KENT, Ohio — Monday will mark 50 years since one of the most painful moments in U.S. history.
It was the day that Ohio National Guardsmen gunned down unarmed activists on the campus of Kent State University, killing four students and injuring nine others.
“I don’t think any of us ever forget the sights and the sounds of gunfire,” said Chic Canfora, who was in the crowd that day.
A friend pulled her behind a car when bullets began to fly. Her brother, Alan, had been waving a black flag and was shot.
“It was very unexpected, shocking and it was just wrong,” Alan Canfora said. “It was just uncalled for.”
The shooting lasted a total of 13 seconds. These students lost their lives:
- Jeffrey Miller - 20
- Allison Krause - 19
- William Knox Schroeder - 19
- Sandra Lee Scheuer - 20
RELATED: New app takes you back in time to Kent State shooting, which took place 50 years ago next week
On one side, there had been more than two dozen national guardsmen, with guns. On the other, unarmed activists were protesting President Richard Nixon’s prolonging of the Vietnam War.
“Was it the hateful rhetoric of the time that made them truly see us as an enemy?” Chic Canfora still wonders.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph captured the chaos at the time, and so did a popular song.
Take part in a virtual candlelight vigil for Kent State HERE.
Renowned journalists Bob Woodward later described it as “a moment that shook the conscience of everyone.”
“Those individual trigger men still had to make a personal conscious choice to lift a military weapon, look through the scope of that rifle, begin shooting,” Chic Canfora said, “While 18 and 19-year-old college students dove for cover or flew to the ground, hoping not to be hit.”
Yet the day also revealed heroes.
Glenn Frank, a geology professor, picked up a bullhorn and pleaded with the crowd.
“I don’t care if you’ve never listened to anybody in your life, I need you to listen,” his daughter Linda recalls him saying. “I don’t want to be a part of this…please, you have to leave.”
Her father since passed away, and she could not be prouder of his legacy.
“The general told him after the shootings, in those moments, that if he didn’t get those students to disperse, there was going to be a massacre,” she said.
Professor Jerry Lewis rendered first aid and still has questions about who did what.
“Did the guard fire on the basis of an order? That’s a very important part of the debate. Were the slain students protesting at the time of the shootings?” he asks. “Were the guards poorly trained and led?”
Now, 50 years later, that moment is beginning to come full circle.
Once again, May 4 falls on a Monday, as it did in 1970.
The semester has ended early and activism has returned across the country due to COVID-19.
Kent State journalism student Caty Payette has written about May 4 and hopes the parallels are not lost.
“If you don’t learn from history, you’re often going to repeat it, and you know I think more than ever we really need to pay attention to those lessons,” she said.
Marking 50 years at Kent State this year was supposed to include concerts, even controversy, with Jane Fonda slated to be the featured speaker. Instead, just about everything has been canceled. Roads will be closed to encourage people to engage without going to campus.
A virtual vigil will be held online Monday and include musical tributes and newly released video footage.
Organizers spent two years planning for the milestone and anticipated 15-20,000 people to attend on campus.
They now hope to attract a larger crowd online, with themes of “unity” and “reconciliation” half a century after those deadly shots rang out.