Kent State and Nixon: Four Dead/Four More Years

Except of WBCN news report produced by Bill Lichtenstein on Kent State Massacre, May 1970, with photos by Howard Ruffner.

The Kent State tragedy involved the fatal shooting of four unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds. In addition to killing four students, nine others were wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Some students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon had announced in a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance, but were not there to protest.

In response to the shootings, hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States saw student strikes totally four million students, and the event further divided public opinion, already contentious, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.

- Wikipedia/"Four More Years" audio (c) 1970 Bill Lichtenstein/Kent State photos (c) 1970 Howard Ruffner

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• The American Revolution
• WBCN
• Kent State
• Vietnam
• Vietnam protest
• Antiwar
• Antiwar protests
• Howard Ruffner