KSU seeks landmark status for May 4 site ksu Trustees want U.S. designation in 2020, 50th anniversary of campus shootings from A1

A memorial for those killed on May 4, 1970 at Kent State University's Prentice Hall parking lot, where the shootings occurred. The lot, and the rest of the 17.24-acre shooting site has been named a National Historic Landmark.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

KENT, Ohio - Kent State University will hold its annual commemoration of May 4, 1970, with events on May 3 and 4.

This year is the 47th anniversary of the day in 1970 when the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four people and wounding nine.

Among the events is a community planning session to discuss the 50th commemoration in 2020.

The annual commemoration is hosted by the May 4 Task Force, a student organization. This year's theme is "Tent City, 40 Years Later."

The May 4 Visitors Center, which has been closed as Taylor Hall is renovated, will be temporarily open Monday, May 1, through Friday, May 5, for the annual commemoration.

Visitors may enter through the doors nearest the May 4 Memorial, facing the Victory Bell.

Here are the scheduled events.

May 3

4 p.m., Kent Student Center Kiva: The May 4 Task Force and Kent State's May 4 Visitors Center, supported by the College of Arts and Sciences, will host a panel discussion called "The Long Road to National Landmark Status" to celebrate the many steps and numerous people involved in the decades long journey to receive national recognition.

In January the May 4 site was named a National Historic Landmark.

The site covers 17.4 acres of the campus, comprising the Commons, Blanket Hill, the Prentice Hall parking lot and the Practice Field.

7 p.m., Kent Student Center Kiva: The May 4 Task Force will host a panel discussion on Tent City on its 40th anniversary. The gym annex protest of 1977, also known as Tent City, was a controversy that arose from the university's proposal to build an annex to the gym on part of the May 4 site. During these protests, some objectors camped out on the building site.

9 p.m., Kent Student Center Kiva: A screening of the "Kent State & The Vietnam War" episode of CNN's newest original series, "SOUNDTRACKS: Songs that Defined History," will take place in advance of the broadcast premiere.

After the screening, a panel discussion moderated by Jon Adler, senior director of development for CNN Original Series, will take place with Executive Producer Chermayeff and Producer/Editor E. Donna Shepherd. The event is organized by the May 4 Task Force, May 4 Visitors Center and University Libraries.

11 p.m.: The candlelight walk and vigil will begin on the Commons. The march will begin at the Victory Bell and will continue around campus, concluding at the Prentice Hall parking lot, where lighted markers indicate where the four victims - Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder - were killed.

May 4

10 to 11 a.m.: The Kent State University Bookstore will host a book signing event from at the bookstore with several authors, including Susan Erenrich ("Grassroots Leadership and the Arts for Social Change"); Sabrina Fedel ("Leaving Kent State"); Jerry M. Lewis ("Kent State and May 4th: A Social Science Perspective"); Tom Grace ("Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties"); Greg Wilson ("Above the Shots"); Laura Davis and Mark Seeman ("This We Know" and "Democratic Narrative, History and Memory"); and David Hassler ("May 4th Voices").

Noon: The commemoration begins on the Kent State Commons. It includes a keynote speech by Lecia Brooks, outreach director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Todd Diacon, Kent State's senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, also will speak at the commemoration.

4 p.m., the Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center: Kent State will hold a community planning session to discuss plans for the 50th commemoration of the events of May 4, 1970. Members of the Kent State and the city of Kent communities are invited to join the conversation. The goal is to gather input from campus and community members about what the 50th commemoration should represent and the activities it should include on May 4, 2020.

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