Remembering Kent State

In 1970, a nation still reeling from the assassination of three of its leaders found itself deeply divided by an unpopular war under a president who had recently announced an expansion of hostilities into a neighboring country. In response, students came out en masse to protest. Then, it was Nixon and the invasion of Cambodia that brought young people from the classroom to the streets. Now, we are accustomed to student protest; it has become an important part of the intellectual life of universities. On this 40th anniversary of the Kent State killings, we hope and believe that what happened that day – when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed protesters, shooting off 61 rounds in a hail of gunfire that lasted 13 seconds, killing four students – could never happen today.

I was a student at George Washington University on May 4th, 1970. I remember the day vividly; it defined my experience in higher education and contributed to my career serving higher-education institutions.

The massacre at Kent State touched off a national student anti-war movement, with 100,000 young people gathering in Washington, D.C., and 150,000 in San Francisco. More than 450 colleges and universities across the country were shut down by protests, both violent and non-violent. Ten days after the Kent State killings, two students were shot and killed at Jackson State College in Mississippi, a tragedy that has been overshadowed in history by events to the north. Students at New York University hung a sign: "They can’t kill us all." Both shootings were ruled unjustified by the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest. No guardsmen were convicted.

The campus shutdowns that followed the shootings were the only national student strike in United States history. Student protests continued for four more years, through Nixon’s resignation, and until the United States withdrew from Vietnam in 1974. Over the years, we have seen more student protest movements – from targeting Apartheid in South Africa, to addressing the recently passed immigration law in Arizona.

Our institutions are sacred places that bring together students from all walks of life to live and learn from one another, to grow intellectually and emotionally, and to engage civically. On this 40th anniversary, we pause to acknowledge the loss of life that day, and to honor the role higher-education institutions play as places of dialogue.