Today, black pillars mark four sites on the east side of Kent State University, each memorializing one of the four college students killed by the Ohio National Guard during antiwar protests on May 4, 1970.
To commemorate today's anniversary, the university will host about a dozen speakers, including John Filo, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer of the famous image of 14 year old Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over Jeffrey Miller's body just after the shooting; Russ Miller, Jeffrey's brother; and Florence Schroeder, the mother of another student who was killed, William Schroeder.
Below are those to be remembered.
Killed by the Ohio National Guard:
Jeffrey Glenn Miller; age 20, shot through the mouth and killed instantly.
Allison B. Krause; age 19, fatal left chest wound and died later that day.
William Knox Schroeder; age 19, fatal chest wound and died an hour later in hospital while waiting for surgery.
Sandra Lee Scheuer; age 20, fatal neck wound and died a few minutes later from loss of blood.
Wounded by the National Guard:
Joseph Lewis Jr.; hit twice in the right abdomen and left lower leg.
John R. Cleary; upper left chest wound.
Thomas Mark Grace; struck in left ankle.
Alan Michael Canfora; hit in his right wrist.
Dean R. Kahler; back wound fracturing the vertebrae and permanently paralyzed from the chest down.
Douglas Alan Wrentmore; hit in his right knee.
James Dennis Russell; hit in his right thigh from a bullet and in the right forehead by birdshot and both wounds minor (died 2007).
Robert Follis Stamps; hit in his right buttock (died June 11, 2008).
Donald Scott MacKenzie; neck wound.
David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young made the event a historical note with the song, “Ohio,” and continues on in remembrance today with Nickelback’s, “If Everyone Cared.”
Please take a time of silence and reflection of remembrance while playing the clip below.
That was 40 years ago? Why does it seem like yesterday to me? I had just moved to Ohio when this surreal incident played out.
ReplyDeleteI had been involved in the anti war movement for 4 years in Detroit. Organizing and demonstrating becoming a politically aware teen.
I have to admit that i was never a big fan of Crosby Stills and Nash. I really liked Marrakesch Express, but that was because it was a song that seemed as if it could never have been written by an American...it was pretty fresh.
But, when Ohio came out, I was galvanized. The passion, the lyrics and the raw playing all offset the sweet harmonies.
The tragedy at Kent State was the beginning of the end of Nixon and the war in Vietnam. It changed the way America viewed the protestors.
Those commies became their kids. Everyone began to ask questions.
This was a trauma and these kids did not die in vain. We keep their spirit alive, protestors and bystanders, they were all innocent victims of the kind of monsters that abusive addictive power breeds.
Hello Microdot,
ReplyDeleteYour statement, "they were all innocent victims of the kind of monsters that abusive addictive power breeds," well stated and wish I had said this. :-)