KENT - A portion of Kent State University’s Kent Campus has taken its place alongside the nation’s most significant historic locations, joining such sites as the Grand Canyon National Park, Pearl Harbor and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Those 17 acres represent the location of the historic events of May 4, 1970, where protesting students, observers and soldiers gathered on that fateful day when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students and wounded nine others.
In 2010, the May 4 site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, which is comprised of 90,000 locations associated with events that contributed significantly to U.S. history. Then in 2016, Kent State’s May 4 site joined a much more select group as it was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Only 2,500 historic places share this national distinction; the May 4 site is one of 76 such locations in Ohio. The designation will be recognized on the 48th anniversary of the protest.
On May 4 at 7:30 p.m., renowned journalist Dan Rather will appear at Kent State’s Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center (MAC Center) as part of the Presidential Speaker Series. The former lead anchor of the CBS Evening News will reflect on his experiences as a journalist, news anchor and multimedia producer.
For more information about Kent State's May 4 commemoration go to www.kent.edu/may4.