50 Years Ago, 1971

The region marked the first anniversary of the tragedy of May 4 at Kent State University. Students held a day-long vigil to remember their four fallen classmates who were killed by National Guardsmen during an anti-war protest on campus the previous year.

Thousands of students then gathered on the campus commons in preparation for the memorial service. Reverend Jesse Jackson, then the National Director of Operation Breadbasket, gave the main address. Jackson was joined by KSU President Robert I. White, and Dr. Raghbir, the director of the newly created Center for Peaceful Change. Additional speakers included students from Jackson State College in Mississippi, where two students were killed by highway patrolmen the previous year. The campus victory bell then tolled seven times — four times for the Kent State students, twice for the students from Jackson State, and once “for the victims everywhere of war, hatred, and repression.”

Following a moment of silence, students were then expected to disperse and return to their regular daily activities, but that was not the case. Many students began to stage a sit-in near the campus ROTC building after the official activities ended. University officials canceled morning classes held in the building, Rockwell Hall. Student protesters were joined by anti-war protesters from organizations like The May Day Coalition. Together with nearly 200 students looking on from a distance, the peaceful protest called out campus policies and state and federal laws.

In Youngstown, approximately 500 Youngstown State University students gathered at the amphitheater in front of Kilcawley Hall to mark the day. Students were encouraged to question the moral character of the nation’s leaders and to challenge political leadership. They marched to Central Square, where speakers from several local organizations addressed the crowd. Youngstown Representative Charles J. Carney was unable to attend, but sent the following message, “I would like to join with you today in commemoration of the tragic deaths at Kent State and Jackson State Universities. It is my fervent hope that we can bring an early end to the war in Vietnam which precipitated the events at Kent State and Jackson State and which has caused so much sorrow and division in our country.”

Additional Vindicator coverage was dedicated to two Pulitzer Prizes awarded for coverage of the Kent State shootings. The staff of the Akron Beacon Journal was awarded the General Local Reporting Award for its work in telling the initial story under intense deadlines. John Paul Filo won the Spot Photography Award for his widely published image of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller. Vecchio, who was only 14 at the time, had joined the protest after hitchhiking across the country and had met Miller just moments before the shots were fired. Filo was a senior at Kent State when he took the famous photograph. He recalled the moment, “there were students blocking my view so I moved to the left and waited. I was near the end of the roll of film and she was just looking down, crying, and then she let out this scream and that’s when I made the picture.”

• Compiled from The Vindicator archives by Traci Manning, MVHS Curator of Education