The shootings that occurred at Kent State University, Ohio, on May 4, 1970 have been a dark spot in American history for almost 36 years. It is a day remembered by many names, THE KENT STATE SHOOTINGS, MAY 4 or the KENT STATE MASSACRE. Four students were killed and nine were wounded, all of America suffered. The student body at Kent State numbered about 20,000 and had been considered conservative, but not overly political. In fact they were thought of as rather passive politically. The shootings
Shootings at Kent State University What happened at Kent State University? This is a question that many Americans were asking following the crisis on the Kent campus. In the days preceding May 4, 1970, protests, disruption, and violence erupted on the university grounds. These acts were the students’ reaction to President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia. The events surround the deaths of four
On May 4, 1970, the shooting on the Kent State campus took place. The National guard shooting of the students at Kent State University occurred as a result of the students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, which caused the war to expand. The U.S president Nixon sent troops into Cambodia after he promised to withdraw them from Vietnam. On April 30, 1970, when Nixon gave a speech announcing the invasion of Cambodia, anti-war factions rose up across the United States. The speech caused a significant
firearms in the United States. Peers, family members and even policemen shoot thousands of young people. Countless young children and youth are survivors of gun violence and become scarred by the effects of such violence in their homes. Gun violence happens very often in America where young children and teens kill other people. It is very rare to find a shooting where the police kill their own people. On April 30 1970, President Richard M. Nixon, announced that the United States of America and South
The Kent state incident What began as a simple anti-war demonstration, out of the hundreds that took place during the Vietnam war period, the Kent State incident transformed into a major turning point in American history that re-defined the course of America’s involvement in the Vietnam war. On May 4 of 1970 the national guard opened fire on students protesting against the invasion of Cambodia that president Nixon had announced 5 days before. The announcement enraged hundreds of students from Kent
by countries such as England, Italy, and Germany and also in countries across the world such as Japan and South Korea. The War had left everyone questioning whether or not the United States and its allies were going to be able to win this war or not. The window of victory grew smaller every day. In the United States, there were similar... ... middle of paper ... ...s just proves the point that students are people too. They may be inexperienced, but they are gaining knowledge and awareness about
Many of the democrats within the legislative branch turned against Johnson’s war. Scholar’s conflict on the reason why Johnson’s own party turned against him, some scholars attribute it to the growing number of antiwar constituents, while other scholars such as E.M. Schreiber, Burstein and Freudenburg cite the numerous deaths of American soldiers in combat. One democrat by the name of Eugene McCarthy labeled the entire Vietnam War as an “error” and describes the Johnson administration as “misguided
The students started one of the largest youth movements in the United States where they finally stood up against the “establishment” and broke their parents’ expectations of conformity. This counter-culture represented one of the most vocal groups of the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War, despite its small percentage. Their parents looked down on their newfound attitude that welcomed rock n’ roll, pre-marital sex, and drugs amongst other controversies. Current events included upheaval over
Mischke 1 One of the most violent protests of the Vietnam War took place in May of 1970 at Kent State University in Ohio. Protests were common across America during the war but this was by far the most violent. On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University protesters, killing four and wounding nine of the Kent State students. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that caused many colleges and universities to shut down . This deeply divided
Ryan Lalonde Professor Elsmore English 101 April 7, 2014 Power of the Protests “Going through high school I remember talking with my friends about the Vietnam War. I had the friends who were gung-ho for the war, and I had friends who, like myself, felt the Vietnam War was unnecessary and not worth fighting for. I remember back in 1967 hearing about the protestors at the Lincoln memorial. Over 100 thousand protestors were there, and I remember thinking how great it was that so many people had the
country in Southeast Asia (Vietnam War Timeline). This was done with the intention of halting the takeover of South Vietnam by communist North Vietnam. The rise of communist North Vietnam and their attempted control over South Vietnam made the United States feel that they must intervene. The American public was generally supportive of this movement, in the beginning. The song “The Ballad of the Green Beret”, written by ex-green beret Barry Sadler, was one of the few songs of this era to cast the military
Music allows people the opportunity to show their true selves. During the 1960s, people used music as a way to protest against all kinds of issues. Music does this job well because it can express things that words cannot. The protest music of the 1960s can be considered a counterculture because it was a period where individuals used music to protest against the social norms as well as other pertaining issues of the day such as war and civil rights. As music has changed over time, modern protest music
Kent State In 1970 the nation was in its highest state of controversy. The generation gap that had begun to form in the sixties was now more of a ravine. The youth of America was finally standing up and raising their voices in protest against all the problems that plagued the country they would have control of in years to come. There were many events that helped in feeding the flame in the hearts of Americans. One such event was the Kent State University incident. It is an event that touched
unarmed Kent State University students. These students were protesting President Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia. While some of the students who were shot at were actively protesting at the time of the shooting, others were simply walking by or casually observing the protest from a distance. How could an appalling incident like this occur? What possessed the members of the Ohio National Guard to shoot at unarmed students? In order to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the Kent State
In 1970, famous singer-songwriter Neil Young wrote the song “Ohio” about the massacre of American college students by American soldiers at Kent State University in Ohio on May 4, 1970. The National Guard was called in to stop a peaceful protest on the university’s campus, but it ended in tragedy with four students dead and twelve wounded. All of a sudden the lyrics to Neil Young’s song, “What if you knew her and/ Found her dead on the ground/ How can you run when you know,” made sense to every American
more have been arrested. But, many issues have changed because of this right. Violence has been endured, and people’s lives have been changed. The Vietnam War is a perfect example of a group of protests that had many different outcomes. The Kent State shootings and the Democratic Convention of 1968 are examples of protests that went terribly wrong. Sit-ins and singing protest songs against violence are examples of peaceful protest. The Democratic Convention of 1968 took place in Chicago, Illinois
For some it was all about knowledge and enlightenment. For others it was the drive to show that they were not puppets under the marionette master. But for the masses, it was just what the other kids were doing. Yet, when it really all came down to it, regardless of what they were representing, the youth counter-culture of the 1970’s was quite powerful. Who would have thought that the youth who in all previous wars had heeded their parents call now rejected and abandoned their ideals and almost formed
as Kent State. Young students were upset because they were the ones being drafted and the sooner the war ended the less chance they had of seeing war. On Friday, May 1,1970 anti-war rallies began to take place at Kent State University. Students gathered and burned a copy of the constitution. Also many riots broke out in downtown Kent. The extent of the damage done in Kent was estimated at fifteen thousand dollars. Upon learning about these problems the mayor, Leroy Satrom, called a state of
were often dismissed by many older Americans for being part of the counterculture that rejected traditional American values and embraced experimentation with sex and drugs. Yet the protests represented a genuine, and growing, resistance in the United States to the country's role in the Vietnam conflict.” (Doswell). Because the protesters, had a hard time connecting to the older parental generation, the nation was even more tense and divided. While there were plenty of people protesting against the war
Campus Unrest In response to great opposition to United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War, the antiwar movement of the 1960s sprung forth. A vast majority of involvement in this movement was represented on college campuses across the nation. Many college students wholeheartedly believed that the war in Vietnam served no point. America was simply once again sticking its nose in business that was not our own. As a result of the war, universities nationwide in the sixties were in uproar as