Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Kent State Shootings 4th of May 1970

50 years ago today, the US National Guard opened fire on thousands of thousands of anti-war protestors at the Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, murdering 4 students and wounding another 9 and dragging the country into further unrest in the struggle against the American imperialist wars in Indochina.

The events that led to the fascist massacre began when Richard Nixon, who based his 1968 presidential campaign on ending the Vietnam War, revealed his true colors and launched the US invasion of Cambodia (after secretly bombing it and replacing their Prince with the pro-US fascist government of Lon Nol), a move that angered millions of people nationwide and demons and prompted thousands of protestors to take to the streets and campuses.

On May 1st, the day after Nixon announced the "Cambodian Incursion", over 500 students at the Kent State University protested on the Commons. Many of the protestors shouted "Bring the war home!" and a group of history students buried a copy of the US Constitution to symbolize that Nixon had killed it. However, they dispersed at 1pm to attend their classes and planned for an even larger demonstration on May 4th. In addition, a few anti-war protestors vandalized different buildings and businesses for several days and their actions were used by the bourgeoisie to defame the protestors and victimize themselves.

The next day, after hearing, among other rumors, that the army recruitment center and ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) building would be attacked, Mayor Satrom ordered the US National Guard to intervene. By the time they got there, there was a large demonstration at the university campus and the ROTC building was on fire (though the FBI later concluded that it wasn't caused by the student protestors) and they launched tear gas at the protestors, arrested several of them, and at least one was wounded by a bayonet.

The next day, Ohio Governor Rhodes made a speech, during which he pounded on his desk and called the anti-war protestors "un-American", saying:

"They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders (another name for the Ku Klux Klan) and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America." - Governor Rhodes

He also claimed that he would gain an order to declare a state of emergency in order to prevent further demonstrations and quite possibly impose martial law, but he never went through with it. Another rally took place at 8pm that night, but the National Guard drove them out with tear gas and they withdrew to the intersection at Lincoln and Main where they staged a sit-in hoping to negotiate with Mayor Satrom and University President White, but the National Guard announced that a curfew had taken place and drove out the protestors, bayoneting a few of them in the process.

Finally, on May 4th, the largest protest took place at noon. Despite the university's attempts to ban the demonstrations and trick people into thinking it was cancelled, over 2,000 protestors were present and began the demonstration by ringing the Victory Bell on the Commons.

In response, a campus patrolman drove to the crowd in a National Guard jeep and told the protestors to disperse before being forced to retreat after the protestors began throwing rocks at them. The National Guard then returned in larger numbers and repeated their orders to the protestors. When the majority of them refused, the National Guard launched tear gas at them (with little effect due to the strong winds that day) and the protestors answered them by throwing rocks and the tear gas canisters back at them and shouted "Pigs off campus!"

Soon, 77 National Guardsmen fixed their bayonets and advanced on the protestors, forcing most of them to retreat from the Commons and up to Blanket Hill and eventually to Taylor Hall and nearby Prentice Hall while some were continuing to throw rocks and tear gas canisters back. Instead of following them, the guardsmen headed for the practice field and faced the parking lot, eventually heading back to the Commons and some of the protestors at Taylor Hall headed towards the guardsmen. While climbing back on Blanket Hill, the guardsmen turned and faced the students at the Prentice Hall parking lot.