May 4 Commemoration

McArevey and Elvis meet

A visiting documentary star (and Elvis fan) received a very special welcome at Kent State.

Douglas Scott McKenzie with Amy Reynolds and Todd Diacon at May 4 Commemoration 2023

The Kent State Community came together for the 53rd Commemoration of May 4, 1970. 

Assistant Professor Erica Eckert, Ph.D., presents the Jerry M. Lewis Lecture on May 3, 2023 in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

As someone who studied higher education administration, Kent State University Assistant Professor Erica Eckert, Ph.D., had always wondered what it would have been like to experience the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings as a student affairs administrator. 

Professor Emeritus Jerry M. Lewis speaks at the inaugural luncheon established to honor his legacy as a May 4, 1970, historian and advocate.

The lecture series created in 2022 to honor the legacy of Kent State University Professor Emeritus of Sociology Jerry M. Lewis, Ph.D., will feature Kent State Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration Erica Eckert, Ph.D., as this year’s selected speaker.

Kent State University community members and visitors gather on the Kent State Commons for the annual May 4 Commemoration to honor those who were killed and wounded on May 4, 1970.

Advancing the legacy of May 4, 1970, a tragic day when the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State University students during an anti-war protest on campus, killing four students, wounding nine students and forever changing the lives of countless others, the university will hold its annual commemoration on May 3-4.

Attendees - Kent State community members and visitors gather on the Kent State Commons for the annual May 4 Commemoration to honor those who were killed and wounded on May 4, 1970.

Kent State University has scheduled a variety of programs, events and exhibits for this year’s remembrance of May 4, 1970, to honor the four students who were killed, the nine students who were wounded and the countless others whose lives were forever changed when the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State students during an anti-war protest.

A student visits the new May 4 exhibit from the Wick Poetry Center in the Kent State Student Center

A new interactive exhibit from the Wick Poetry Center that encouraged visitors to explore the history of student protest through the Kent State shootings, has opened in the Kent Student Center as part of May 4 commemoration activities.

A marker on the spot where Kent State student Alan Canfora was standing when he was shot on May 4, 1970.

This year’s return of in-person events to commemorate the Kent State shootings will include the dedication of bronze markers placed on the spots where nine students were wounded on May 4, 1970. Markers designating the locations of each of the four students killed were installed in 1999. Since that time, a small group had been working to have similar markers placed for the wounded students.

Members of the Kent State University community participate in the annual May 4 Candlelight Walk and Vigil, a tradition that began in 1971 to remember and honor the students killed and wounded on May 4, 1970.

For the first time since 2019, Kent State University will remember May 4, 1970, with its return to an in-person, annual commemoration to honor the four students who were killed, the nine students who were wounded and the countless others whose lives were forever changed when the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State students during an anti-war protest.