May 4, 1970 - May 4, 2010

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on Kent State University students protesting the war in Vietnam, and the expansion of the war into Cambodia, killing four students, Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder, and wounding nine. Ten days later, on May 14, two students, James Earl Green and Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, were murdered and twelve wounded by police at Jackson State College in Mississippi, under similar circumstances.

There have never been any criminal convictions in the Kent State murders.

Ronald Reagan, governor of California, regarding student protests against the war in Vietnam, several weeks before May 4, 1970: "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with."

Ohio Governor James Rhodes, in reference to student protesters, at a press conference at Kent State, May 3, 1970: "They're worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the night riders and vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America."

After the massacre at Kent State, President Nixon asked H. R. Haldeman to consider implementing the Huston Plan, which would have used illegal procedures to gather information on the leaders of the anti-war movement. Named for White House aide Tom Charles Huston, the Plan, requested by Nixon in his desire for more coordination of domestic intelligence regarding "left-wing radicals" and the anti-war movement in general, called for domestic burglary, illegal electronic surveillance, and opening of mail of domestic "radicals." At one time it also called for the creation of camps in Western states where anti-war protesters would be detained. Details of the 43-page report and outline of proposed security operations came to light during the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings.

Dean Kahler was a freshman at Kent State in May 1970. During the May 4 demonstration, he lay on the ground when he heard firing, but was shot in the back. He has been paralyzed since that time. "The first card that I opened up in the intensive care unit was a very nice-looking card," recalls Dean Kahler, a high school history teacher. "But the note in it said, 'Dear communist hippie radical, I hope by the time you read this, you are dead.' "

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio Kent State project records for 1978 retrial of Krause vs. Rhodes

Provenance: The ACLU of Ohio Kent State Project records appear to have been promised to Yale just after the 1979 settlement. The attorneys and the families were concerned that if the materials were deposited with a quasi-governmental organization such as the Ohio Historical Society, they might be mishandled or manipulated, thus endangering the historical record -- so great was the distrust of government officials after the protracted legal battle for justice.