That day in May was such a pivotal moment for me and

[moniss]

I cried then and still do and the tears are always just below the surface. If I try to speak to people about it my voice quickly wavers and chokes. I remember the lies and excuses all down through the years afterwards. I am proud that I cried then and still do today.

Several years ago I spoke to a faculty member at Kent State who was doing remembrance of the event etc. I told her that it is critically important that we not let our young students just do history by way of computer. She asked me what I meant and I said history must be passed down on a personal and oral level. I encouraged her to bring students in to sit informally in various sessions with people who went through the '50's Red Scare, through the long ongoing march for civil rights, through being Freedom Riders, through the Vietnam/Draft protests, through the Ban The Bomb movement, through the killings at Kent State and Jackson State etc. and let these students listen to the oral history from the people who lived through it.

Not necessarily anybody well known but just ordinary people trying to make a difference and how and why they got involved and how it began for them, how it progressed and how it has affected them.

I don't know whatever became of my suggestion but I will always believe in the oral tradition. The computer cannot inspire your compassion as effectively as being face to face with living history and hearing it told and asking questions. So many of us here on DU are that living history

[snowybirdie]

1. Remember it well

Hubby was a police officer attending college but not telling his fellow students what he did. Was dangerous at the time. That day and that incident pushed him over the edge to support other students in fighting against the outrageous war.

[moniss]

13. Thank you for sharing this story

and it is a great example of how these events impacted and changed people. Thank you for being a part of the oral history of that day.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Today is 55th anniversary of #KentState

Link to tweet

[calimary]

6. Oh God, that photo!

Some pictures say 1000 words. This single photo said whole libraries full of printed words.

[calimary]

7. Dupe. Sorry about that.

Last edited Mon May 5, 2025, 03:07 AM - Edit history (1)

[SLClarke]

3. Oral history - Yes.

I absolutely agree. Years ago, when I was at Lakewood Community College getting my prerequisites to go to chiropractic school, the Carter hostage situation was hot. One day there was a kerfuffle outside the lab and when I asked what it was about (because most of the time, I kept my head down), I was told it was a group of students collecting names for a petition to bomb Iran.
I went out of the lab and walked up to that group, and told them I was bombed as a child, and it destroyed the life I was having at that time, and that I didn't like it. The petition died. That was the last of it.
I am still proud I did that, not just stopping the petition, but letting that group know what it was like for me, age 4.

[moniss]

12. Thank you for your story and

keeping the oral history going.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Agree. We were living that day and countless other days of history. It IS vital to

hear history from those to whom it happened. Our parents, where they were when Pearl Harbor happened, when the Atomic bombs were dropped, Hitler and the Nazi defeated, when Malcolm X was shot, and on and on.

And like you said, from those here on DU for whom the Sixties turmoil is personal and vivid. We lived it. Hear from us.

Thank you for your post, moniss.

[calimary]

5. I love your idea! We CANNOT afford to let those days fall through a memory hole.

Students today need to know what happened back then, and what we did and/or didn’t do about it. AND how that “did or didn’t” response has affected us now.

[Warpy]

8. I ran with a bunch who knew it was going to happen with Nixon in office

We were just surprised it happened to a bunch of squeaky clean midwestern kids in a college nobody outside the midwest had really heard of instead of to us. No, we didn't feel a chill, we were far too pissed off for that. It just made us more pissed off.

It was a pivotal point for a lot of people, especially Middle America, the ones who had gone along with that war because they'd been patriots in WWII and it was a tough habit to break, especially if they'd fought or lost family to that war. Realizing that their kids were at risk even if they weren't part of any demonstration really got through to them, although I admit it took a while for most of them to catch on. When they finally did, even Nixon had to give it up.

Odd thing was that we were staked out, photographed, followed, the whole FBI special. AFAIK, none of the people I knew then was ever damaged by this, although it was inconvenient from time to time. My right wing dad and I shared a chuckle years later that the only political thing we'd ever had in common was we both had FBI files.

[moniss]

11. Thank you for your story and

as I've said to others it is an example of the oral history that needs to always be told.

[Mountain Mule]

9. I have such vivid memories of Kent State

My Dad was career military and he served our country in WWII, Korea, and two tours in Vietnam. He also spent a year as the active duty Army liaison with the Colorado National Guard. I was a Freshman at the University of Denver when we got the word about Kent State. We were filled with stunned disbelief, sorrow, anger and yes - even fear.

I was so angry and so unable to accept what had happened. My Dad would most certainly not order the National Guard to do such a thing. Because he couldn't have. He could order active duty troops around, but NOT the National Guard. But that didn't stop me from feeling deeply betrayed. Nor did it stop me from being horrified that a few students with rocks were met with live ammunition.

I was a freshman at the University of Denver when Kent State happened and I had a job flipping burgers at the student union grill. I showed up for what was supposed to be a 5:00PM to 11:00PM stint. But people seemed to be pouring in from everywhere. I had never seen that many people even when I went to my freshman Biology 101 class which was attended by 500 students!

I asked my customers where they were from and some told me that they had been just criss-crossing the country and showing up for protests everywhere. I cooked up burgers and everything else we had on offer while being serenaded by a Youngbloods song that people kept playing on the jukebox:

Come Together -

You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry...
Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.

My boss was a very fussy guy who was a grad student in DU's School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration. I considered him to be hopelessly straight and just hopelessly hopeless on general principles. But that night he surprised me.

The Student Union probably had surpassed its most profitable night ever in the first hour. After 3 hours of being completely overwhelmed and catching the outrage everyone else was feeling, "Doug" told us to just give away the food for free. So we did. AfterI had cooked up every last burger, we were forced to close our doors at 2:00am.

My boyfriend came by to pick me up and we joined other protesters on the lawn of the administration building. Our goal was to shut down the entire university, starting with preventing the university president from getting into his office. My BF used his boots for a pillow while I fell asleep immediately in my sleeping bag.

In the end we did shut down the University of Denver along with many other universities across the nation. The people had spoken, and we did our best to make everyone listen.

[moniss]

10. Thank you for telling us your story and it is

very much the oral history that is vital to keep alive.

[Mountain Mule]

14. And thank you as well!