50 years ago, the Kent State shootings sparked student unrest across America

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Fifty years ago today, Monday, May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University. In just 13 seconds, four students were killed and nine were injured. The Kent State shooting was a watershed moment in American history, viewed as the day the United States turned its back on the young people who were supposed to be its future.

Five days earlier, on Thursday April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon, who won the 1968 election in part due to his promise to end the Vietnam War, announced that the United States would invade Cambodia in an attempt to target the headquarters of the Viet Cong. The announcement sparked unrest at college campuses nationwide among students opposed to the war. At Kent State, a public university just east of Akron, Ohio, students broke windows, threw bottles at police cars, and on Friday night set a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps building on fire.

The next day, Republican Ohio governor James Rhodes, who was in a hotly contested primary race for the U.S. Senate, called in the Ohio National Guard to help contain student protests. Nearly 1,000 guardsmen were sent to Kent State. Outraged, the students now resisted both the war in Vietnam and the use of armed forces on their campus.

On the third day of the Ohio National Guard’s presence on campus, May 4, tensions escalated. Thousands of students gathered near the university’s Commons area for a scheduled noon protest. The guardsmen ordered students to disperse. As students defied the order, guardsmen fired tear gas into the crowd. At 12:24 p.m., in an apparent moment of panic, multiple guardsmen fired 67 shots from M-1 rifles into the crowd of student demonstrators.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/united-states-history/ohio-kent-state-university-shooting/

[unc70]

1. Within two days the rest of us were on strike

Most universities went on strike, many schools for the remainder of the semester -- until mid June in most cases. I was supposed to graduate that spring. Not all my professors were accommodating so I had to work through a bunch of incompletes. Now my fiftieth reunion is postponed indefinitely. Small inconvenience in the larger scheme of things.

[OKNancy]

2. I get annoyed when some young folks say we had it good

and they are so oppressed. It was hell. It seemed it was one thing after another starting with JFK.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. In some ways, we had it good.

Tuition at state universities was cheap, thanks to state support. I may not have appreciated getting drafted, but the G.I. Bill got me through college with zero debt at the end. Not so easy these days.

[OKNancy]

4. Husband getting killed in Vietnam

or debt after college? I'll pick the debt if I had a choice.
Actually I did have to pay off some college loans. I got scholarships and I worked on the work-study program.

[BigDemVoter]

5. I remember this well.

And folks-- for those of you too young to remember or who weren't born, please take this as a word of warning. In Pussy-Grabber's America, something like this would NOT surprise me one little bit. There is NOTHING that can compare to having OUR National Guard KILL unarmed students simply for participating in a protest. And what's worse-- Nobody was punished for this atrocity, and that is EXACTLY what it was-- a fucking atrocity.