Kent State Shootings: Causes, Facts, Aftermath and Photos of May 4 Massacre

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on unarmed student protesters at Kent State University. Four students were killed. Nine more were wounded. The event shook the entire country and became one of the most defining moments of the Vietnam War era. To understand how it happened, you have to go back to a war that had already divided America for years — and a presidential decision that pushed the public past its breaking point.

The United States entered the Vietnam War under President John F. Kennedy and continued under President Lyndon B. Johnson. The war was deeply unpopular from early on. Both administrations faced fierce opposition at home because the conflict was costly in lives and offered no clear path to victory. When Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968, he promised the American people he would end the war. Through 1969 and into early 1970, it looked like he was following through — troop withdrawals were underway and military activity was slowing.

Then came April 30, 1970. Nixon authorized U.S. troops to invade Cambodia. He did not notify Secretary of State William Rogers. He did not seek approval from Congress. The decision was made unilaterally. Cambodia was a neutral country already destabilized by internal conflict. North Vietnamese forces had been using Cambodian territory to stage attacks on U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. Nixon argued the invasion was necessary to cut off those supply lines. The U.S. ultimately dropped more explosives on Cambodia than the Allies dropped in all of World War II. The invasion also contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge — a brutal regime under Pol Pot that killed over one and a half million Cambodian people.

Nixon addressed the nation on television two days after the invasion began, but the public already knew. The reaction was immediate and massive. Over four million students across the country — at universities, colleges, and high schools — walked out of class and took to the streets. It was the largest student strike in American history. Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, became one of the most volatile flashpoints of that nationwide eruption.

On May 1, the day after Nixon’s announcement, students gathered on the Kent State campus. Speakers condemned the war and the Nixon administration. That night, violence broke out in downtown Kent between protesters and police. Officers reported that their vehicles were struck with bottles and rocks. Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency and police deployed tear gas to push the crowd back toward campus.

By May 2, Mayor Satrom had contacted Ohio Governor James Rhodes, requesting that the National Guard be sent to Kent. Before the Guard arrived, protesters set fire to the university’s ROTC building. Some demonstrators reportedly interfered with firefighters trying to put out the blaze. Dozens of arrests were made that night. The campus looked like a war zone by the time the Guardsmen moved in.

Sunday, May 3, was strangely calm by comparison. Students were out on the Commons, and some even engaged with the Guardsmen on duty in relaxed conversation. But the peace was fragile. University officials knew a large protest was planned for the next day, and tensions underneath the surface had not gone away.

A large protest was scheduled for noon on Monday, May 4. University officials tried to cancel it. Their efforts failed. By 11 a.m., an estimated 3,000 protesters had already gathered on the Commons. Around 1,000 National Guardsmen were on campus, with roughly 100 of them armed with M-1 military rifles. Ohio National Guard General Robert Canterbury ordered the crowd to disperse. A Kent police officer repeated the order through a bullhorn mounted on a jeep. The protesters refused. Some shouted back at the Guardsmen. Others threw rocks.

General Canterbury ordered his men to fire tear gas into the crowd. The Guardsmen then advanced, pushing the protesters up a slope known as Blanket Hill. At the bottom of the hill was a practice football field enclosed by a chain-link fence, which trapped some protesters against it. The Guardsmen moved to the top of the hill. Then, without a formal command being recorded, they turned and fired their M-1 rifles directly into the crowd of students below. In just 13 seconds, nearly 70 shots rang out.

Four students were killed: Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer. Nine others were wounded, one of whom, Dean Kahler, was left permanently paralyzed. Some of the dead and injured were not even participating in the protest — they were simply walking between classes. The closest victim was 265 feet from the Guardsmen when he was shot. The farthest was nearly 400 feet away.

Kent State University shut down immediately after the shootings. Multiple investigations and commissions were formed. During legal proceedings, members of the Ohio National Guard testified that they fired because they feared for their lives. The university remained closed for six weeks before reopening. Kent State students and the families of those killed and wounded pursued legal action. In 1979, a civil settlement was reached in which the state of Ohio agreed to pay $675,000 to those injured during the events of May 4, 1970.

News of the shootings spread rapidly across the country. Within days, students at hundreds of other universities and colleges walked out of class in protest. The deaths at Kent State transformed an already angry student movement into something even larger and more urgent. Memorials were held in cities across the United States, and the funerals of the four killed students drew thousands of mourners.