The Kent State Massacre on May 4, 1970 is an example of how a protest can escalate with unintended results when a National Guard is deployed in response.
Students at Kent State University in Kent State, Ohio, staged a protest, along with many other U.S. universities, during May, 1970. President Nixon expanded the Vietnam war to Cambodia and announced college students would no longer qualify for draft deferment. Students could be called for military service after completing the current semester of studies at their college or university. Students felt President Nixon broke a promise made July 25, 1969 to withdraw troops from Vietnam.
The Kent State University protests started with about 500 students on May 1, 1970.
About midnight, people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police cars, injuring five police officers, and broke windows at business storefronts. They broke a bank window, activating the alarm.
The entire Kent police force was called to duty. Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom declared a state of emergency and asked Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes for assistance.
On May 2, Mayor Satrom asked Governor Rhodes to deploy the National Guard to Kent. His request was granted immediately.
That night, there was a large demonstration on the Kent State University campus, and the ROTC building was burned down. Kent firemen and police officers were struck by rocks and other objects while attempting to put out the fire. The fire engine hose was slashed by protestors.
On May 3, some students came to downtown Kent to help with clean-up efforts. They weren’t all welcomed by local business people
At about 8 p.m., there was another rally held on the campus Commons. At 8:45 p.m., the National Guard used tear gas to disperse the crowd. At 11:00 p.m., the National Guard announced that a curfew had gone into effect. A few students were bayoneted by Guardsmen.
On May 4, a protest was scheduled to be held at noon. University officials tried to ban the gathering, and about 2,000 people gathered on the university’s Commons. The National Guard attempted to disperse the students. They used a bullhorn to ask the students to disperse, and were ignored. The crowd threw some rocks at the Guardsmen. Tear gas grenades were fired by the Guardsmen, which fell short of the crowd.
Students retreated over Blanket Hill and cleared the Commons area. The protesters threw rocks and other objects at the Guardsmen. More tear gas was fired.
After reaching the crest of Blanket Hill, the Guardsmen fired at the protesters. They gave no verbal warning.
At 12:24 p.m., Sergeant Myron Pryor turned and began firing at the crowd of students with his .45 pistol. Several other Guardsmen also turned and fired their rifles at the students. At least 29 of the 77 Guardsmen fired their weapons, using about 67 rounds of ammunition.
The protesters were shocked because they didn’t believe the Guardsmen would fire live ammunition at them. The students were unarmed, except for the rocks they threw.
Some of the students were shot while running away from the Guardsmen. Of those shot, none was closer than 71 feet from the Guardsmen. Of those killed, the nearest was 265 feet away. The furthest victim was 750 feet away.
Although the Guardsmen claimed they thought a sniper was shooting at them, it appears they were triggered by their own people shooting.
If you’ve ever played laser tag or a paintball battle, you know a “battle” can induce panic and friendly fire injuries.
Only one Guardsman was injured enough to require medical attention, 10 to 15 minutes before the shootings.
Four protesters were killed and nine were injured, all students in good standing at the university.
A subsequent investigation of the shootings by the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest found the Ohio National Guard shootings on May 4, 1970 were unjustified. There were no criminal convictions relating to the incident.
As a result, some new crowd control measures, such a rubber bullets, have since been adopted.
A photo of a 14-year old runaway, Mary Ann Vecchio, screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller, who was shot in the mouth, won a Pulitzer Prize and became one of the enduring images of the ant-Vietnam War Movement.
The shootings lead to protests on college campuses throughout the United States and a student strike, causing more than 450 campuses across the country to close with both violent and nonviolent demonstrations. Over 4 million students protested.
Five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated against the war and the killing of unarmed student protestors in Washington, D.C.
In 1973, U.S. government and the North Vietnamese signed a peace treaty ending the Vietnam War.
