Archive Series: Lessons from history—Kent State May 4th 1970

The Dissent of the America Dream, The Death of Innocence

Video created by Toni Boling, edited by Joshua Headley (2020)

History is a very important and valuable teacher.

In the midst of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, I had taken a college history class that was centered around the events that lead to the deadly conflict on May 4th, 1970. As a student at Kent State University, and growing up with the campus in my backyard, I had heard about that fateful day but didn’t fully grasp the devastating lead up to how the Ohio National Guard could open fire on students. As I spent that semester taking a deep dive into this event that shook the world, I chose to create a music video for my final project that reflected the tragic conclusion to this decade of activism and revolution.

The music video I created is meant to show the escalation in tensions over the Vietnam war and the increased influence of the counterculture against the establishment. This ultimately triggered a clash with the Ohio National Guard and students at Kent State that resulted in the deaths of four students on May 4th, 1970. Throughout the 1960’s, student activism swept across the country and inspired the youth of America to join the growing social movements that were challenging the traditional ideals of the American Dream and denouncing a war that many felt was unjust. Unlike the wars of their parents and grandparents, the Vietnam war was asking young people to fight in formless and frontless battles where the only sign of success was in body counts and this ended up tarnishing the illusion of America’s reputation as “the good guys” in many people’s minds. This video shows how a youth-led revolution that had its core in peacefully protesting the war, grew into a powerful force that was openly challenging their government’s actions which ultimately led to fear and retaliation that ended with the Ohio National Guard opening fire on students and revealing the consequence of fearing true dissent.

I chose three songs from this time period that were speaking to the social and political actions taking place in the culture at the time. Jefferson Airplane’s song ‘Volunteers’ opens the video which sets the tone of activism and revolution going on at the time, and this is paired with clips of soldiers flooding into Vietnam and “volunteering” their lives for their country as well as clip of the growing counterculture who were against the war and expanding their revolution of young “volunteers.” This is followed by a clip of President Nixon addressing the protests on the campuses and in the streets of America, stating how this did not affect his actions regarding the war, which only served to increase the momentum of both of these opposing forces. This indifference by Nixon is what further escalated growing frustrations among young people. This leads into a live performance from Woodstock where in a crowd of over 300,000 people gathering for three days of peace and music, Country Joe McDonald begins his song with his popular “fuck cheer” as a collective cry of anger and frustration before beginning his solo rendition of ‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.’ This seemingly lighthearted singalong is actually openly criticizing and mocking the indifference of the government and establishment in sacrificing the lives of its young people for an unwinnable war. The clips in this song are showing how military action in Vietnam kept increasing, despite mounting resistance, which is then interwoven with protesting becoming more radicalized and the swell of young people all over the country coming together in solidarity at Woodstock to show support for a more peaceful future. This is then followed by a clip from a TV special of student activist Eva Jefferson Patterson speaking to Vice President Spiro Agnew about the rational of the students who were becoming more radicalized and openly revolutionary. She warned of the growing fear of America’s children and how stoking this fear would result in further isolation and a splintering of the country. This foreshadows the dangerous path the country was on that came to a climax with the next clip of President Nixon addressing the nation that they were expanding the war into Cambodia. Just when the war was supposed to be coming to an end, this action began the resurgence in campus protests and triggered the events that lead to the fateful day on May 4th. The song ‘Find the Cost of Freedom’ by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young begins with the ringing of the victory bell as a call to action and shows the gathering of students on Kent State’s Commons and sets the emotional tone for what is to come. Clips of the Ohio National Guard preparing their guns with live ammo and donning gas masks builds up a feeling of dread and tension as they then start to approach the students with their guns drawn. These clips show the event as it unfolds and with the somber music echoing the sorrow and sacrifice in seeing young people being shot and killed by their own government, it speaks to the shock and horror the students felt that day. This song was written along with ‘Ohio’ as a reaction to the events at Kent State on May 4th and as news of the killings spread across the country, it only served to unite the anti-war movement even more.

            My hope with this video is to show that we cannot forget the lessons from this time in history when a war and social movements were fracturing the fabric of society by challenging America’s values as a nation, and what can happen when the fundamental right to protest actions by the government is suppressed and ignored.