I was listening to satellite radio yesterday when the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song “Ohio” came on, and I realized that this Tuesday is the 45th anniversary of the shooting deaths of four Kent State students at the hands of the National Guard during protests against the Vietnam War. Can you even imagine a Guard member discharging a rifle in Baltimore or Ferguson?
I was a university freshman myself at the time. From the assassinations and urban riots of 1968 through the Vietnam protests that peaked in 1970 after the Cambodian “incursion” and Kent State, the nation seemed in constant turmoil as I finished high school and moved on to college. Just think of hundreds of colleges participating in a student strike to protest a war, as we experienced in May 1970. Would something like that happen today, or are students too concerned about securing jobs and paying back loans to take any action that might delay or otherwise jeopardize the completion of their schooling?
At my college, a hotbed of protest, we were given the option, on a class by class basis (which seems rather silly in retrospect), to “strike” and take our midterm grade as our final grade, to finish the semester and take the class on a pass-fail basis, or to carry on normally. I foolishly chose the pass-fail option for one class I was nervous about and then aced the final–what a dunce. I also happily “struck” my mandatory freshman phys. ed. class (any schools still have those?) and took my midterm grade, which relieved me from making up a slew of skipped classes. One of my profs went on strike herself, so we missed the last few classes of the course, and the final just skipped that material–no tuition refund for that.
Any other old codgers have memories of the student strike? It was a disturbing yet exhilarating time as we felt, validly or not, that we were making a difference. For those who know little about the shootings or have forgotten, this piece is very interesting: http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm
My brother was a freshman at Ohio U. in Athens at the time. I remember my father racing out to pick him up and bring him home. He brought all of his stuff at that point, so I don’t know if they just cancelled the rest of the semester or what they did about that… My father just felt it was too close for comfort (200 miles apart) at that point and was afraid of more violence breaking out.
I was only 10 and living in Cleveland, so it was pretty close to home. Even at that age I can remember a sense of shock and horror that something like that could happen. My parents, who were very anti-war, were devastated.
I had graduated from college in March of 1970 (I had had a slew of AP credits so I got out a quarter early). I was visiting my roommates in May of 1970 when the shootings happened. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. There were strikes, bonfires in the middle of the state highway through campus, and violence threatening all around.
@kitty56 all of the public universities closed in Ohio for that term. Students were given a very short window of time to leave. Ohio University provided buses to transport students to the larger cities in Ohio. Some took all of their things, but most took only what they could carry. When they left, no one knew whether they would be returning…or not.
The decision was made to close the schools for the term. At Ohio University…at some point later on, students were given a day and time window to come and get the rest of their belongings.
All students received passing grades for the term for courses they were taking.
I knew one of the women who was killed. She was from my home town, and had been in my Girl Scout troop…actually her mom was one of the leaders. It was awful.
I was a college senior in 1970, and our campus was shut down for a couple of days after Kent State. I mostly recall a sense of total shock. When I started working the following July, there were many other new graduates, including one from Kent State. The shooting was clearly a defining moment for all of us.
I remember being sought out on the quad by my academic advisor, who told me some bad news—a committee was disallowing my minor because the courses constituting it were intro courses. The good news is that they wanted me to use some poli sci courses I had taken purely because of avocational interest, and a FORTRAN and a PL/1 course. I still chuckle to think I had a computer science minor.
There was an interesting Letter to the Editor in the Washington Post yesterday, looking at Kent State and Baltimore:
Ah, thanks. I was not aware of all the details. I was in 8th grade at the time That makes sense. But I do remember them coming home with the car full of all his stuff. Maybe he got out of there in that window of time.
I was a freshman in college and remember that we went on strike. The iconic photo of Jeffrey Miller lying dead on the ground with the young woman kneeling beside him, screaming, is indelibly etched in my mind.
hey, I’m a night owl too, so I hear you!
I Do lots off CC reading when it is after midnight per cc time, so it can confuse me when a post says “yesterday”.
I prefer Neil Young’s live acoustic version of Ohio—much more anguish, even though the original was recorded just after the shooting. To me, Kent State was the tipping point that led us to a mental “vote of no confidence” in Nixon’s federal government. As someone said, imagine federal troops firing on unarmed students today (yeah, some threw rocks, but the Guard fired bullets)? My town had a “Support the Troops” parade, where, at the end, some leader of either the local VFW or American Legion group referred to the protestors as a “bunch of bums”. 45 years later, it seems the “bums” were right after all. What ultimately achieved in Viet Nam—NOTHING, still fell to communism anyway.
Thank you for this remembrance @MommaJ. The family of one of the students killed, Allison Krause, lived in western Pennsylvania and I remember reading in local newspapers about their intense grief following the death of their daughter.
I had not realized until I just looked it up that the iconic photo of 8-yr-old Kim Phuc running from the napalm attack in Vietnam was actually taken on June 8, 1972, more than two years AFTER the photograph of a distressed Mary Ann Vecchio at Kent State. Two photos from that time that are seared into my memory. Two years ago I had the opportunity to hear Kim Phuc speak at D’s high school. She is remarkable person, and hearing her speak about the war was very helpful for many of us who had experienced seeing these awful images on TV and in the newspapers as children. I remember being thankful as an adult when learning that she had survived. And then hearing her speak was amazing.
I was a freshman at UNC. It was awful, awful, awful. Sickening. Terrible feelings over that still.
We were allowed to take any finals we wanted to. And allowed to take the standing grade in whatever courses we wanted to. Beyond that, we were free to go. My roomie went home but I stayed to take my calculus final because I needed to get that grade up. It was a lonely and distressing feeling as the campus emptied out.
I knew one of the women who was killed. She was from my home town, and had been in my Girl Scout troop…actually her mom was one of the leaders. It was awful.>>>>>>>
Oh no. I’m so sorry. What a shock at such a tender age.
I remember thinking the whole world was going crazy. I’ve certainly had that same thought many times since then. Wow, 45 years.
I was in 8th grade. I remember it vividly. My parents were also extremely antiwar and politically involved so the news was always on at my house and we had lots of discussions about the Vietnam War at the dinner table growing up.
I believe if we still had the draft we would never have gone to Iraq after 9/11.