# Four dead in Ohio. May 4th 1970 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455 "2005-05-04T22:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/1 "2005-05-04T22:42:32Z")
35 years ago today. Kent State. Ohio National Guard against unarmed protesters. The victims lest they be forgotten. ALISON KRAUSE JEFFREY MILLER SANDRA SCHEUER WILLIAM SCHROEDER Alas they already have been. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/2 "2005-05-04T22:45:32Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > 35 years ago today. Kent State. Ohio National Guard against unarmed protesters. > > The victims lest they be forgotten. > > ALISON KRAUSE > > JEFFREY MILLER > > SANDRA SCHEUER > > WILLIAM SCHROEDER > Alas they already have been. 30 years- and I’m not trying to be argumentative, but who exactly has forgotten them? [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/kent.state.02/](http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/kent.state.02/) ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/3 "2005-05-04T22:49:46Z")
> [@BoBettie](#): > > 30 years- and I’m not trying to be argumentative, but who exactly has forgotten them? > [http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/kent.state.02/](http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/04/kent.state.02/) 35 years. You had to go to archives? ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/4 "2005-05-04T22:53:54Z")
Sorry- I misread the date on that article and blame my lack of math skills on giving blood today. At any rate, I certainly did not forget and had just posted in my blog about it around a minute before reading your post. Perhaps some people have forgotten, but not all. Sorry for incorrectly correcting your data. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/5 "2005-05-04T22:54:02Z")
Neil Young [Ohio](http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Neil-Young/Ohio.html) can still be heard. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/6 "2005-05-04T23:04:42Z")
Shoulda been done long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/7 "2005-05-04T23:48:48Z")
My high school history teacher was at Kent State during the shootings. Every year, when he taught about the Boston Massacre, he always compared it to Kent State. So myself, and the thousands of other kids he taught, know all about it. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/8 "2005-05-04T23:50:47Z")
Well I’d say the students shot at Kent state did a lot less to provoke their killings than the Americans at Boston. I mean, I’m no Loyalist or anything but the redcoats weren’t just being pelted with harmless snowballs, there were rocks and plenty of threats coming from the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/9 "2005-05-05T00:00:47Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Well I’d say the students shot at Kent state did a lot less to provoke their killings than the Americans at Boston. > > I mean, I’m no Loyalist or anything but the redcoats weren’t just being pelted with harmless snowballs, there were rocks and plenty of threats coming from the crowd. Yes, but his point was that the Boston Massacre was a _trigger_ for the **first** American revolution. Get the picture? ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/10 "2005-05-05T00:07:29Z")
I was in college at the time and that famous photo is still burned into my mind: [http://www.nofear.org/Archives/Images/200305/kent\_state.jpg](http://www.nofear.org/Archives/Images/200305/kent_state.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/11 "2005-05-05T04:21:57Z")
I remember that some of the students were just on their way to class. God, that was a black day. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/12 "2005-05-06T08:09:58Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Yes, but his point was that the Boston Massacre was a _trigger_ for the **first** American revolution. Get the picture? That your teacher is insane and thinks that the 70s was a revolution? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/13 "2005-05-06T11:29:40Z")
I guess this means we have all forgotten about Jackson State? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/14 "2005-05-06T16:17:07Z")
I was there. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/15 "2005-05-06T16:48:39Z")
The father of a friend of mine was in the Ohio National Guard at the time. He lived in Youngstown. His unit was supposed to be the one that the governor called out that day, but for some reason the scheduling was switched and he was somewhere else. There but for the grace of God… My dad worked with the father of one of the girls who was killed. I don’t remember which one. I don’t remember the incident, myself; I was just over seven months old at the time. Kent University still has a memorial erected in the parking lot where one of the students was killed. Why’d the governor insist on live ammo that day, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/16 "2005-05-06T17:14:17Z")
Because he was a bad person. We shall not forget. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/17 "2005-05-06T18:26:44Z")
> [@Chance the Gardener](#): > > Why’d the governor insist on live ammo that day, anyway? Is there a cite for this? My research had me to believe that at the time, Ohio was one of a few states that already allowed guardsmen to carry live ammo during civil disturbances. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/18 "2005-05-06T18:26:50Z")
Live ammo was issued because the soldiers were being sent into a riot. The demonstrators on campus and in town had damaged stores, blocked streets, lit bonfires, and burned down the ROTC building. Now, I do believe the National Guard overreacted to the situaton, and tragically so. But let’s not forget that they were called to Kent State for a reason. The people who incited the riot, many of whom were not Kent State students, have blood on their hands as well. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/19 "2005-05-06T18:36:05Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > That your teacher is insane and thinks that the 70s was a revolution? Are you saying it wasn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/20 "2005-05-06T19:42:29Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > The people who incited the riot, many of whom were not Kent State students, have blood on their hands as well. Interesting how that works - soldiers aim and fire at unarmed civilians killing some with no fear of retaliation whatsoever and then some activists end up with blood on their hands? Well why of course, that makes all the sense in the world. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455.md?page=2)