May 4, 2015 Commemoration Ceremony
May 4, 2015
Doffodils blooming on the hill outside Taylor Hall near the site of the May 4 Memorial. Photo by Rachael Le Goubin.
“I was 18 then, now I’m 63. I grieve for the guardsmen…if you put a gun in a 19-year-old hand’s, and they feel threatened…what do you think is going to happen?” said John Geib as he listened during the May 4th commemoration on May 4, 2015. Photo by Andrea Noall.
“The shooting brought the war home. Kent was the point of no return…It’s kind of sad that 45 years later we are still fighting the same war,” said Dan Eberhart, a native of Colorado, while attending the May 4 commemoration. Photo by Andrea Noall.
“I was here on campus when the shooting occurred. Flyers were passed out the day before around campus saying that gatherings of four or more people were illegal. My professor counted off four people in my class and decided that class was illegal today. So we all go up and left,” said Franco Ruffini while visiting the May 4 memorial at the 45th Anniversary of the May 4, 1970 campus shooting. Photo by Andrea Noall.
President Beverly Warren speaks at the May 4, 2015 commemoration ceremony. Warren was the first university president to speak at a commemoration event in the 45 years since 1970. Photo by Matt Merchant.
Students stand in the crowd holding signs with messages directed at President Beverly Warren during the May 4, 2015 commemoration ceremony. Warren and the university are currently negotiating with a worker’s union for fair wages. Photo by Matt Merchant.
“I was young then. I thought that the students were exercising their own rights, It was a lesson the whole country had to learn. It was sad that their were victims because of it. They will forever be remembered in history,” said Bob Marksz, a Kent native. Photo by Andrea Noall.
Olive Holland sits outside of Taylor Hall during the May 4th commemoration ceremony on May 4, 2015.. Photo by Andrea Noall.
Dick Gregory, a comedian and civil rights activist, speaks at the May 4, 2015 commemoration event. Gregory compared the protests and riots of the 1970s with the riots of Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore — events that triggered a reaction of world conscious. Photo by Matt Merchant.
