, and the impact of the photo. Her response was, they shouldve shot them all. In the aftermath of the massacre, people sought answers to why the Guard fired into the crowd, and protests in response to the shooting cropped across the nation on campuses and in a It prompted a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and I heard bullets hitting the ground around me. He saw bullets hitting the ground, but he did not take cover because he thought the bullets were blanks. Many guardsmen fired into the air or the ground. ROBERTS: Well, and then there, you know, similar protests in campuses all over the country, there was that iconic sign, I think it was at Columbia, that said: they can't kill us all. The Day the '60s Died | Apple TV This began earlier on with faculty trying to finish the academic quarter with a reasonable amount of academic integrity. Because the National Guard were pointing their weapons, and I thought, oh, my God, what are they doing pointing their weapons? Five months after the Vietnam War ended, on April 30, 1975, I arrived as a freshman at Kent State. He was an undergraduate at Kent State in 1970 and one of the nine students wounded by the Ohio National Guard. ROBERTS: Joining us now from member station WKSU in Kent, Ohio, is Jerry Lewis. But he actually has even better one, he's told me, that he thinks is more powerful that was not used. Kent State shootings Although University officials had attempted on the morning of May 4 to inform the campus that the rally was prohibited, a crowd began to gather beginning as early as 11 a.m. By noon, the entire Commons area contained approximately 3,000 people. A starkly different interpretation to that of the Guards' has been offered in numerous other studies of the shootings, with all of these analyses sharing the common viewpoint that primary responsibility for the shootings lies with the Guardsmen. This is a detailed examination of the legal aftermath of the shootings, focusing upon the impact of various legal proceedings on public attitudes about the shootings. ROBERTS: We are talking about Kent State, 40 years ago. So there was - but, you see, that's a classic example of blaming the victim. And we stayed out on the lawn of Alexander dormitory until the sun came up singing freedom songs and continued to recite some of Dr. King's words throughout the night. It was just another day of business as usual, racist law enforcement officials victimizing black people in Mississippi. The most important question associated with the events of May 4 is why did members of the Guard fire into a crowd of unarmed students? Kent State shootings - Wikipedia Gene Young, former professor at Jackson State University. How 13 Seconds Changed Kent State University Forever First, the shootings have come to symbolize a great American tragedy which occurred at the height of the Vietnam War era, a period in which the nation found itself deeply divided both politically and culturally. Dr. LEWIS: And that went on all over the nation. But, you know, I've learned a lot since then, seeing some of the photographs from the day. And yes, Governor Rhodes was one of the major perpetrators of this. Kent State and May 4th: A Social Science Perspective . A Kent State police officer standing by the Guard made an announcement using a bullhorn. I was thinking about possibly going to the student union, get a cup of coffee. If you remember where you were that day, if you remember the effects of the Kent State events on your life and your family's life, 800-989-8255.

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