The Kent State Massacre

The Kent State Massacre occured on May 4, 1970. During a protest against the bombing of Cambodia and the Vietnam was as a whole, the Ohio National Guard fires into a group of unarmed college students. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students, and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.

In response to the shooting, Neil Young wrote the song Ohio in protest and tribute to the fallen protesters.