This year marks the 55th anniversary of the day National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protestors on the Kent State University campus, killing Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder. Nine others were wounded.
The university’s annual commemoration, meant to remember what happened and help new generations learn about and understand the legacy, begins Thursday and runs through Sunday.
The Jerry M. Lewis May 4 Lecture takes place Friday. It's named in honor of the professor who witnessed the shooting while working as a faculty marshal.
The 2025 speaker is Kent State geography professor Jennifer Mapes. Working with Sara Koopman in the Kent State School of Peace and Conflict Studies, Mapes created Mapping May 4, a virtual map that covers the days leading up to and including May 4. She plans to discuss the map and what she's learned from it since creating it in 2019.
“I wanted to talk a little bit about the Mapping May 4 project,” Mapes said. The findings "just kind of talk about this idea of shared humanity really… Everyone talks about the different experiences [of] May 4th, but to me, like what really jumped is just how similar [people’s reactions to May 4th were]. No matter what anyone's background or opinions were, how similar their experience [of reacting to the event] was.”
A discussion planned for Friday afternoon features David Paul Kuhn, author of “The Hardhat Riot: Nixon, New York City and the Dawn of the White Working-Class Revolution.”
The focus of the discussion is the legacy of the 1970 Hardhat Riot, which was sparked by the May 4 shooting.
Kuhn will be joined by Kent State history professors Thomas Grace and Mary Ann Heiss and University of Akron history professor Gregory Wilson. Grace was one of the nine students wounded on May 4.
There are also panel discussions centered on the fall of Saigon, 50 years ago.
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the student-led May 4 Task Force, founded to preserve the legacy of the shooting. Task force president Sophia Swengel, a senior and a history major, noted the importance of student voices in the history of May 4.
“The administration for many decades was not open to talking about May 4th in much capacity at all” she said. "It was always the students, and I'm proud to be a part of that."
Roseann “Chic” Canfora, currently an assistant professor of communications at Kent State, was present on May 4, 1970, along with her brother, Alan, who was also wounded in the shooting. Every year since, they continued to look for new meaning in the events of May 4.
Alan Canfora died in 2020, but Roseann Canfora said she continues to reflect on the shooting to this day.
“It still has meaning and relevance to students because it was on May 4, 1970 that our constitutional rights of freedom of speech was put to one of the greatest tests in American society,” she said. “They are doing what late Congressman John Lewis said when he visited Kent State years ago… ‘you have [a] mandate to follow in the footsteps of the courageous young men and women before you who sought to make a difference.’ I've seen that every year for the last 55 years and particularly now when our constitutional rights to freedom of speech are, again, being put to one of their greatest tests.”
The annual candlelight vigil, which the school said began the year after the shooting, is set for Saturday night.
A ceremony will take place Sunday on the Kent Commons outside Taylor Hall where the National Guard fired on protesters. It will include remarks from school officials, students and survivors and the ringing of the Victory Bell. A moment of silence will be observed at 12:24 p.m., the time the shooting took place in 1970.
Details on the events planned, how to order tickets and the livestreams at the May 4 website.
