Making Meaning of May 4
Teaching about the Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ Shootings
Educators, engage students with the facts of the Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ shootings, May 4, 1970, and relation to movements today, including March for Our Lives and Black Lives Matter.
The Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ Shootings on May 4, 1970, have enduring national significance for
- Broadening the base of public opinion and dissent against the Vietnam War
- Setting legal precedent through the U.S. Supreme Court that public officials can be brought to trial for their actions
- Effecting prompt change in military policy for civil disturbances
- Hastening passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to lower the voting age to 18
- Causing the largest student protest and only national student strike in U.S. history
- Achieving national prominence in 1977-78 as a site of student protest to preserve understanding of a watershed event in U.S. history
- Standing as an emblem of the student movement of the 1960s and early 1970s
- Residing on an arc in American history of government authorities confronting protesting citizens with unreasonable deadly force
- Reminding us all of the importance of practicing and preserving the First Amendment
Understand the past, shape the future. Be the change . . .
This website has been made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ University.
Terms of Use: By using the web site www.kent.edu/ehhs/making-meaning-may-4 (the Site), the user agrees to accept the ‘Terms of Use’ stated here. Any copyrighted content in the Site is made available for personal use only. For any commercial purpose, users are responsible for obtaining the copyright holder’s permission.
The digital content contained in the Site is not available for re-sale, re-use, incorporation, or copying into any databases or commercial product without express, written permission from Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ University [www.kent.edu/ehhs/making-meaning-may-4/Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹] and when applicable the copyright holder. No unauthorized mass downloading or scraping into any format is permitted from this website.
Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ University requests that citation be provided for use of all material on this Site.
NEH Policy Statement: Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Web resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Photo: Alan Canfora stands as the emblem of student activism against the Vietnam War in John Filo’s iconic May 4, 1970, photo.