KENT STATE INCIDENT FBI FILES

1146 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and archived on CD-ROM covering the May 1970 unrest at Kent State University. The U.S. Army Reserve Officers Training Corps building was destroyed by fire on May 2nd 1970 and on May 4th students were killed by National Guardsmen, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder.

On April 30, l970, President Richard Nixon announced on television that the United States was widening the Vietnam War by hitting targets in Cambodia. On May 1, Kent State students demonstrated against the move. Some protestors left campus and caused property damage in the city. The mayor of Kent declared a state of emergency. Students called for a demonstration on Monday, May 4.

On May 2 students protestors surrounded the barracks on campus housing the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. Some of the protestors managed to set the building afire. The National Guard cleared the campus. The planned May 4th demonstration was banned. On May 4th approximately two thousand students demonstrated. Confrontation between the guardsmen and students lead to 28 guardsmen firing, killing four students.