May 4

Kent State University holds its 47th annual commemoration of May 4, 1970, with events taking place May 3 and 4. The annual commemoration is hosted by the May 4 Task Force, a student organization on campus. All of the events will be held on the university’s Kent Campus and are free and open to the public. 

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today announced the designation of the Kent State University May 4, 1970, Site as a National Historic Landmark. The site joins more than 2,500 historic places that bear the national distinction.

More than 100 reel-to-reel audio recordings pertaining to the May 4, 1970, Kent State University shootings and their aftermath are now accessible through the Kent State University Special Collections and Archives’ digital repository. Some of the recently digitized items include previously inaccessible audio recordings of radio call-in forums, a speech by Kent State President Robert I. White the day after the shootings, a press conference with six students who met with President Richard M. Nixon just days after the shootings, the Scranton Commission hearings and a speech made by Dick Gregory at the Kent State Memorial Service in 1971.

Kent State University holds its 46th annual commemoration of May 4, 1970, with events taking place April 26 through May 4. The annual commemoration, hosted by the May 4 Task Force, provides an opportunity for the university community to gather and remember those who were lost and injured during the tragedy and also reflect on what May 4 means today.

Collaboration includes radio reports and documentary film

The WKSU newsroom looks back at two significant historical events, presented in collaboration with Western Reserve PBS. As the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War approaches, Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/WEAO) joins with a national PBS effort to examine ramifications that are still being felt today of that deadly conflict. A focal point of the public television station’s coverage is a broadcast on April 28 of the Oscar-nominated documentary The Last Days of Vietnam, directed by Rory Kennedy and part of PBS’ American Experience program.