Sunday, September 05, 1999
Belated memorial at Kent State
29 years after Vietnam protest, parking lot to mark 4 dead in Ohio
BY THOMAS J. SHEERAN
The Associated Press
×datel KENT — The promise of young lives shattered. A nation at its most divided and chaotic.
The deaths of four Kent State University students shot by National Guardsmen during a 1970 Vietnam War protest seemed to crystallize the turmoil of an unsettled and tragic era.
The emotional power of the shootings lingers to this day, even in people who weren't born when they happened. That will be demonstrated again Wednesday, when new markers are dedicated in the parking lot where the students fell.
Today's Kent State students pushed for the memorials, which remember people from their parent's generation.
“It's really an emotional subject,” said Kent State senior Kim Larson, 24, of Elyria, her voice choked.
“It's such a shame that it had to happen. Every one of those people had a great future ahead of them. They were caring people. To me, it was just a terrible tragedy.”
Guardsmen were sent to the campus on May 2, 1970, after days of student protests and the burning of the campus Army ROTC building. On May 4, the Guard used tear gas to disperse taunting, rock-throwing students.
About midday, 28 Guardsmen fired at least 61 shots in a 13-second burst, hitting protesters, bystanders and students walking to class at a distance. Some Guardsmen said they felt their lives were in danger.
The shootings, in which nine students were wounded, sent shock waves across a country growing weary of a distant war. Demonstrations and class boycotts spread to hundreds of campuses as the Kent State shootings highlighted the domestic fallout from the war.
Neil Young wrote the song “Ohio,” which expressed the outrage of the moment: “What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? How could you run when you know?”
As part of the student-run May 4 Task Force, Ms. Larson helped collect signatures last year to petition the university to mark the parking spaces where Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder fell dead.
That kind of dedication shows that the historic activism of Kent State students has been passed to a new generation, says 50-year-old Alan Canfora. He was a junior, just 21, when he was shot in the wrist that day.
“These students will not let this issue die. They continue to speak for Allison, Sandy, Jeffrey and Bill. I think the spirit of those four students lives today in these Kent State students who fight to keep their memories alive,” Mr. Canfora said.
Mr. Schroeder's mother, Florence Schroeder, 80, of Lorain, said the markers underscore the distance between the Guardsmen and the victims, some of whom were shot from a distance equal to 21/2 football fields.
“It makes a difference on the search for justice,” Mrs. Schroeder said.
While every campus instills memories of times gone by, the shootings have given Kent State a unique and painful legacy.
There's the sculpture marked by Guard gunfire and the hill the Guardsmen climbed to pursue protesters. The shootings have already been memorialized with a B'nai B'rith monument to the victims, 51,175 daffodils honoring the nation's Vietnam War dead and a granite plaza.
The university has offered a course about the shootings for years and, with an eye toward drawing something positive out of the tragedy, has institutes that study peacemaking and conflict resolution.
The four parking spaces have been roped off each May 3 for an overnight vigil, with a single student holding a lighted candle at each spot.
Before she participated, Wendy Semon, 22 and a senior, felt little emotional connection to the event though her father was a National Guardsman on campus at the time of the shootings.
He was assigned elsewhere on campus and didn't fire his weapon, she said. He typically doesn't discuss the matter, according to Ms. Semon, who didn't want his name used.
Ms. Semon's vigil duty placed her at the spot where Mr. Miller was killed.
“I was really taken aback by all the emotions,” she said. “I felt myself becoming an activist at Kent State, just realizing all that happened here, all the tension. I really felt a connection, not only to the students but to that time, that something like that could happen.”
Helen Fernand, 17, of Mayfield Heights, had the same feeling while mulling over the issue during a visit to campus with a Kent State-bound friend.
“It could happen anywhere,” said Ms. Fernand, who learned about the shootings from a high school teacher who was on campus at the time. “She was telling us that everyone was sent home for the week. She was hurt and shocked by what happened.”
Work on the parking space markers took three weeks and cost about $100,000, all from private sources.
Each of the four spaces has a rough-edge granite border and six waist-high lamp posts. A polished triangle of granite in each space has the date May 4, 1970, and the name of a slain student.
The rest of the parking lot is just that — oil stains and all.
“I think it's pretty rough, and it's not very graceful,” Ms. Larson said. “It's functional.”
Still, the idea was to forever memorialize those spots.
University President Carol A. Cartwright endorsed the idea of marking off the parking spaces after getting the petitions and receiving endorsements from the families of the dead students.
“Until recently, there wasn't unanimity among the families about doing it,” she said. “I see this as a bit of unfinished business.”
Mrs. Schroeder agreed and said she and her husband had been ambivalent about the issue. Mr. Miller's mother, Elaine Holstein, 75, of New York, said she felt the same way and wasn't adamant about the issue.
University trustees approved the markers with the understanding that only private funds would be used. The new memorials will “complete the unfinished task of institutional acknowledgment of the site of the tragic events of May 4, 1970,” the trustee resolution said.
Ms. Semon said the petitions and letters of endorsement from the parents helped get the idea moving.
“I think the university acted pretty quickly after we put the force on them,” she said. “But in our minds, it will always be belated. They should have been here years ago.”
The university sent dedication ceremony invitations to the parents of the dead students and to the wounded students but wasn't sure how many, especially the aging parents, might show up.
Everyone involved understands that jogging the memories of May 4, 1970, again might be difficult.
“For a long time I couldn't even step into Ohio. It's been 30 years now and, over time, I've gotten a little more rational about it,” Mrs. Holstein said.
Still, she said, it will be good to have the spots marked off.
“It always bothered me to think that the spot where Jeff was killed was being parked over by cars,” she said.
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