Mon 5/4
Each year, Kent State Anniversary holds a commemoration for the four students killed and nine wounded by the National Guard at the university on May 4, 1970 during an anti-war demonstration.
But this year’s event was supposed to be bigger and more special, since it honored the 50th anniversary of that event. A concert with Joe Walsh (then a student at KSU) and David Crosby was planned, and Jane Fonda was booked to be the keynote speaker, despite grumbling from Republicans in Columbus, the culmination of events, which have taken place on campus all year.
But in early March, the commemoration was cancelled and it will now be entirely online, starting on May 1, where a variety of content relating to the shootings will be available. That includes videos of past commemorations, interviews with those who were on the scene at the time, and tours of the May 4 Visitors Center and National Historic Landmark site on the KSU campus. There’ll be links to related information as well, including the Jackson State University shootings in Mississippi less than two weeks later, killing two students and injuring 11. A May 4 Augmented Reality Tour and the Mapping May 4 project will be debuting.
On Monday May 4 at noon, there’ll be a video tribute, with newly recorded messages from the students injured in 1970, talking about the impact of the shootings on their lives, as well as from several prominent musicians, including David Crosby and Graham Nash, Jesse Colin Young, and DEVO co-founder Jerry Casale, a KSU alum.
Actress Tiny Fey and her husband, KSU alum Jeff Richmond contribute to a newly recorded version of May 4th Voices, a place written by director of KSU’s Wick Poetry Center David Hassler. That will be broadcast on select public radio station and available for streaming on the May 4 website.
Finally because the candlelight march and vigil, which usually takes place starting May 3 at 11pm and going on until noon on May 4, cannot take place, there’ll be a virtual vigil. Join in honoring the lives of Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder. Learn how to take part on the commemoration website.