Fw: Join us May 4: THE KENT STATE MASSACRE & TODAY’S STUDENT PROTESTS
From:
"Terry Lodge tjlodge50@PROTECTED [Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition]" <peacelist@PROTECTED>
In-Reply-To:
(no subject)
Date:
May 2nd 2024
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Mike Alewitz <artwirled@PROTECTED>
To: "info@PROTECTED" <info@PROTECTED>
Sent: Thursday, May 2, 2024 at 08:05:56 PM EDT
Subject: Join us May 4: THE KENT STATE MASSACRE & TODAY’S STUDENT PROTESTS
Please join us at Red Square or online:
THE KENT STATE MASSACRE & TODAY’S STUDENT PROTESTS – An Eyewitness Account
What: Slideshow & Video: KENT STATE MASSACRE & TODAY’S STUDENT PROTESTS – An Eyewitness Account
When: Saturday, May 4th, 2024 @ 4PM EST
Where: Red Square Gallery/Studio, New London CT
Why: To commemorate the 1970 massacres at Kent State, Augusta and Jackson State
Who: Participants include a Kent eyewitness, students participating in current demonstrations
Messages from Martin Sheen, Oliver Stone and others
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May 4 marks the 54-year commemoration of the massacre at Kent State. This slideshow presentation reveals the events of that day and the police shootings at Augusta and Jackson State in the following days. We will look at the May 1970 national student strike and how students successfully organized to defend their rights while playing a decisive role in ending the Vietnam War.
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On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on peaceful antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine others.
Ten days later, 75 Mississippi state police, armed with carbines, shotguns and submachine guns, fired 460 rounds into a dormitory at protesting students at Jackson State. The barrage left two dead and an unknown number of wounded.
And in between, rarely noted, was the suppression of the largest black uprising in a southern city during the civil rights era.
On May 11, 1970, the black community in Augusta, Georgia rebelled, after the burned and tortured body of an incarcerated 16-year-old mentally challenged black youth was dumped by his jailers at a local hospital.
The rebellion left six African American men dead – all shot in the back – and more than 60 wounded.
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The student strike began after Richard Nixon announced the US invasion of Cambodia – a major escalation of the war in Southeast Asia. The strike involved millions of students - over 400 campuses were occupied.
This May 4 commemoration will provide valuable insights regarding the current wave of campus protests.
The event will be anchored by Mike Alewitz, chairman of the Kent Student Mobilization Committee to End the War (SMC) and an eyewitness to the May 4 massacre. He addressed the May 9, 1970, emergency national demonstration in Washington DC of over 100,000 people, along with Jane Fonda, Dr. Benjamin Spock and Coretta Scott King.
During the student strike, Alewitz spoke at numerous rallies throughout the US and Canada. He was later subpoenaed and testified before the Presidential Commission on Campus Unrest (The Scranton Commission).
Alewitz is an agitprop muralist and Professor Emeritus of Mural Painting at Central CT State University.
Commenting on the commemoration, Alewitz stated:
“In 1970, provocative language from elected officials and college administrators led to the victimization, and ultimately the deaths, of students peacefully protesting the war. Creating a similar political framework today has already resulted in student protestors being arrested. We can and must support the right of students to peacefully assemble and protest today’s wars and occupations, without the possibility of another Kent State Massacre.”
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For further information:
Emma Willer (585) 217-6749
Red Square Website: RedSq.org
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