KENT STATE MAY, 1970

Kent State is a beautiful campus on a nice day. Another school year is drawing to a close. This campus hasn't changed very much since the tragic event shocked the nation and the world. Four students were killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard. Lethal force to repress dissent, whether at Kent State, Jackson State, on Chicago streets, or at Attica prison, is, to use the words of the Scranton Commission, which investigated campus disorders, unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable. I'm E.G. Marshall. This film documents the sequence of events which culminated in the tragedy of May 4th, 1970. It is based on actual photographs taken during the four-day period. Kent State, now as it was then, is not much different from any other large college campus. Some students are serious, others don't know why they are here. Some want to find answers to some of the burning issues of the day, the war in Vietnam, justice for minorities, and saving the environment. Since the tragedy, a new art building over there has cut down the size of the Commons, but the Commons is still the traditional gathering place. more. War is now in Laos, Cambodia, it's all over Asia. It's a lot of liberal [ __ ] to say I want the Vietnam war to end. We want to get America out of all of Asia, all of Latin America, all of Africa, out of Laos, out of the ghettos in every city, off this campus. Thursday, April 30th, 1970. A war that is winding down suddenly escalates to a new country, Cambodia. Tonight, American and South Vietnamese units will attack the headquarters for the entire Communist military operation in South Vietnam. This key control center has been occupied by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for 5 years in blatant violation of Cambodia's neutrality. We shall avoid a wider war, but we are also determined to put an end to this war. More lives would be lost, more Asians killed and villages destroyed, and more educations would be interrupted. The next day, Friday, 500 students rallied on the Commons to bury the Constitution, declaring that it had been murdered when troops were sent into Cambodia without a declaration of war by Congress. The place to go that night was the strip, North Water Street. Rock music was playing and 3.2 beer, legal in Kent for 18-year-olds, was flowing. The talk was about Cambodia. A bottle was thrown at a passing police car. A bonfire was started in the street. Windows were broken. The mayor imposed a 12:00 curfew, closed the bars, and ordered all the students back to the campus. On the way back, more windows were broken. Students who were only out to enjoy themselves resented the early end to their fun. On Saturday morning, students helped the merchants clean up the damage. But fears mounted in the community. There were rumors of a plot to take over Kent. The mayor imposed an 8:00 p.m. curfew and called for help from the Ohio National Guard. The only places for students to go on Saturday night were dances that were hastily set up by the university administration in the dormitories or to the Commons. The old ROTC building, which stood where I'm standing, became a target on which to unleash pent-up feelings. Some sticks and stones were thrown. Then some flares, finally a torch. When the firemen arrived, some people on the commons tried to stop them from fighting the fire and slashed their hoses. The campus police did not intervene or try to stop the students at this point. The fire fizzled out and the campus police surrounded the building. A large group headed downtown to challenge the curfew and were surprised to discover that units of the Ohio National Guard had arrived and taken over. The students are now marching around the hub and onto the commons. The campus The guards used tear gas and bayonets to force the students back to the campus. When the crowd returned to the commons, the ROTC building was flaming furiously in a different section of the building. The question of who really set the fire that burned down the ROTC building has never been satisfactorily answered by any investigative body. However, the guard took over the campus. They rounded up everybody, the guilty and the innocent. Tear gas, used most generously by the guard, forced everyone into the dormitories. The next morning, Sunday, Governor James A. Rhodes, running for nomination to the United States Senate, arrived on campus. This is when we're going to use every part of the law enforcement agency Ohio has to drive them out of Kent. These people just move from one campus to the other and terrorize the community. They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of the that we harbor in America. Now, I want to say this, they are not going to take over campus. Following this statement, the mayor of Kent added, We will take all necessary, I repeat, all necessary action to maintain order. Law and order did prevail. The Guard controlled the campus. The city was off-limits to students. Hostility to armed occupation of their campus increased, even though there was fraternization between students and guardsmen. Sunday night, the action was at Prentice Gate. Some students sat down in the streets, blocking traffic and demanding that the Guard be removed from the campus. No one in authority would meet to hear the students' demands. Tear gas and guardsmen's bayonets forced them back to campus and into the dormitories. Helicopters hovered overhead all night. Again, the innocent were gassed and prodded by bayonets along with the guilty. Resentment and fear grew. By Monday morning, Cambodia and Vietnam receded into the background. Military occupation of the campus was protested by straights and conservatives, as well as radicals. There was confusion over whether a rally would be permitted. The students decided to hold one at noon. The guard and the university administrator said it could not be held. Jeffrey Miller, subsequently a fatality, William Schroeder, later shot and killed. The students started gathering early. Many were curious, others were just on their way to classes and were blocked by guardsmen. The assembly was a peaceful attempt by students to seek redress for their grievances about Vietnam and the military occupation of their campus. One girl later testified, You know, you just couldn't believe the guards were here and all that. And you just didn't know how to handle it. I mean, it's just you're just furious that the guards are on your campus. I mean, why? I mean, I've done nothing and they're here and I can't go anyplace. And I just couldn't believe my campus had been taken over by the guards. They wouldn't let me across down there. I just walked around the building and almost walked into a guard with his gun and his bayonet. The student who voiced those feelings had been on her way to class. She was later gassed and then came within 3 ft of guardsmen's bullets in the Prentice Hall parking lot. A warning is given to disperse. When the Jeep mission failed, Brigadier General Robert Canterbury ordered the troops to disperse the crowd. A skirmish line equipped with tear gas loaded weapons. Only most of the students didn't know they were loaded with live ammunition. And fixed bayonets moved the students. Students later claimed, "We weren't doing anything. Freedom of speech and assembly was being denied." Later the Scranton Commission and the FBI report agreed that the assembly was peaceful up to this point. The students disperse. Company C leaves. While the rest of the guard pursue students over Blanket Hill. Allison Krause is visible to the troops for the first time. Barry Levine, whom she had arranged to meet at the rally and was holding her hand when she was shot, recalled that she was crying not from the tear gas, but from the emotion of what was happening to her, her friends, and her campus. It was all there. The Cambodian announcement, a rally to bury a murdered constitution, destruction of business property in town, repressive restrictions, a burnt-out ROTC building, confusion among enforcement officials, and indiscriminate use of military power against the innocent and guilty. A prelude to murder. The troops continue their march over Blanket Hill to a football practice field. A fence around the practice field is the end of the march. Rocks are hurled at the guard from the Prentice Hall parking lot. Rock throwing was at its height during the 10 minutes that the guard was at this location. Tear gas canisters were lobbed back and forth almost like a tennis match. During the stay on the practice field, some of the guardsmen huddled together. These are members of Troop G, whose members were the first to fire. General Canterbury orders the men to march back up Blanket Hill. Troop G is on the right flank. Members of Troop G keep looking back toward the parking lot. Alan Canfora was later shot and wounded. Some rocks are still being thrown, but they are fewer now. These students are about 100 ft away from the guardsmen. Joseph Lewis is the closest person to the guard, except for those who are observing from Taylor Hall. The Scranton Commission later concluded the guards march from Blanket Hill to the football field and back did not disperse the crowd and seems to have done little else than increase tension, subject guardsmen to needless abuse, and encourage the most violent and irresponsible elements in the crowd to harass the guard further. General Canterbury later testified as the troop formation reached the area of the pagoda, the mob located on the right flank in front of Taylor Hall and in the Prentice Hall parking lot charged our right flank throwing rocks, yelling obscenities and threats, "Stick the pigs. Kill the pigs." He continued, "Practically all the guardsmen were hit by missiles. Guardsmen on the right flank were in serious danger of bodily harm and death as the mob continued to charge." He concluded "In view of the extreme danger, they were justified in firing." A platoon leader of Troop G said later, "At the time of the firing, the crowd was acting like the whole thing was a circus. They must have thought the guard was harmless." Fire! We can take another look. This picture was taken at about the instant the guard started shooting. 16 students can be seen on the hill. Most of the students are spectators on the terrace of Taylor Hall. Joseph Lewis is the closest student. 20 yards away. Someone seems to give the signal. These other guardsmen all shoot at once. Their fire is aimed at the parking lot, not toward the terrace where the mass of students are. Members of Company A fire into the air. General Canterbury moves forward to order the shooting stopped. A sergeant brings Joseph Lewis down with two shots. This is what was happening in the parking lot. One student had an 8-mm camera recording the action from a window in Tri Towers, over there. This is what the film recorded. Mission accomplished. Four dead, nine wounded. The dead and wounded at Kent State leave grave questions with us all. The Scranton Commission investigating campus disorders called the shootings unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable. The Justice Department summary of the FBI report concluded that the guardsmen were in no immediate danger from the students. Charges have been made that a conspiracy to fire on the students existed among some members of the National Guard. One member of the Scranton Commission, James Ahern, former police chief in New Haven, Connecticut, wrote nearly 2 years after the tragedy, "There should be little doubt in the public's mind that those who fired their guns at Kent State and Jackson State were and are liable to criminal prosecution." When people are killed unnecessarily, inexcusably, unreasonably, and unjustifiably. Only someone with a deep cynicism concerning our system of justice could assume that they were not killed illegally. Kent State, Jackson State, Attica, Orangeburg, May Day in Washington, and similar incidents which occurred daily are symptomatic of our society. Can we continue to condone illegal killings and sanction the use of force to repress dissent and still maintain ourselves as a free society? The United States Constitution guarantees the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.