May 4 Commemoration

A group of Kent State University professors recently returned from a visit to the commemoration of the Gwangju Uprising at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, South Korea, feeling inspired for the meaningful connections they made to the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State.

A professor from Chonnam National University in Gwangju, South Korea, said his recent visit to Kent State University enabled him to experience his research into the May 4, 1970, Kent State shootings in a whole new way.

This year's May 4 Commemoration remembered the fallen and recognized the spirit of activism that is part of Kent State's history and the university's foundational values. 

Against the backdrop of a new generation of student activism, the Kent State community gathered to reflect and remember the student protesters killed and wounded on May 4, 1970.

Commemorative landscapes and how they help produce a sense of empathy and place and foster a connection to help us learn from our past was a theme explored Friday, May 3, by Kent State University Professor Chris Post, Ph.D., speaker for the annual Jerry M. Lewis May 4 Lecture Series and Luncheon.

The lessons of Kent State should not go unremembered, President Todd Diacon writes in this opinion piece published in Inside Higher Ed.

Tonight, the annual candlelight walk and vigil continues a 53-year tradition as part of this week's May 4 Commemoration.

Kent State University will hold its 54th annual commemoration honoring the memory of May 4, 1970, a tragic day when the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State students during an anti-war protest on campus, killing four students, wounding nine others and sparking a turning point in American history.

A year ago, Yeonmin Kim, Ph.D., ’13, a literature professor from Chonnam National University in Gwangju, South Korea, was concluding his time as a visiting professor at Kent State University with one goal in mind: Create an exchange program between the two schools based on their historic campus tragedies.