On May 4, 1970, three days after nationwide May Day demonstrations, a rally took place at Kent State University, a protest about the expansion of American military into Cambodia. At 12:24 PM, twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired about 67 rounds toward students, killing four and wounding nine. None of the students was armed, although lies were reported that the demonstrating students were violent and that there was a sniper. Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller were part of the rally, while Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder were simply watching the rally between their classes. A young woman who was not a student, 14-year-old runaway Mary Ann Vecchio, was photographed wailing over the body of Jeffrey Miller. The photo became the most famous of the tragedy and won a Pulitzer.
Here's an article about Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes' legacy in the shooting.
The Jewish community at Kent took the lead in commemorating the event on campus on its anniversary. Krause, Miller, and Scheuer were Jewish but the Jewish response honored all four students and remembered those who were injured. See this article.
On May 14, ten days after the Kent State shootings, police fired upon students at the historically black college, Jackson State College in Jackson, MS. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green were killed and 12 others were wounded.
An earlier massacre occurred on February 8, 1968, at the campus of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg, SC. A crowd of African American students were protesting racial segregation at a local bowling alley. One city police officer and nine highway patrolmen fired into the crowd, injuring twenty-eight, and killing three: Samuel Ephesians Hammond, Delano Herman Middleton, and Henry Ezekial Smith. The Orangeburg tragedy received less media coverage than the two in 1970.
Soon after the Kent State shootings, Neil Young quickly wrote the song "Ohio." Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young recorded it by May 21, and the song was released in June.
