Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer were killed on May 4, 1970 during a protest against the Vietnam War. The tragic dominoes began to fall on April 30 when Nixon launched his invasion of Cambodia. Recently the war had seemed to be deescalating and the anti-war protests had been dying down. The surprise incursion was like throwing gasoline on to dying embers. On May 1, protests broke out on campus at Kent State University in Ohio. That night downtown Kent witnessed clashes between young people and the police. The police responded to vandalism and threatening behavior with tear gas. The mayor declared a state of emergency and closed the bars, which actually increased the size and belligerency of the crowd. The next day, supposed threats to businesses caused the mayor to request the National Guard. Gov. Rhodes was only too happy to comply. By the time the Guard arrived on May 2, the ROTC building was already aflame. There were confrontations and arrests. May 3, a Sunday, was relatively calm, but a big protest had been scheduled for Monday. On that day, a crowd of around 3,000 gathered on the Commons to hear protest speeches. The Guard unit overlooked the open space and when some of the crowd turned on it, yelling obscenities and throwing rocks, Gen. Robert Canterbury ordered the crowd to disperse. When it didn’t, the Guardsmen were ordered to “lock and load” and with bayonets at ready, advanced to push the crowd back in a cloud of tear gas. The soldiers advanced over a hill with the crowd being herded and rocks and tear gas cannisters being hurled at them. Then the 77 soldiers began a withdrawal back up the hill. Suddenly, some of the men halted, turned, and opened fire. In 13 seconds, 28 Guardsmen fired around 70 shots into the crowd. 4 students were killed and 9 were wounded. Of the dead, only Miller was actively harassing the soldiers. Scheuer was an Honors student walking to class. Schroeder (the body in the famous John Filo Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of 14-year old Mary Vecchio) was an ROTC student! Five Guardsmen were indicted for felonies, but they got off with self-defense. The day after the tragedy, a Gallup Poll showed that 58% blamed the protesters and only 11 % blamed the National Guard.
P.S. Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Gerald Casale (Devo) were students and eye-witnesses on campus that day.
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/kent-state-shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings
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