Kent State Shooting
By 1970, much of America had soured on the war in Vietnam, and millions were actively protesting the country’s continued involvement in the conflict. Protest was particularly fierce in American higher education campuses, and the ending of college deferments, which had previously exempted most college students from the draft and service in Vietnam, added fuel to the fire.
The backlash reached a fever pitch after a televised address by president Nixon on April 30th, 1970, in which he announced a widening of the conflict with American military operations in Cambodia. The following day, protests and demonstrations swept many colleges and universities across the country, including that of Kent State, in Ohio.
On May 1st, following Kent State student antiwar demonstrations, bonfires were lit, and clashes erupted with police, during which protesters threw rocks and bottles. Bars were closed, but it backfired, as students who had not been involved in the protests, plus local roughnecks, expressed their displeasure by breaking windows and looting stores.
Kent’s mayor declared a state of emergency, and asked Ohio’s governor to send in the National Guard. By May 4th, about a thousand National Guardsmen were on Kent State’s campus, and when students held an antiwar rally, they were met with tear gas. Some students threw back the canisters, as well rocks, at the soldiers. Things escalated, soldiers advanced on the students, and 29 Guardsmen opened fire.
Within seconds, four students were killed, and nine more were wounded. Student and part time photographer John Filo was in the campus photography lab, and grabbed his camera and ran out upon hearing gunfire. He captured a shot of 14 year old Mary Ann Vecchio, crying over a fatally wounded 20 year old Jeffrey Miller. It was printed on the front page of the New York Times, went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, and became a symbol for the lost innocence of a nation’s youth.
