On Monday, May 4th, 1970 at Kent State University students had gathered around to protest against President Richard Nixon's announcement about sending US troops to invade Cambodia. The National Guard was ordered by Assistant General Robert Canterbury to drive infront of students and order them to stop and leave. By then there were about 1,500 students who refused to back down. General Canterbury then ordered the guardsmen to deal with it. About 116 men armed with rifles and tear gas lined up with the protesters pushing, hitting and running them off. After this went went on for awhile, General Canterbury ordered the guardmen to return in the common area because the students had stopped. Members of the Troop G who were suppose to head back with the other guardmen, huddled for a bit then walked back up to the hill where students were heading back to their classes, aimed and fired toward the crowd.
This not only was a tragedy ontop of the Vietnam war, but an event to remember so it never happens again.
The shootings led to more protesting at other colleges through the United States which the Urban Institute did a study and concluded that the Kent State shooting was the main factor for causing the only nationwide student strike. One of my favorite musicians, Neil Young had wrote a song called "Ohio" that was about the tragic event at Kent State. The song was recorded but was banned from the radio because of its protesting message. The song got out from college underground networks and led to the Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "Greatest Hits of All time".
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It is crazy to think about the fact that something like this could happen in our country and even in the state we live in. One of the victims was actually related to my moms side of the family which I never knew, but I somehow feel oddly connected to this event. It is so sad, scary, and unfortunate.
ReplyDeletei never really knew anything about the kent state shooting i had heard of it but never knew anything about it really. i agree its crazy and scary to think that something like this happened in our state and the fact that troop g did that is puzzling to me.
ReplyDeleteI have many friends who attend Kent State and say anywhere you go aroudn Kent state you can be reminded of the incident. I have never heard that song but I will try to find it and listen to it.
ReplyDeleteJust reading this makes me cringe. The shear thought of it is crazy. I mean...how could this happen? It seemed as though this situation was completely handled the wrong way.
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