I really am grateful that i have been able to attend kent state. And have been around what happened on may 4 and have been able to exist in that space. It fires me up, honestly, every time i see it, to just keep fighting because some of the things they were fighting for back then, we are still fighting now. We cannot become complacent. Complacency is not a privilege that we can afford. Hello, my name is todd daiakin. It is my great honor and raw privilege to serve as the president of Kent State University. I have said many times you do not have to be a historian to understand the place of Kent State University and the history of modern america. But i am a historian and i do appreciate both the seminal place of our university and our nations history. And our ongoing responsibility to share this history and the lessons of may 4, 1970. It is also my great honor to announce the creation of four scholarships, each of them bearing the name of a student slain on may 4, 1970. Scholarships in the names of alison kraus, Jeffrey Miller, and Bill Schroeder will be awarded to lafayette peace and conflict studies that at Kent State University. My best wishes and deepest thanks to the families of our slain students. I appreciate your spirit and reconciliation as we work to ,reate the events of may 4 2020. Thank you to those who served on the task force over the years. Your work and dedication kept the memory and lessons of our tragedy alive and in front of everyone. I have been most gratified by and impressed by, the work of the may 4 advisory committee. Together, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship, we worked hard to create an inclusive and impactful may 4, 2020 observance. In addition, the efforts and wise counsel of each Committee Member proved invaluable as we generated an entire years worth of meaningful programs. The covid19 pandemic unfortunately interrupted our plans. But once again, we came together to generate this virtual may 4 event my thanks go as well to taylor, and to the Vice President and trustee michael. Of course, i thank each and every one of you watching right right now for your role and keeping the memory of may 4 1970 alive and for helping us teach lessons of the importance of free speech and the dangers of polarization and division. I will finish with an observation connect thing 1970 to 2020. In the aftermath of the shootings, our faculty acted in ways big and small. Immediate and long term to protect our students and to ensure that the students finished the academic order even though campus was closed. In 2020, our faculty likewise came together, acting in ways swiftly move to remote instruction in the face of a pandemic ensuring that our , students, our current students will finish this academic semester even though the campus is closed. If one person personifies our great faculty then and now, it professor ofitus sociology, dr. Jerry lewis. Lewis for more , than a half of a century of dedication to kent state and thank you to all faculty past and present. We should make no mistake about it. What happened here 40 years ago had very little to do with rocks and bombs and snipers. It had everything to do with the right of free speech and the right of Free Assembly. [applause] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] it is not our power but our will and courage that is being tested tonight. They have one thing in mind and that is to destroy Higher Education in ohio. On the morning of monday, may 4, when i woke in my dorm, i was awaking with the realization that the soldiers that were outside and guarding the doors of my dorm were not there to protect me. I had a history examination monday morning. I remember the professor announcing to the students on monday morning that if any of them felt that the events of the preceding days had interfered with their ability to adequately prepare for this examination, that they would be able to take the examination at a later date. My girlfriend at the time made me promise that i would not go to the demonstration that day. The rally was just going to happen. People were going to show up and what we ought to do was try to do is give it some more positive, more constructive direction that weve had the trashing downtown, the burning of the building, we had confrontations the previous night where people, the governor compared us to the fascists or hitlers youth or Something Like that. We are going to eradicate the problem. We are not going to treat the symptom. I had two decent fencers who were just great about it and they professors who were just great about it and they had some great advice. Just make yourself a simple task. Come up with something thats the student protest in america. I kept seeing that rally on monday as the moment that we would not just be students at cant state kent state but across the country all at the same time at noon with a concerted call to end the war in vietnam. I just made a commitment that i was not going to go to that. I also said to me to myself, tos is too important for me pass up. There was a string of guardsmen stretched up its like a past the last guardsman, he said to me, hey boy, what is that you are carrying there . I said just a couple of black protest flags. He said today we will make you eat those flags. I was still the Vice President of the student body and in the senate. I felt it was my obligation to be out there to make sure nothing occurred that was going to harm any of those students. I actually stood up on a brick structure and try to call for a student strike. He made a very brief speech. Is it the feeling of the students on the campus that we should join the National Student strike to oppose the invasion of cambodia . Strike] the guard on campus and the betrayal sunday evening, there was an extra edge of anger and frustration. One of the National Guard jeeps drove up to the front. They started reading an order for everybody to disperse. There was nothing out of control. We had a right to be there and they could not stop us from speaking. We were not an unlawful assembly. Get the hell off our campus. Now its tear gas time again. By then, we had gotten fairly good at being able to pick up the cool ends of the canisters. The other end is hot, and toss it back, returning the favor. The National Guard started marching toward us they had on helmets, gas masks. They were carrying m1 rifles with bayonets attached. The guardsmen came marching across the campus and filed us followed us up the hill, past the pagoda. We all ran down the other side of the hill towards the parking lot. We started picking up whatever we could to try to throw it at the guard. We were at the bottom of the hill. It was not a good strategic position. We did not have steel helmets and gas masks to protect us. Students started chanting, they are out of gas. Then i see this one student with a black flag once the guard , had stopped, he started slowly working his way, i thought wow, theres my picture. I stood there. I waved my black flag i knew my life was in danger. At that time i thought if i had to risk my life to make the most powerful statement i can make, im going to do it. I walked up behind my brother and said allen, they are aiming right at you. This is getting really shaky. Twojust as i said that, jeeps started to move away in a v formation and started their ascent up the hill. I asked him to come back to the parking lot. Allen said, wait, i want to see where they are going. My sister watched. They got to the top of the hill. They hit us. About a dozen men stopped, turned, raised their weapons, and i got a rifle pointed at me. The guard with the baton in set gets saying get , ready, fire. They hit a tree. A student got it to the right. I got knocked to the ground. The bullet hit my wrist. This was a bad dream. Bullets zipping past our heads and some people fell to the ground. Jimmy riggs fell to the ground riddled with bullets. Tom grace, he is screaming. I look over. The boot was blown off his foot. Hes yelling at me, stay down, stay down. When you are caught in the open we are being fired at with no , opportunity to defend yourself, the loneliest and the sickness experience you could imagine. [gunshots] when the shooting stopped, the silence fell. I still feel and hear everything from that moment. And one cry and one scream was joined by more and more, this collective cry of anguish. No, you did not do this. You did not do this. I could see at the foot of the hill. A boy lying face down. The body of Jeffrey Miller lying on the street. There is probably not a worse image in mind for all of us. Someone tipped over a bucket of blood. People were picking themselves up off the ground. You could see, this woman was starting to swab sob and scream. That prizewinning photo with outstretched arms. She gestured at the shot. The first of four students to be killed was Jeffrey Miller, 20yearold Honors College student from long island. I had been with jeff miller the whole morning. I went back to where i thought he was and it is still unbelievable. If there is such a thing as a temporal non sequitur, this is it. This should not be here. How do you process pure naked violence . As the shock set in that they had done this to us, our worst yet image was looking up at that watching those young those 13ey watched young kids laying there bleeding. They walked away. Helicopters] many of us just ran around aimlessly, looking for the people we loved, trying to make sense of it all. I had no idea was running past where Alison Krauss was dying. Alison kraus stood 345 feet from the guardsmen when she was hit on the side. She was 19 and in the Honors College. Sandy from youngstown was not involved with the protest. She was walking between classes with her Speech Therapy partner when she was hit in the neck. She was placed in an ambulance with tom grace as paramedics attempted to stop the bleeding. I remember the ambulance attendants trying to revive her. She had a neck wound, and i remember them saying, there is no use. I remember them pulling the sheet up over her head. It is probably one of the moments that will never leave me. Bill schroeder like sandy, had nothing to do with the protest. He was an eagle scout raced and in lorraine, an Industrial Town on the shores of lake. Bill was shot in the back from 182 feet away. He died in the hospital an hour later. The University Campus has been closed. Please return to your dormitories and leave the campus by the shortest route as soon as possible. [police sirens] we went into our rooms and grabbed a few things and packed hastily. Before we left, i remember my father saying, show me where it happened. As i walked up the hill to the pagoda i saw bullet shells. , i just reached down and picked up a handful of them. And i was holding those shelves i started looking at the trigger man and i started screaming. Murderers. Murderers. I was holding the shells and i had my fist out. I remember being so angry. I felt my father putting his arms around me and holding the really tightly and begging me to stop screaming at them. My father, this world war ii veteran realized, this can happen in america. It just did. The next day, johns photo made the front page of the new york times. Across the nation, kent became a rally as nearly 3 Million Students joined the strike against the war. What is it in the makeup of the american psyche . What is it in our country that we would come to that point, that we would shoot down innocent young people on a College Campus . I think it changed america. It changed the way we do things forever. I will never, ever forget what happened at kent state. It is currently 12 23. We are going to get ready to get started. When 12 24 strikes, we will be ringing vic the rebel ringing times fourel 15 , times for the 4 students slain on may 4 1970. Nine times for the 9 wounded. Two times for the two murders at jackson state. Ringing] bell for 13 horrifying seconds, we wondered about all those students out there in the open who did not find a car or a tree to get behind. That is what i remember thinking the entire time i crouched and waited for 13 horrifying seconds. When the gunfire stopped, i think every one of us recalled the deafening silence. The silence of shock and disbelief and the horror which send out that crescendod into this unified cry of, what have you done . What have you done . Then we saw all around us what they had done. So you have a couple hundred students there. Can we move first . How long will you give us . Please listen to me right now. I am begging you right now. If you do not disperse right now, they are going to move in. It can only be a slaughter. Jesus christ i do not want to be , a part of this. Im begging you. Follow me out this way. I got into my apartment. I told him to get out of there and not hang around to get into all this trouble. I called to try to get through to the hospital. I finally got hold of a telephone operator who got me through. I identified myself. I said i am mrs. Kraus and i want to know where my daughter is. I want to talk to the administrator. I called his number. It rang and rang. Young man answered. I said let me speak to jeff. They said who is this . , i said it is his mother. He said he is dead. When he came on the phone he said, she was doa. That is how i found out my daughter was gone. Hi. My name is john. I was shot in the chest near the iron sculpture. Next to taylor hall. I was not a protester but a student going to class whose curiosity brought me to the commons to watch the noon rally. Before the number of students it was not longbefore the number of students swelled into the thousands, mostly students like me who wanted to see how events were going to unfold. I watched the National Guard proceed to the practice football field, neil and name the rifles at the students in the parking lot. I lingered near the sculpture hoping to get a picture of the guard as it reached the crest of the hill that turned back towards the comments. Suddenly, the turned and fired directly into the parking lot without any warning. I was caught in their line of fire, falling immediately after having been shot. My next recollection was in the hospital awaiting treatment. I was roommates with joe lewis, witnessing their pain and agony. I was privileged to attend a book citing last fall. Signing last fall. We were bound together by a picture of me on the ground which made the cover of life magazine. Another picture they had had a vivid impact on me. It was a picture of me on the ground surrounded by people protecting me from the guards and several people tending to my wounds, including joe column and brother fargo. This is the picture i am referring to right here. These people in my mind our are heroes who saved my life. 50 years later, we are called to remember that awful day and grammar those who are slain and wounded. This year is especially difficult as we are unable to come together as a family on this milestone date. Often i am asked, what is the significance . It was the first time that the u. S. Military was sent onto a american College Campus where lives were taken. Not protected. It polarized campuses across the nation to expressed their outrage over the kent state killings and shut down many College Campuses in response to the killings. Why do i attend the commemorations now . It is an opportunity for me to show my respect and remember the other wounded students, those who are witnesses of that day, those who have actively put on the may 4 commemorations, and those whose lives were cut short. It is up to us who were there to keep the memory of may 4 alive and hopefully teach a new generation of students never to forget the historical importance of what occurred that day so that it will never happen again. Thank you. It is very important, especially at this date. Down through the years and decades, there was some antagonisms in the earlier years where the students had to kind of increase pressures for the purpose of raising awareness to the public. The university really was not on board as much in the earlier decades, but now they are. In fact, the university and especially the last two or three administrations, dr. Warren, dr. Lefton and dr. Cartwright, the 3 president s i think have stepped forward during the last 20 years, so that the university has embraced the educational imperative. It has been their duty for a long time. And now to see the university administration, the faculty, the students, everybody is on the same page. I think this is just a much better situation to see the administration and the trustees embrace this issue, because really, this university is where the tragedy happened. The university has a duty to the students that lost their lives to make sure that this does not happen again. Hi, this is joe lewis. Im speaking to you from my home in oregon. I am very sorry we cannot get together for the 50th commemoration ceremony and celebration. For me, it was always a bittersweet reunion. I am very glad to be able to get together in honor of the memory of allison, sandy, jeff, bill. I am also happy when i can get together with my blood brothers. A group of very kind and wise men who share a unique experience and life. In life. I am glad for the participation over the years of the may 4 task force. Their various leaders and the students at Kent State University who join us each year for the commemoration. I am happy to say ive only missed a couple in the last 30 years. I would have been there this spring as well. It is important to underscore the importance of peaceful protests and to protect it as a value in our society. The free speech and Free Assembly rights that we exercise d at kent state of may 4, 1970, but also to remember the tragic deaths and loss of allison and sandy, jeff and bill. After 50 years, i do not think about the kent state shooting every day. My focuses on my life and my occupation, but mostly my family. I am a father and grandfather. It just adds to the tragedy for me that those four would also likely be grandparents at this point and their lives. To me, the sadness continues in and loss only grows. It is a crime that no one has ever accounted for. And bigger than that, it is a crime in our society that the media was manipulated to make it seem like the victims were the criminals. Like peaceful protest was a criminal act. I think that is the most important thing to take away, that we can never have this kind of incident again. First of all we need to allow we need to allow, her peaceful protest and dissent from government policy. We need to have training for law second, enforcement people so that they do not think that theyre going into war when it comes to crowd control. I want to acknowledge the work of many, many people, most of whom i will not name. Especially in my mind today is andwork of carol barbado laura davis. Carroll comes to mind, may she rest in peace. She said she would never miss a may 4 commemoration. I am so sorry that she is no longer with us and that we wont be together as a group and family this year. So good health. ,and joy to you, and peace. Thanks from oregon. Even in the face of violence , even in the face of a National Guard who had guns, students knew they had bullets and their guns or not they were still , standing in the face of violence and willing to speak about things that were passionate to them. Even at the very local level, at Kent State University, about a very federal issue. I think students my age should look at issues that are facing us today and act. Why are we not more sad about the price of College Tuition . Why do i have to choose between getting an education and surviving . That should not be a decision i have to make, but those are things that have to consider. Until i visited the Vietnam Memorial for the first time, i knew it was this big black slab of granite that you could see your reflection in. It had the names of all the soldiers that died in vietnam on it. I walked the entire length of that slab looking for my brothers friend bill who died and was buried just less than two weeks before may 4, 1970. I wanted to get the etching of his name. When i finally found his name right there near may 4, 1970, i continued to the right to finish looking. I noticed for the first time, how much smaller and smaller and smaller that granite memorial got. I saw the visual representation of the impact of the student antiwar movement, because the war began to wind down. I will never forget how i felt when i walked to the very end of it and saw that. I saw that last name. 50 years ago, i was still a young bloods when i heard the tragic news. For the months following kent state i was seeing get together with extra hole. Hope that we would find a better way to settle our differences. I still carry that dream to this day. Im still singing the song. We can make mountains ring or make the angels cry the bird is only wind whyay not know on, people now smile on your brother everybody get together try to love one another right now some may come and some may go people will surely pass when the ones that left us here again are but a moments sunlight and we are fading fast now on people smile on your brother everybody get together try to love one another right now come on people now smile on each other everybody get together try to love one another right now right now come on people now smile on each other everybody get together try to love one another right now if you hear someone sing people will understand we hold the keys instead i command come on people now smile on your brother everybody get together y to love one another right now right now come on people now smile on each other everybody get together another righte now right now now on people smile on each other everybody get together try to love one another right now right now right now right now thinking of you, my dear sister. How can i tell you . I cannot think of the right words to say but i am always walking with you, but you are if you are not there. 50 years have passed and i am saddened to think of the lives lost in the 60s. May 4, 1970, changed my life and the lives of my family. My sister was an innocent bystander. But for me, there is some comfort of mind. Thanks to those concerned individuals and groups that have been responsible for the truth and the permanent records of the events. By voting to keep the First Amendment to the United States constitution alive and functioning, we will be working to keep such a tragedy from happening again. Thus, we will protect our freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom and respect, and the important right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Im missing you so much. Audrey. One of the lessons i pull away from my education on may 4 is this idea of learning to think for yourself and standing by what you believe. We encourage others to do the same even if they disagree with what you think. On may 4, 1970, i was 15 years old with brown hair and two good legs. Today, i am 90yearsold and can no longer [applause] the death of a child is very heartbreaking, but life goes on. There have been many deaths in our family. But new lives as well. I believe our efforts to prevent tragedykent state type have been rewarded for with a new resolve for peace on earth and good will. There was a poet and one of his last poems included the line, learning from the past is a prime consideration. I pray we have all learned that lesson. [applause] this is American History tv. Each weekend we feature programs exploring our nations past. The president s, from public affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president , organized by the ranking, i noted historians from best to worst. And features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. President san. Org the to learn more about each president. 40 your copy today wherever books order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. This sunday on American History tv, at 4 00 p. M. On railamerica, the 1965 u. S. Army documentary covering the attack on pearl harbor to the japanese surrender. On the second of september, 1945, japanese officials signed the articles of formal surrender on the battleship missouri in tokyo bay. P. M. , a look at germanys surrender with the author of the guns at last light. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3. Next, Abraham Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer and Calvin Coolidge historian amity slade. Rings first inln cspans most recent Historical Survey of president ial leisure. Mr. Coolidge came in at 27th place. Brian amity shlaes, why do we spend so much time in this country and on our network and in your life talking about president s . Amity thank you, brian. Im glad to be with you and with harold. We talk about president s because people understand People Better than ideas. And we eventually want to get to id