On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, thirteen students were shot during a Vietnam War protest, four of them fatally. This event set off a chain reaction of protests at universities all around the country, including our own. This week, we look back at those events.

To summarize what happened here at UA: “[A]fter several confrontations between anti-war demonstrators and students who opposed them, the Tuscaloosa Women’s Movement organized a memorial service for those killed at Kent State and in the Vietnam War. The memorial service turned into a major demonstration on the lawn of an unoccupied President’s Mansion before culminating in the occupation of the Supe Store in the Alabama Union Building. Later that night, Dressler Hall burned to the ground.” (source)

This period of uncertainty, of clashes between different factions within the student body, and between students and the administration and police, is documented in the University of Alabama photo collection. Below is just a sample of those images; to see a larger version, just click the thumbnail.

For more such images, search Acumen using the phrase ‘student AND unrest.’

And for archival material relating to the Kent State shooting, see this page at the Kent State Digital Library.