Kent State Protest Movement

Secretary of State John Kerry once said “I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.” The Vietnam War was a conflict that lasted from 1956-1975 which the United States participated in along with the South Vietnamese who fought against the Communist North Vietnamese. Many Americans strongly disapproved of the war which caused many protests and riots. The war lasted 25 years killing many people and eventually the North Vietnamese won. The Vietnam War was important to Americans back home because it tested the citizen’s right to free speech, effected future foreign policy, and created many issues for returning veterans.

This video shows how protesters block all lanes of I-94. The police officers gave them twenty five warning to leave. Yet, some people chose to stay and continue to protest. According to the police, the protest turned into a riot and some people threw rocks and bottles on the freeway. During this act of violence, twenty one police officers were injured. In order to cease those protestors, the police officer used non-irritant smoke and sprayed mace. At the end of the protest, 50 people were arrested for three degree rioting.

The War not only affected those in Vietnam, but those still at home in America. Americans had split into two groups, known as the hawks and the doves. The hawks were people who supported the war and wanted the country to be victorious in its fight with Communism. The doves were the people that disagreed with the war. These were traditionally students, and people of the younger generation. Many veterans when they would return home, would join in these mass protests. One popular protest, which took place at Kent State University, resulted in 9 wounded people with 4 dead. The police at Kent State took action against a mass protest by opening fire. This is the evil that is created through war. Without the Vietnam war, there is no protest at Kent State. Without the Vietnam war, the college kid’s lives are spared. Without the Vietnam War, thousands of lives could have been saved. Neil Young said it best in his song Ohio. Ohio discussed the brutality of war but mainly the police brutality against the kids at Kent State. Vietnam was a tragic stain in American history.

Each time police and firemen got control of the situation, the building was set on fire again. The National Guard eventually pushed the marchers back with tear gas and bayonets as the marchers threw stones; many arrests were again made on this day. (8) On May 3rd, the Kent State campus was filled with Ohio National Guardsmen. James Rhodes, the Ohio governor arrived in Kent and called the protestors, "the worst type of people we harbor in America," and stating that every force of law would be used to deal with them. (9) Rhodes also indicated that he would seek a court order declaring a state of emergency. A crowd gathered later that night and the Ohio Riot Act was read to them. The students were protesting the Guardsmen being on campus by blocking the streets. When they were promised that they would be able to talk to Major Satrom and Kent State president Robert White about this situation the students moved off the streets. Once they moved, the Guardsmen immediately began use tear gas to break up the crowd, breaking the promise. (10)

Earlier in the weekend, university officials banned all protests and assemblies on campus. Students ignored this ruling and began congregating around eleven AM for the scheduled twelve noon protest. When the protest began, a Kent State police officer patrolled the campus with several guardsmen in a jeep announcing that the protest was illegal and everyone must leave the campus immediately. In response to this dispersion call, the students became violent, throwing rocks and attacking the jeep. The general in charge of the guardsmen in Kent, General Canterbury, ordered the guardsmen to arm themselves and fire tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. As the crowd of

On Saturday May 2 Kent's Mayor, Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency and asked the Governor, James A. Rhodes, to send in the National Guard. A large demonstration was under way when the Guard arrived. The Army ROTC building had been set afire and over one thousand students had surrounded the building and were

Governor Ronald Reagan, whose military experience was exclusively playing soldiers in the movies, said that “if it takes a bloodbath to silence the demonstrators, let’s get it over with.”[3] All of this culminated in the Kent State protests and the Kent State massacres. Kent State was the first time Americans were killed for protesting the war. Several days after the Kent state shootings, two students were killed by local and state police in Jackson State University. Police fired more than 460 rounds of ammunition into the window of the

The first day of the campaign resulted in hundreds of high school protestors getting arrested. But the second day resulted in tactics played by Bull Connor. Connor ordered police to hit the children with batons, spray them with powerful water hoses and threaten the protestors with vicious police dogs. Protestors were injured but despite the violence the high school students continued to participate in the movement despite the

The anti-war protests of the 1960s was a response of resentment by minorities and young educated college students against the nation’s desire to participate in war against Communism in Vietnam and conduct a military draft. The protests, originally began with peaceful public demonstrations by activists, who were nonviolent; however, the peaceful demonstrators were frequently attacked and victimized by the police and other citizens, who did not share their same opinion. Throughout the peaceful protests the activists suffered many beatings in the hands of the police and as a result, many of the activists claimed the right of self-defense and turned to taking offensive actions against their oppressors including the police and other citizens. Later, the scene of violence and mayhem quickly shifted to college campuses, to which college students began protesting the draft (Gurr, 1989, pp. 183-185). At the time the average age of an American soldier serving in Vietnam was 19 and students quickly rebelled after realizing that young Americans were legally old enough to be drafted to fight and die, but were not yet legally allowed to vote or drink alcohol (UShistory, nd.).

It changed the way American live today and on how we viewed the media, our government, and our Constitutional rights. In the fall of 1960, the UC Berkeley college students protested against the Vietnam War. Students felt it was not right that 76% of the men being drafted into the war were from the lower class and 11% were African American. Later, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is founded. It seeks to create a sustained community of educational and political concerns. More and more student’s protest happened across America. The worst of them all was the “Tet” Offensive, on January 30, 1968, 36 of 44 provincial capitals were attacked. People raided the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The Vietnam War’s controversially spurred a great many sources of protest against our government’s use of power, how far we could extend the rights of free expression, and primarily against the violence of the war. These changes in the behavior of the young generation in our society left a lasting mark on are country. It began to cause a generational drift with the younger and older generation. Protest at Kent State lead to four killed National Guard and it was only a matter of time before Johnson realized that some form of action needed to be taken place to end the Madness in the United States. American eventually came to a truce on January 27, 1973. The Vietnam War is the reason for the “drift” between generations. Kids started to rebel and it

The events at Kent State were a catalyst that helped strengthened the American Citizens’ hatred of the Vietnam War and distrust in the Government that promised to end the war.

The Vietnam War was one of the most hated wars in United States history, for the primary reasons that we did not win and the draft destroyed countless men, physically and mentally. The end result of the war did not justify the means and this made a lot of people very upset. This war was also the most televised war, showing incredibly gruesome, uncensored images on the evening news at dinner time. The political protest for the

One Sunday morning a civil rights march took place in Londonderry, January 30, 1972. There were around 10,000 people who gathered for this march. In the nationalist Bogside area of the city, the route for the march took place where organizers were sealed off by the British Army which led demonstrators towards “Free Derry Corner”. Stones were thrown at soldiers and though there was an army barricade, people continued on this march. The soldiers responding with water cannons, rubber bullets and a gas known as CS which causes a “burning sensation and tearing of the eyes to the extent that the subject cannot keep their eyes open, and a burning irritation of the nose, mouth and throat mucous membranes causing profuse coughing,” (the stationery office, 2010) When this uprising began to take place, the 1st Parachute Regiment soldiers moved in and captivated as many rioters as possible. Within minutes, open gun fire went into the crowd, killing 13 men and injuring 13 others.

The security forces used the actions of a few rock-throwers… to do what they had been trying to do from the start: clear the city of thousands of lawful protesters because it was more convenient that way. Once they got their ‘provocation’, they filled entire neighborhoods with tear gas… People giving the peace sing to police were grassed.

The number of students involved gathered up to around 10,000. On their way to the stadium, it was reported that around fifty armed policemen stopped the students in an attempt to send them back. Initially the policemen tried (but failed) to disperse the crowds by means of warning shots fired and tear gas. The situation however took a severe turn as policemen instead began firing shots directly into the crowd. While some students attempted to fight back by means of throwing stones, many simply ran for cover.