The Kent State Massacre
Richard M. Nixon
Richard Nixon had been elected President in 1968, promising to end the Vietnam War. In November 1969, the My Lai Massacre was exposed, prompting widespread outrage around the world and leading to increased public opposition to the war. In addition, the following month saw the first draft lottery instituted since World War II. The war had appeared to be winding down throughout 1969, so the new invasion of Cambodia angered those who believed it only exacerbated the conflict. Many young people, including college students and teachers, were concerned about being drafted to fight in a war that they strongly opposed. The expansion of that war into another country appeared to them to have increased that risk, though the number of troops serving in Vietnam peaked in 1967, well before that time. Across the country, campuses erupted in protests in what Time called “a nation-wide student strike”, setting the stage for the events of early May 1970.
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre,
National Guardsmen at Kent State, May 1970
occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio. It involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The Guardsmen shot into the crowd 67 times for 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.
Kent State Massacre
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. However, other students who were shot had merely been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.
There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of eight million students, and the event further divided the country, at this already socially contentious time, along political lines.
First news reports erroneously reported that three people had been killed with two of them being National Guardsmen (see first newspaper). Much of the confusion was sorted out the next day – May 6th. Please click on the images below to view scalable .pdf reproductions of the newspapers.
May 5, 1970 Newspaper May 6, 1970May 6, 1970
May 6, 1970
