To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. This was the first university Vietnam War protest to turn violent. In March 1968, with protests against the Vietnam War growing, U.S. Pres. Described as the most divisive event in United States history since the Civil War, the Vietnam War cast a long shadow over the 1960s and 1970s. During the day on May 2, students helped clean up the damage downtown. However, even peaceful protests sometimes turned violent, as United States involvement in the Vietnam War divided the American people. A burst of gunfire from authorities. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection that year. “Eve of Destruction”: the historical moment, “Tin soldiers and Nixon coming”: the shooting, “How can you run when you know?”: the national response, “Gotta get down to it”: responsibility, https://www.britannica.com/event/Kent-State-shootings, Kent State University - The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy, Ohio History Central - Kent State Shootings, Examine how growing demonstrations against the Vietnam War led President Johnson to not seek reelection. During the Vietnam War, anti-war protestors pushed many universities to limit on-campus recruitment. The bombing of Cambodia had begun in secret months before this announcement of the significant widening of the American war effort. Nine were injured. The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus erupted in the late 1960s and early 1970s as tensions rose about the Vietnam War and other social issues. Just select one of the options below to start upgrading. Young lives cut short. In 1970 it had some 20,000 students, many of whom were commuters and about half of whom were first-generation college students from working-class families from industry-dominated northeastern Ohio cities such as Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Youngstown. The anti-war movement may have had its actual beginning with an all-night “teach-in” on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan on March 24, 1965. Coe College students begin a general strike on the Cedar Rapids campus May 5, 1970, to protest the war in Vietnam and the killing of four Kent State University student protesters on May 4. Nevertheless, in the early morning hours of that next day, Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom, having heard rumours of plotting by radicals, declared a civil emergency and requested assistance from Ohio’s staunch conservative governor, James A. Rhodes, who dispatched the Ohio National Guard. In 1969, Blaine Lilly was an English major at Ohio State University, trying to navigate classes, college life and the growing anti-Vietnam War movement on … On May 1, Kent State students held an anti-war protest. “Students were the bulwark of the anti-Vietnam war movement because students were being drafted, full stop,” Hayden said. Beginnings of the Antiwar Movement. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Throughout those divisive years of the Vietnam War, WC students held anti-war rallies, protests and peace vigils, while others voiced their support for … October 16. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Jeff Wallenfeldt, manager of Geography and History, has worked as an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica since 1992. That evening several incidents occurred, including rocks and bottles being thrown at police officers and the lighting of bonfires. By May 3, nearly 1,200 National Guardsmen—most of whom had been redeployed from duty policing a wildcat truckers’ strike—occupied the Kent State campus. (CNN)Fifty years ago today, the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State University students as they protested against the Vietnam War.Four students were killed. A group of angry students. On Nov. 19, 2014, students rallied outside a regents committee meeting at UC San … Republican Richard Nixon won election as president of the United States in 1968 partly as a result of his pledge to end the Vietnam War. The Keystone State experienced far fewer student demonstrations against university military research and the Vietnam War than were seen elsewhere in the country. October 18. They also called for another antiwar rally to be held on the coming Monday, May 4. Lewis grew up on images of the civil rights protests and the Vietnam War and took part in anti-war protests when he got to the campus. News coverage of the war, which included graphic visual testimonies of the death and destruction in Vietnam, turned US public opinion increasingly against the war. In 1968 the Black United Students (BUS) organization joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter in staging a five-hour sit-in protest of the recruiting visit to campus by the Oakland, California, police department. From. Lack of success in conducting the war—which had become a quagmire for U.S. forces, with mounting casualties reported on the nightly TV news with the regularity of sports scores—had forced Nixon’s predecessor, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, to opt not to run for reelection, in no small part because of his vilification by the growing antiwar movement focused on U.S. college campuses. From protests against the Vietnam War to the Civil Rights movement, college students have successfully pushed for social change — although sometimes campus activists have smaller goals in mind. Updates? Thousands of Demonstrators turn out in Washington, D.C. to protest the war.S090 Students protest at the University of Virginia following the arrest by ABC police of student Martese Johnson outside a bar in Charlottesville, Va. on March 20, 2015. Ohio National Guardsmen moving across the Commons toward Taylor Hall at Kent (Ohio) State University, May 4, 1970. The student movement arose to demand free speech on college campuses, but as the US involvement in the Vietnam war expanded, the war became the main target of student-led protests. Kent State shooting, the shooting of unarmed college students at Kent State University, in northeastern Ohio, by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, one of the seminal events of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the United States. Sometime around 11:00 pm, fueled by a mixture of alcohol and rage at the invasion of Cambodia, revellers overturned a garbage can in the middle of the street, set fire to its contents, and set upon the police who responded. At Kent State two rallies were held at the Commons, a grassy open area at the centre of the campus. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. While many violent incidents occurred during the protests, they were, for the most part, peaceful. “Ending forced conscription radically diminished the possibilities of future student anti-war protests.” The article also points out that young people today are “marching with their fingers instead of their feet.” Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. At about 8:00 pm some 1,000 individuals gathered at the ROTC building, which some of the demonstrators then set on fire. Radicalism, over civil rights, the Vietnam War, the free speech movement, and feminism, increased each year until 1968, “The Year of the Student” according to Mark Edelman Boren, author of Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject. Four students were killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard, the violent culmination of four days of protest. The most well-known protest involving the Vietnam War occurred at Kent State University in Ohio in May 1970. Kent State shooting, the shooting of unarmed college students on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in northeastern Ohio, a pivotal event in the anti-Vietnam War movement. As firefighters sought to contain the blaze, demonstrators pulled at and slashed fire hoses. The most well known protest involving the Vietnam War occurred at Kent State University in Ohio in May 1970. Enraged responses swept college campuses across the country the next day, May 1. The first rally was held at the base of Blanket Hill near the Victory Bell, a bronze locomotive bell in brick and sandstone housing that was traditionally rung to celebrate sports victories. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. The student movement and the antiwar movement. More rumours flew about the threat of radical activity. Students at many universities also opposed recruitment by firms profiting from the war and protested their universities’ investments in companies such … During the campaign, Nixon claimed that he had a “secret plan” to conclude the war, and hopes for peace had grown with the establishment of direct talks between the United States and North Vietnam in Paris, though by the spring of 1970 those negotiations had stagnated. They marched by the thousands, on campuses from coast to coast. Corrections? Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. On April 20, 1970, Nixon went on national television to announce that 115,500 U.S. troops had been withdrawn from Vietnam as of April 15 and that another 150,000 troops were scheduled to leave by the end of 1971. The watershed case allowing high school students freedom of expression occurred in 1969 in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District . In 2013, graduating students at one of the nation’s … Vietnamese monk protesting with self-immolation. Take advantage of our Presidents' Day bonus! When the shooting that put the regional institution in the national spotlight occurred, observers frequently characterized Kent State as an unlikely site for student radicalism; however, this interpretation overlooked the school’s well-established activist presence. Later on May 1, BUS held a rally on the Commons to protest police treatment of black students at an earlier rally at Ohio State. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics… Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Commons formed a kind of natural amphitheatre that was bordered on the north and south by walkways; on the northwest by the student union, a heating plant, and the ROTC building; on the east by Blanket Hill, a partially wooded slope that climbed to Taylor Hall; and on the southwest by dormitories.