To Students Protesting the Gaza Genocide: Remember the Kent State Massacre
In 1970 They Killed My Sister Allison for Protesting War
As protests demanding University divestiture from Israel’s war on Gaza ramp up across U.S. college campuses nation-wide, Democratic and Republican politicians clamor for student protesters to face excessive force and a militarized police response.
In April 2024, during a press conference held at Columbia University, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) called for pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses to be shut down, utilizing military means if needed.
Johnson’s statements echo similar pleas made by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) who called for the National Guard to be deployed against students protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The introduction of armed police and national guard, often equipped in riot gear with deadly weapons, adds dangerous elements to these otherwise peaceful campus protests and echoes a dark chapter in American history where in 1970 failures of university leadership enabled escalations that led to the deaths of six student protesters in the May 1970 Kent State and Jackson State massacres.
On May 4, 1970 four Kent State University student protesters against war – Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder – were killed by U.S. military gunfire and nine were wounded.
My sister Allison, a nineteen year old Kent State honors student, was killed on her campus as she protested the Cambodian invasion of the Vietnam War. Ever since that day in 1970, my family has fought for truth, accountability and the seemingly impossible dream of justice.
As the family member of a peaceful student protester killed by the state, I am aghast at the way that Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, along with administrators at other U.S. institutions of higher education, have endangered the lives and well-being of student protesters by inviting militarized police onto campuses to disperse protesters.
I urge President Shafik, and other University administrators across the country to hear the demands of all student protesters, to encourage and facilitate zones of free expression, and to support the right of your students to protest an ongoing genocide on campus without the threat of state violence and militarized force.
In 1970 failures of Kent State University leadership enabled the massacre which left “Four Dead in Ohio.” Our institutions must learn from these past mistakes to not use militarized responses against unarmed, peaceful student protesters by calling in the National Guard, bringing in state troopers or deploying police in riot gear.
We must not repeat the horrors of Kent State 54 years later.
Back in 1970 before the Freedom of Information Act and other citizen powers to examine U.S. government activities, the only channel of accountability available to families was through the U.S. judicial system, the courts.
From 1970 to 1979 my father, Arthur Krause, led the Kent State family’s efforts to sue the government and the state of Ohio for wrongdoing, taking the process all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In the end, all harmed in the Kent State massacre settled with the state of Ohio. The 1979 Kent State Ohio settlement awarded my family $15,000 and a statement of regret for killing Allison as she protested war.
On the 40th anniversary in 2010, we established the Kent State Truth Tribunal and the Allison Center for Peace in Mendocino County, California. Hearing the testimonies of Kent State massacre participants and witnesses took me back in time.
From original Kent State student protesters, we learned the Kent State massacre was planned and executed by the same government forces that killed the student protesters at Jackson State eleven days later.
In the May 15, 1970 Jackson State massacre, James Earle Green and Phillip L. Gibbs were shot and killed, as well as twelve wounded by the Mississippi highway patrol who shot up a women’s dormitory.
The 54th anniversary of the May 4, 1970 Kent State massacre jump-started nine months early on August 24, 2023 when a freak tornado spun through the Kent State University main campus, delivering 80 mph winds and damaging the University’s memorial for the May 4, 1970 massacre.
Watching the news of the storm damage to my sister’s Kent State memorial, I remember thinking how strange it was what they call the May 4 memorial was the only damaged place on the huge 650 plus acre Kent State campus.
As I scanned before-and-after Kent State memorial photos, I finally understood the glaring horror of the University’s memorial that I overlooked over the last 30 years since it was built. I thought what kind of memorial is made of four granite, oblong boxes that look exactly like four big coffins?
Then I got sad. It is very difficult for me to accept those coffins as the only memorial for Allison and her fellow Kent State student protesters against U.S. war.
It’s a memorial that keeps on giving in its menacing subliminal message and symbolism for current Kent State students walking by the memorial today: “Step out of line, protest war or dissent against the U.S. government and you may end up in a coffin, too.”
Over the decades the University’s position on the May 4, 1970 massacre has been “it was an unfortunate incident” and the ‘shootings’ occurred because “the Guard were in fear for their lives.”
Before the Kent State massacre, the public had never heard the “in fear for their lives” excuse used by armed-to-the-teeth law enforcement and military personnel.
The story of the Kent State massacre has been manipulated by ‘intelligence’ and security forces of the U.S. government ever since 1970.
In the beginning, the government organizations investigated themselves, literally.
For over a month following the massacre Ohio Governor James Rhodes refused to address the public or answer one question about Kent State.
My family watched and waited as government forces got their stories straight, never consulted us or cared for our concerns. Along with surviving Kent State students, we were made into the enemy.
Over the next 10 years survivors heard knocks on their doors from the FBI making sure their Kent State wounds never had a chance to heal.
In 2023, responding to October 7th, Allison’s legacy guided me to protest against what has become the more than 200 days of genocide and the inhumane targeted attacks on civilians and hospitals in Gaza. From the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, I learned in Gaza a child is hurt or killed every 10 minutes.
At the end of February 2024, our City Council on the Mendocino coast unanimously adopted a Gaza Ceasefire Resolution. Until a permanent ceasefire is reached, our weekly protests in the center of town will continue, sponsored by the Allison Center for Peace.
With my sister inspiring activities at the Allison Center, we are endeavoring to create bountiful peace gardens with memorials honoring those who stood for peace. Flower-filled peace gardens will blanket our five acres with a Power Art Farm sustaining our peace.
Peace and healing to all.
This article originally appeared in print in the Capitol Hill Citizen. You may get your copy at capitolhillcitizen.com
Laurel Krause is the co-founder of the Kent State Truth Tribunal and director at the Allison Center for Peace.
My statement on the student protesters at Cal Poly Humboldt, not far from the Allison Center for Peace, was mentioned in this article in The Guardian. https://bit.ly/4dvW0Bs
You’re the best “little sister” in the world Laurel. You have kept Alison’s name alive all these years! I’ll never forget what happened that day. Those kids were murdered in cold blood. Deep shame America and especially deep shame on the National Guard.