The Lark: Vol 2, Issue 25, May 2023

Kent State and Me

by Ruth Mills

The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre^[) resulted in the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard  on the Kent State University campus. The shootings took place on May 4, 1970, during a peace rally opposing the expanding involvement of the Vietnam War into Cambodia by United States military forces as well as protesting the National Guard presence on campus. This incident marked the first time a student was killed in an anti-war gathering in United States history.  (Wikipedia)

A huge poster of President Nixon was burning just a few hundred feet from my bedroom window.  Thousands of agitated students from our two local colleges had gathered in the village park across the street.  The park was not big enough to contain them all.  Quite a few were standing on our lawn and about a dozen stood on our porch.  My parents locked the front door, something that we had never done.  I wanted to go out, just to observe, but my parents were adamant.  I was not to go out.

Earlier that day my mother had watched in horror as a mock funeral procession with four caskets and hundreds of students made their way up Main Street.  She held her breath as a convoy of National Guardsmen from nearby Camp Drum made their way up the street at the same time.  Both sides stared straight ahead, never looking at each other.

Our tiny town of 6000 residents plus 4000 students was suddenly filled with tension as we learned that four unarmed students were killed in Ohio by our National Guard. I was finishing the end of my junior year in high school.  For the past several years, it had seemed as if the world was coming apart—the Watts Riots in 1965, the Detroit and Newark riots in 1967, and the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, to name just a few. I remember my father commenting on a newscast of the Detroit riots, saying it sounded like a war zone. It felt threatening and unnerving to my adolescent self.

My parents were law and order Republicans. My father was also a fundamentalist Baptist minister. No question where they stood. Instead of protesting, people with grievances should pray and trust the Lord. I did not consciously question their beliefs. In fact, in my sophomore year I had to write a term paper about a social issue. I chose to write about protests. My conclusion was simplistic and parent-approved. Jesus was the answer to all earthly problems.

My initial reaction to the Kent State Massacre was similar. If those students had focused on their studies and doing what they were supposed to do, this would not have happened. I dismissed the fact that they were upset about the expansion of the war into Cambodia, where some of them might be sent to die.

Like me, many of my classmates believed that the students got what they deserved. Then Mr. Franklin, our eleventh grade Social Studies teacher, pointed out a fact that none of us had considered. We are a nation of laws.  We have the right to protest our government. Everyone is entitled to a trial by jury.  We are considered innocent until proven guilty. And the punishment should be appropriate for the crime. Did these students get a trial? Were they proven guilty? Did the act of protesting deserve the death penalty?

I began to look more closely at the facts.  Jeff Miller appeared to be the most “guilty.” He had thrown a tear gas canister back at the Guardsmen, waved his middle finger, and called them pigs. He felt strongly about making his voice heard. He got the death penalty, without the benefit of a trial.

Allison Krause also participated in the protests. She was photographed placing a flower in the barrel of one of the guns held by a National Guardsman. She told him “flowers are better than bullets.” She actually agreed with the Guard presence after the ROTC building was burned. She got the death penalty, without the benefit of a trial.

Sandy Scheuer was changing classes. She had not participated in any protests. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She got the death penalty, without the benefit of a trial.

Bill Schroeder had not participated in any protests and was a member of the ROTC. He was changing classes when he heard shots being fired.  As he tried to run away, he was shot in the back. He got the death penalty, without the benefit of a trial.

Nine other students were injured, including one who was permanently paralyzed. None of them had the benefit of a trial.

The protests in my town ended quietly. My spiritual and political journey, however, was just beginning.