49 Years After the Kent State Shootings, New Photos Are Revealed

[mucifer]

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Photography has shaped the American memory of the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings.

The image of a young woman screaming in horror as she crouches beside the body of a student has become the defining moment of the day when National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio.

This year, on the 49th anniversary of the shooting, history’s lens has gotten a little wider. Getty Images has released previously unpublished pictures revealing the weekend leading up to the tragedy, the moments when the guards opened fire and the grief afterwards.

http://time.com/5583301/kent-state-photos/

more photos and information in the article

[BeyondGeography]

1. And most Americans, in their wisdom, blamed the protesters

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/may-4-1970-national-guard_b_1476017?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAMJGXjY5vEWfHphEwAoLu2hG3NjB5qT9oER_uTLNDyBdoLpTXngJb4c1WKb03N3RXUeVXItUiMBIMtc1Gppp1WoSSfWjzSuGT25SJXWuQaE_OtdUYZlnEUhqfq7ZqyBv6x-EXBuhXLUGWZyHhPa4Gz8wGrOx5yH_2fBXRc0FCLD

A Gallup Poll taken shortly after the shootings at Kent State revealed that 58% of the respondents believed the responsibility for the deaths lay with the demonstrators; only 11% blamed the National Guard. As the author of a book about the shootings would later write, “These were the most popular murders ever committed in the United States.”

[bobbieinok]

7. IIRC there was article in national news mag that screaming girl was a run-away

NOT a student.

Thus somehow didn't belong in memory of event.

And her presence delegitimized the war protests in general, the Kent State protests in particular.

And somehow justified the shootings and death.

Don't think we used the term 'spin' then but that's what the mag's story was

[dhol82]

11. Yeah, she was a fourteen year old runaway

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Vecchio

[livetohike]

2. So emotional right now after reading the article. I was a Senior

in high school in western PA. Allison Krause was from a neighboring town. The local Pgh news coverage was riveting and I remember being so scared that this could happen as I would be going to college in the Fall.

[csziggy]

13. I was also a senior in high school - in Florida

And headed to a very liberal but tiny college. My parents were terrified that I would become a protester and end up in something like Kent State.

What I didn't know was that my older sister WAS a very active protester (and still is). She was chosen to represent the anti-Vietnam War protestors at a demonstration/debate on campus. A Vietnam War vet was select to advocate for the war. They had a lively debate, started dating, she converted him to anti-war, and they married in the early 1970s. They still go to protests though they spend more time working on environmental causes, volunteering for seabird and turtle rescues, and being activists in other ways.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. My sister graduated from KSU in 1968. I was at Ohio State when this

happened. The ONG was on the Columbus campus as well.

https://www.thelantern.com/2010/05/1970-protests-erupted-across-ohio-tear-gas-at-osu/

[femmedem]

4. Mr. femmedem still has epilepsy from being hit on the head with a baton at a protest in CT.

He was unconscious for a day and has a dead zone the size of an egg in his frontal cortex.

He learned decades later--because he heard them laughing and boasting about it decades later at a baseball game--that provocateurs caused the conflict that led to students in CT being attacked that day.

He believes that if it weren't for Kent State, he would have been shot rather than clubbed. But reading comments about how people thought the students were to blame and about the popularity of the shootings makes me wonder.

[MyOwnPeace]

5. Interesting side note......

John Filo was a classmate of mine in high school. He was a "yearbook" photographer who roamed the halls daily carrying his camera with him. He also did some part-time or internship work at a local newspaper from western Pennsylvania in the photography department.
As a student at KSU he was again packing his camera and shot the classic pictures that we know. He called the newspaper to tell them about what he had witnessed and was told to take a taxi immediately back to the paper so as to print the pictures and get them out on the national wire.
This experience won him a Pulitzer Prize and led to a career as a news photographer.

[yaesu]

6. A sad day for Democracy. nt

[Delphinus]

9. It seems

that *every* day is a sad day for Democracy right now.

[MadLinguist]

8. Thanks to DUer MarbleFalls, I read about Terry Norman's role, super skeezy dude

Wherever Norman is now, he's almost certainly a Trumpster.
MarbleFall's post: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212070764

[bobbieinok]

10. Jackson State College, black college in MS, 2 killed, 12 injured May 15, 1970

The black shootings are often forgotten

See article at Wiipedia

[dhol82]

12. +1

Always forgotten.

[Bayard]

14. Does anyone else think this could happen now?

In the current climate--you betcha. Probably not National Guard, but there are plenty out there who are armed and dangerous, and would love to gun down some protesters.

[llmart]

15. I believe the National Guard of that time was a lot different from what it is now.

They had very little training - 6 weeks basic, and some of them were students themselves. Many of them joined the National Guard to avoid being drafted and going to Nam. Because of an all volunteer army today, the National Guard is much more like regular army.