Kent State/May 4

Echoes Through a Decade

Scott L. Bills

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781612770147
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The reverberations of the rifle shots that killed four students on May 4, 1970 echoed across the nation and beyond. Nowhere, perhaps, did they echo with more persistence and poignancy than at the place where it happened, the Kent State University campus. For more than ten years the university's name has been a symbol of the Sixties protest movements as the causes of the event were debated, lawsuits embroiled participants and victims, and concerned people struggled for appropriate means for remembrance and commemoration, each issue leading to further, if less violent, arguments, demonstrations and confrontations. The May 4 episode has been recounted many times, in many ways. The events of the succeeding years, particularly as they affected the community in which they happened, are less well documented. As event and as symbol, Kent State/May 4 means many things to many people. This unique collection of essays and personal interviews presents a broad spectrum of these viewpoints in recounting the events of May 4 and those of the aftermath years. The result is a composite history from the perspectives of many of those who lived it, a reflection of the differing ideological stances and life experiences characteristic of that tumultuous era in American history.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface to the Paperback Edition
• Preface to the First Printing
• Introduction: The Past in the Present
• Fact-Finding: “To dispel the rumors”
• Town in Crisis: “It’s life, liberty, and property”
• Chain Reaction: “A series of mistakes”
• After May 4: “Kent State haunts you”
• The Ones They Missed with Bullets
• The Frustrations of a Former Activist
• A View from Europe
• Random Bullets: “It rains on the just as well as the unjust”
• Enforcing the Law: “What did they expect?”
• The May 4 Disease
• The Kent Heritage: A Commencement Address Delivered August 27, 1977
• Official Violence: An American Tradition
• The Burning Question: A Government Cover-up?
• A Phoenix Reaction: Peace Studies at Kent State University
• The Candlelight Vigil: “A way of participating”
• The Kent State Legacy and the “Business at Hand”
• Sensitivity to an Image
• Neglect—Benign or Malignant? The Faculty and Administrative Response
• The Gym Controversy: “A massive assault on this institution”
• Tent City: “A real community”
• The Legal Battle: Finishing Unfinished Business
• December Dialogues: The Settlement Reconsidered
• Some Remarks after a Decade: An Address Delivered May 3, 1980
• Annotated Bibliography
• Addendum
• Index