May 4, 1970: Four Dead In Ohio

‘Allison Krause is such a large figure in my life is because of her youth, beauty and how men dressed up as soldiers could just shoot her down for saying what she believed to be true.’

YouTube video and rememberance posted by wynn1960, August 20, 2009

Allison Krause (April 23, 1951-May 4, 1970) was an honors student at Kent State University, Ohio, when she was shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard in the Kent State shootings, while protesting the invasion of Cambodia and the presence of the National Guard on the Kent State campus. The Guardsmen opened fire on a group of unarmed students, killing four of them, at an average distance of about 106 meters. Allison was shot in the left side of her body at about 105 meters fatally wounding her. She died from her injuries later that same day.

Altogether, sixty-seven shots were fired by the Guardsmen in 13 seconds. The other students killed in the shootings were Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder. In addition, nine other students were wounded in the gunfire.

The shootings led to protests and a national student strike, causing hundreds of campuses to close because of both violent and non-violent demonstrations. The Kent State campus remained closed for six weeks. Five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against the war.

In our house growing up, my dad controlled what we watched on TV. He didn't watch it very often but when he did it was the news, documentaries and variety shows. So that's what I watched and I got to hear, speak and argue with him about the important subjects of the day as a result.

So I remember like it was yesterday when those four students were murdered at Kent State...and I can remember that my father thought they had it coming. It was a shock to me that he could feel that way and looking back...we argued a lot more after that day about pretty much everything.

I think the reason Allison Krause is such a large figure in my life is because of her youth, beauty and how men dressed up as soldiers could just shoot her down for saying what she believed to be true. Of course we now know, all these years later, that what she believed was true. I mourned her murder then as now and I will always remember her.

I made this vid a few years ago and it was like picking at a wound that had never quite healed properly. I don't suppose it ever will. Looking at it today brought back all the anguish I felt as a nine-year-old child. I don't think I really knew the significance of it all back then? but I felt connected and like it was "Us against them"... and I did know that a line had been crossed by my father’s generation and that they were starting to kill us now.

13 seconds...

I will remember you always, Allison.