After days of anti-war protests and a burned ROTC building, Ohio National Guard troops fired 67 rounds into a crowd of demonstrators and bystanders at Kent State University. Four students died, including two who were merely walking to class. The killings galvanized the anti-war movement, triggered a nationwide student strike involving millions, and became a defining image of the era's domestic turmoil.
The Guardsmen had been on campus since Ohio Governor James Rhodes, facing a primary election, called them in after protesters burned the campus ROTC building on May 2. Tensions simmered through the weekend. On the morning of May 4, roughly 3,000 people gathered on the Commons despite an order to disperse. After tear gas failed to scatter the crowd, a contingent of 77 Guardsmen retreated up Blanket Hill, then abruptly turned and fired for 13 seconds.
Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer died; nine others were wounded, one left paralyzed. Photographer John Filo captured Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling and screaming over Miller's body — a photograph that won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the most reproduced images of the 20th century.
No Guardsman was ever convicted; a federal grand jury indicted eight but a judge dismissed the charges for insufficient evidence. Neil Young wrote 'Ohio' within days after seeing the photos, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young rushed it onto radio. The shootings hardened public opposition to the war and remain a touchstone for debates over the limits of state force against dissent.