Kent State Massacre

In the Kent State Massacre ( English Kent State Shootings , Kent State Massacre ) on May 4, 1970 at Kent State University in the USA four students were shot dead and nine injured, some seriously, when the National Guard of Ohio State during a demonstration against the Vietnam War opened fire on the crowd of unarmed protesters. To date, no one has been held responsible for this.

prehistory

The trigger for the massive protests was the US invasion of Cambodia on April 25, 1970, which President Nixon announced on April 29, although he had promised a "decent peace" during the election campaign. The aim of the campaign was to kill the Viet Cong fighters hidden there .

This led to massive protests across the country, including at Kent University . With the situation threatening to spiral out of control, the local mayor declared a state of emergency and requested assistance from Governor Jim Rhodes , who dispatched a contingent of the Ohio National Guard . On May 2, the Reserve Officer Training Corps building on campus was set on fire. When rescue workers tried to get the fire under control, stones were thrown at them and the fire brigade's hoses were cut.

The massacre

Location map

On May 4, the National Guard tried unsuccessfully to use tear gas to break up an unauthorized protest rally. Then a squad of National Guards withdrew to a hill, turned around and suddenly opened fire on the crowd - according to the FBI "without being threatened or in danger". At least 67 shots were fired in 13 seconds, and some national guards fired their entire eight-shot magazine. There were four dead ( Allison Krause , William Knox Schroeder , Sandy Scheuer and Jeffrey Glenn Miller ), one paraplegic (Dean Kahler) and eight other injured. Some of the victims were over a hundred meters away and uninvolved, the four killed were on average over 110 meters away from the shooters.

Effects

The effects of the events were far-reaching. The massacre sparked national and international protests. The United States saw the largest student strike in the country's history, with approximately eight million participants, temporarily closing hundreds of universities, colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools. This deepened the political divisions within the population, and international resistance radicalized.

After the fatal shooting, eight Ohio National Guard officers were tried before a grand jury . The accused national guards stated that they acted in self-defense . The trial was finally dropped by the judge in charge because he did not see sufficient evidence against the accused. In later civil proceedings, the injured demonstrators and the parents of the four victims were paid a total of $ 675,000 as part of a settlement.

A little later, Neil Young wrote the song Ohio for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970, CSNY, US Charts # 14), which refers to the scandal . The World Today by John Lee Hooker and Alan Wilson was recorded under the impression of what happened. Harvey Andrews released a song called Hey Sandy in 1972 , which is about the shooting. In 2007 the band Tomorrow wrote the song The Tragedy of Jeffrey Miller , which also deals with the events.

The Amerika-Haus in Berlin was attacked with gasoline bombs on the night of May 5, 1970 in response to the massacre .

literature

Carole A. Barbato: This We Know: A Chronology of the Shootings at Kent State, May 1970. Kent State University Press, Kent 2013, ISBN 978-1-60635-185-7 .
Scott L. Bills: Kent State / May 4. Echoes Through a Decade. Kent State University Press, Kent OH 1988, ISBN 0-87338-360-5 ( online limited version (Google Books) ).
Udo Sautter : Lexicon of American History. CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-39294-6 ( Beck'sche series 1194), ( limited online version in the Google book search).
Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz: The Price of Dissent. Testimonies to Political Repression in America. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2001, ISBN 0-520-22402-7 , p. 347 ( restricted online version in the Google Book Search USA ).
Craig S. Simpson: Above the Shots: An Oral History of the Kent State Shootings. Kent State University Press, Kent 2016, ISBN 978-1-60635-291-5 .

Web links

Commons : Kent State Massacre - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

^ Downs, Donald Alexander: Arms and the University . Cambridge University Press, New York 2012, pp. 135 .
↑ Jerry M. Lewis, Thomas R. Hensley, "The May 4 Shootings At Kent State University: The Search For Historical Accuracy." Ohio Council for the Social Studies Review . Volume 1 Issue 34, pp. 9-21. ISSN 1050-2130. OCLC 21431375., available online here
^ Charles Shaar Murray: Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century, p. 123 . Canongate Books, Edinburgh 2011, ISBN 978-0-85786-204-4 . (New edition of the book published by Penguin in 1999) Online: limited preview in the Google book search
↑ Tomorow on indiepedia.de
^ Arson . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1970, pp. 120 ( online - May 11, 1970 ). Quote: "Seven hours later, comrades from West Berlin showed solidarity with their American fellow students."

[1] Downs, Donald Alexander: Arms and the University . Cambridge University Press, New York 2012, pp. 135 .

[2] Jerry M. Lewis, Thomas R. Hensley, "The May 4 Shootings At Kent State University: The Search For Historical Accuracy." Ohio Council for the Social Studies Review . Volume 1 Issue 34, pp. 9-21. ISSN 1050-2130. OCLC 21431375., available online here

[3] Charles Shaar Murray: Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker in the American Twentieth Century, p. 123 . Canongate Books, Edinburgh 2011, ISBN 978-0-85786-204-4 . (New edition of the book published by Penguin in 1999) Online: limited preview in the Google book search

[4] Tomorow on indiepedia.de

[sp_19700511-5] Arson . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1970, pp. 120 ( online - May 11, 1970 ). Quote: "Seven hours later, comrades from West Berlin showed solidarity with their American fellow students."