Kent State Protests

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On Friday, May first of 1970, President Nixon publicly announced during the height of the Vietnam war that he was sending United States troops to Cambodia. Consequently, protests broke out all around the nation. The protests that became nationally famous for obvious reasons were those at Kent State University. Through the duration of the weekend leading up to the tragedy, chaos overtook the town of Kent. Lewis and Hensley state that violence broke out between protesters and police, and a vacant ROTC building was burned to the ground. In response, the governor of Ohio called in one-thousand national guardsmen who flooded the campus making the university mistakable for a military base. By the time Monday, May fourth came around, tensions were …show more content…

Jerry Lewis, a Kent State sociology professor states that the university grew rapidly over the previous years, and with this growth came a new political mentality. Lewis said that the anti-war movement started circulating campus around 1967. Lewis was a large supporter of these student led political groups looking for change. Lewis comments that he often told students he would be happy to be the advisor to their groups. He worked closely with the Kent Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which was established before he even came to the university in 1966. Lewis talks about his time demonstrating protests nationwide as well as at Kent State. This counterculture was not exclusive to the Kent area. The Vietnam war was at its height in 1970, and America’s youth did not approve. They were banding together in protest all around the nation, and it may have been a mere coincidence that Kent State University was the stage for this powerful political …show more content…

Jim Myers, an owner of a drug store in downtown Kent, comments on the political feeling of the times by saying, “There had been three, four, five years of demonstrations that preceded May fourth and there had been some arrests. I don't remember all the details of it but I do remember that the county prosecutor probably got a little upset with Kent State and all the times he had to come over here and arrest kids”. Myers goes onto to talk about how many of the older adults around town had a strong disliking toward the students on campus, especially the ones rebelling against the establishment. Kent State University was a large contributor to the anti-establishment hippy movement of the late 1960’s. This movement paralleled what was taking place at Kent State University, and it is a strong assumption to say that this played a significant part in how things escalated once the military took over

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