When The War Came Home | The Shootings At Kent State And Jackson State Universities

Kent State University (Ohio) | 4 May 1970 | Photo by John Filo

Jackson State University (Mississippi) | 14 May 1970 | Photo credit unknown

On May 4, 1970, students on the Kent State University campus in Ohio gathered just before noon on the commons. They demonstrators convened to protest the Vietnam War and presence of the National Guard, on campus to maintain order after an attack on an ROTC building.

Shortly after gathering, professor Jerry Lewis tells NPR's Rebecca Roberts, "the character of the protest changed from anti-war to anti-Guard. And then, about twelve o'clock, the Guard moved out against the students."

At the end of the day, says Lewis, "a total of 28 Guardsmen fired between 61 and 67 rounds over 13 seconds." In its attempt to disperse the unarmed crowds, the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four people, and wounded nine others.

Ten days later, a similar tragedy played out on the campus of Jackson State University in Mississippi. Police there fired on a group of students, killing two and injuring twelve others.

Read a transcript of Rebecca Robert's NPR/Talk of the Nation interview here. Guests include Jerry Lewis, professor emeritus of sociology at Kent State University, Dean Kahler, an undergraduate student at Kent State who was shot and paralyzed during the demonstration, and Gene Young, a former professor at Jackson State University.