Freedom of Speech and Assembly

By noon on May 4, 2,000-3,000 people had assembled peacefully on this site, some protesting the escalation of the Vietnam War and the presence of the Ohio National Guard on campus, while most were observers, others identified with the counterculture movement, and some were campus activists; all were exercising their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly. Meanwhile, 103 members and 10 officers of the Ohio National Guard lined up 500 feet away as campus police officer Harold Rice repeated General Robert Canterbury's order to disperse, but the demonstrators remained. At 11:00 am the Victory Bell began summoning people to rally, at 11:45 am troops took position at the site of the ROTC building, at 11:50 am a jeep moved out with the order to disperse, and at 12:05 pm General Canterbury ordered the guardsmen to advance. Joseph J. Lewis, a wounded student, later recalled, “There was no feeling of danger or impending catastrophe.... We were not doing anything that made us imagine the outcome.”

Kent, Ohio · United States