Kent State shootings — 1970 shootings in Kent, Ohio, US during student-led protest of Vietnam War
The killing of four unarmed students by the Ohio National Guard galvanized anti-Vietnam War sentiment and triggered the largest student strike in U.S. history.
Key Facts
- Students killed
- 4
- Students wounded
- 9 (one permanently paralyzed)
- Rounds fired
- ~67 over 13 seconds
- National Guard soldiers firing
- 28
- Student strike participants
- More than 4 million
- Institutions affected by walkouts
- Hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
President Richard Nixon announced on April 30, 1970, the expansion of U.S. military operations into Cambodia, intensifying opposition to the Vietnam War. Students at Kent State and across the country organized protests, and Ohio National Guard troops were deployed to the Kent State campus amid unrest, creating a tense standoff between demonstrators and armed soldiers.
On May 4, 1970, twenty-eight Ohio National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds in 13 seconds into a crowd of unarmed student protesters and bystanders at Kent State University. Four students—Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Schroeder—were killed, and nine others were wounded. Two of the dead had been watching the protest from over 300 feet away during a class break.
The shootings triggered nationwide outrage and a student strike involving more than 4 million participants at hundreds of institutions. Eight National Guard soldiers were charged with civil rights violations but acquitted in a bench trial. The event deepened public divisions over U.S. involvement in Vietnam and became a defining moment in the American anti-war movement.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent