and from the county sheriff’s office were called in to help bring the rioting under
control. Finally, after the police used tear gas, the protesters were dispersed.
Kent mayor Leroy Satrom immediately declared a state of emergency and,
fearful of further violence, asked Governor James A. Rhodes to send the Ohio
National Guard to Kent to help maintain peace on the Kent State campus. Units
of the Guard were already o n dut y i n northeast Ohio, and Guardsmen a rrived on
the Kent State campus around 10:00 on the evening of May 2. The Guardsmen
found the campus in chaos. The ROTC building had been set on fire, and
an estimated 1,000 protesters were cheering as the building burned to the ground.
Confrontations between protesters and guardsmen continued through the night. Tear
gas was used once again, and a number of protesters were arrested for interfering
with efforts by the fire department to fight the blaze consuming the ROTC building.
Further altercations between the Guard andprotestersoccurredonSunday,
May 3. Governor Rhodes arrived in Kent and issued a provocative stateme nt in
which he compared the protesters to revolutionaries and communist conspirators.
Although students and Guardsmen appeared to get along during the day, violence
broke out again that evening. Protesters pelted the Guardsmen with rocks, and they
retaliated with more tear gas and bayonets. Several arrests were made and the
atmosphere on campus, now occupied by about 1,000 National Guard troopers,
became increasingly tense.
Efforts had been made to prohibit the scheduled May 4 rally, but to no avail. Stu-
dents began gathering on the campus commons around 11:00 a.m., and by noon,
some 3,000 persons had arrived there. Facing them were about 70 Guardsmen.
The protesters, who may well have been protesting the presence of the Guard on
campus more than the Cambodian invasion, were ordered to disperse. When the
students refused to do so, another order to disperse was given. This led to jeering
and roc k throwing, and the Guardsmen were ordered to lock and load their weap-
ons. Then the Guardsmen fired tear gas into the mass of protesters an d began to
march across the Commons in an effort to break up the rally. The students retreated
to a nearby practice football field, where the two sides faced each other for several
minutes. The Guardsmen then retreated back across the commons, up a hill known
as Blanket Hill. Without warning, a number of the Guardsmen suddenly turned and
fired upon the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine more. Killed were
students Jeffrey Miller, William Schroeder, Sandra Scheuer, and Allison Krause.
Those wounded included Thomas Grace, Alan Canfora, John Cleary, Douglas
Wrentmore, Robert Stamps, James Russell, Robert Stamps, D onald MacKenzie,
and Dean Kahler. Kahler was the most seri ously injured of the wounded students,
suffering a fractured vertebra, which left him paralyzed from the chest down.
The university closed immediately and did not reopen for six weeks. Summer
classes were held, however, and the administration and faculty began the process
Antiwar Movement (1960s–1970s) 939