Roldo: Euclid Avenue Blocked: May 4, 1970

Not everyone knows or remembers that Case-Western Reserve University was a center of anti-war and peace activities during the long Vietnam War. I remember because, although I wasn’t a student, I spent a good deal of time on campus.

On May 4, 1970 I remember being in my car when I heard news of the Kent State shootings on the radio. I don’t remember where I was going. I do remember changing my direction.

I drove my car to the CWRU campus.

It’s hard to believe that it was 40 years ago tomorrow. It’s difficult to believe that we as a nation are engaged again in far off war – this time two wars.

I remember joining students and others who of their own volition began to sit down in the street to block Euclid Avenue. Reaction to the news had begun to spread. It was their protest of the shooting. Four students had been killed in 13 seconds of rifle fire by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State. The shootings occurred at 12:24 p.m. As I remember it, the protesters sat and stood in the street as a blocking body across Euclid Avenue in front Thwing Center. Vehicle travel, of course, came to a halt.

The demonstration happened spontaneously. There was no Twitter or Facebook at that time to rally people to action. It wasn’t required. People knew automatically what to do.

The protest reflected the passions of the times. The war was deeply unpopular. More so on American campuses. The war had gone on far too long. The Vietnam War eventually took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. There were more than 300,000 Americans wounded. Some 500,000 to 600,000 North Vietnamese were killed with some 15 million casualties in the North. Tens of thousands more were killed in the South.

Despite the intensity of the times, my memory of the day is sketchy.

I do remember one thing. It was one of the few times when I can pinpoint chest pains. I had been having these pains for some time and certainly the intensity of the day must have caused my pain. Although my symptoms were classic – pain down in the chest and down the arm – I was being treated at the time for an “overly acidic stomach.” I was 38 at the time.

I do remember Police Chief Patrick Gerity appeared soon after the protesters blocked off Euclid, a main city thoroughfare. Police in cars, on foot and mounted on horses assembled in force to face off against the protesters. It was obvious the police would not allow Euclid Avenue, a main street, to remain blocked from traffic for long.

The bullhorn message from Gerity was that the street had to be cleared. He had the Mounted Police readied to enforce his demand.

I don’t remember how long the standoff lasted. It wasn’t very long. The protests did persist, however, as protesters continued to mingle in groups off the street. We moved from the street but still congregated on the sides of the street and by nearby buildings. It was a message to police that the street might be blocked again.

I do remember the protests continuing later into the afternoon. And I remember after the street had been cleared of demonstrators the police continued to try to break-up any possibility of assembly. Mounted police riding off the street came up beyond the sidewalks into the campus trying breaking up groups of protesters. It’s surprising how intimidating a charging horse can be. People moved.

The history of the anti-war movement on Case’s campus, though rich in actors and acts, has never been very well documented to my knowledge. It could serve as a contrast to the quiet nature of the campus today as two wars hardly touch the consciences or consciousness of students.

Case campus individuals and organizations, however, played an important role in anti-war activities locally and nationally.

Sid Peck, an associate professor of sociology at CWRU, was a national peace mobilization’s leader along with anti-war notables as Dave Dellinger and Tom Hayden. Dr. Benjamin Spock, a Professor of Child Development, spent 12 years here and gained national press attention for his anti-war activities. I wrote a page-one profile about Dr. Spock for the Wall Street Journal. Here are my remembrances of my l967 interviews with Spock:  http://www.albionmonitor.com/9806a/copyright/spockprofile.html

Cleveland was also a hot spot in the 1960-70s because Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) had chosen Cleveland as one of its two target cities (Newark was the other) for organizing in the 1960s. Some Cleveland SDS people played a role in the protests at Kent State that led up to the May 4th killings. The ferment of the civil rights movement here along with the election of Carl Stokes as mayor made the city prominent in the national news of the times.

You would think that this era of Cleveland was rich enough in people’s history that someone would produce a detailed written record of those times and events. It deserves that attention.

Here is a copy of a letter sent by Peck and others for the Mobilization for demonstrations in Washington, D. C.  “to bring an end to the most tragic war in our history:”

http://www.blogs.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1969/nov/20/november-mobilization/

You also can find some material on the war and Cleveland’s involvement in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History article: http://ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=VW

It took another five years for the Vietnam War to come to an end. It wasn’t until April 1975 that the final U. S. Marines guarding the U. S. Embassy in South Vietnam left in helicopters to end U. S. military involvement in Vietnam.

It seemed to me that the firing upon and killing by the Ohio National Guard along with the killing of two students at the historically black Jackson State University in Mississippi on May 14 had a strong effect on students. It instilled upon anti-war students the fact that their country would kill them for protesting against the war. There were student protests on campuses throughout the nation following the Kent State killings. However, I have the memory that the Kent State reminder of deadly force by officials did dampen the anti-war passions of the young.

They were informed that their government, not simply the enemy, could kill them.

Roldo Bartimole celebrates 50 years of news reporting this year. He published and wrote Point of View, a newsletter about Cleveland, for 32 years. He worked for the Plain Dealer and Wall Street Journal in the 1960s.

He was a 2004 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame recipient and won the national Joe Callaway Award for Civic Courage in 1991.