– NBC Nightly News – May 4, 1970 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Days earlier, on May 1st 1970, President Nixon was asked about the wave of Campus protests to the American excursion into Cambodia. Referring to the students protesting as “bums”, Nixon managed to drive a wedge into the division a bit deeper, and after the killing of four students at Kent State on May 4th, the protests became louder and the Anti-War sentiment grew much larger.
Beyond a piss-poor choice of words, Nixon managed to illustrate just how badly out of touch Washington was, and how fed-up America was over a war with no point, a war with no end, and a war with no justification.
On this day a protest was scheduled to be held at noon, as planned three days earlier. University officials attempted to ban the gathering, handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was canceled. Despite these efforts, an estimated 2,000 people gathered[26] on the university’s Commons, near Taylor Hall. The protest began with the ringing of the campus’s iron Victory Bell (which had historically been used to signal victories in football games) to mark the beginning of the rally, and the first protester began to speak.
According to most estimates, some 200-300 protesters gathered around the Victory Bell on the Commons, with some 1,000 more gathered on a hill behind the first crowd. The crowd was largely made up of students enrolled at the university, with a few non-students (that included Kent State dropouts and high school students) also present. The crowd appeared leaderless and was initially peaceful and relatively quiet. One person made a short speech, and some protesters carried flags.
And by the end of this day in 1970 there were four students; Allison Krause, William Schroeder, Sandra Scheuer and Jeffrey Miller, laying dead – three shot in the chest, one shot in the head; all because they wanted an end to something senseless. And the senselessness became compounded.
And in case you forgot – the killing didn’t end on this May 4th in 1970. It got a repeat performance in Jackson State days later.
Truly ‘Interesting times’, via a truly ‘interesting’ edition of the NBC Nightly News for May 4th 1970.
