Kent State Incident FBI Files & Government Reporting

Kent State Incident FBI Files & Government Reporting

This collection contains 2,008 pages.

FBI Files

1,146 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., 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, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder were killed by National Guardsmen.

On April 30, 1970, 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. On May 2 student 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. 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.

The planned May 4th demonstration was banned. On May 4th, approximately two thousand students demonstrated. The Ohio National Guard dispersed the college students (in a crowd numbering at its height an estimated two to three thousand, including spectators) protesting both the Vietnam War and the physical presence of the National Guard on the Kent State campus. After dispersing the majority of the onlookers and protestors, the Guard fired sixty-seven shots in thirteen seconds, killing four Kent State students and wounding nine, permanently paralyzing one student.

 
Terrence Brooks Norman FBI Files

174 pages of FBI files covering Terrence Brooks Norman.  Terrence Norman, a former Kent State University student and FBI informant, has been the subject of speculation about his possible of involvement in the May 4th shooting. The Norman FBI files contain his statements about his activity during the May 4, 1970 shooting and lists of items collected on the Kent State campus, and turned over to the FBI Laboratory for examination.

 
National Historic Landmark Nomination: May 4, 1970, Kent State Shootings Site

The U.S.  Department of the Interior, National Park Service's report on the nomination of the May 4, 1970, Kent State Shootings Site as a National Historic Landmark.

The May 4, 1970, Kent State Shootings Site is located near the center of the Kent State campus and consists of two well-bounded, open, and level areas, separated by Blanket Hill. This large area is similar to many college campuses in the United States, with interspersed green space, classroom buildings, dormitories, recreational facilities, parking lots, and wooded areas. Although the campus was founded in 1910, most of the buildings and physical features in the immediate area of the shootings postdate World War II and are coincident with a period when this portion of campus experienced considerable growth associated with increases in enrollment and an expanded mission.

 
The Report of the President's Commission on-Campus Unrest

419 pages produced by the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, Washington, D.C.

This report examines campus unrest. Emphasis is placed on the student protest in the 1960's, the black student movement, university response to campus disorder,  law enforcement response, university reform, government and campus unrest, and Kent State and Jackson State. Recommendations are suggested for the President, the government, the law enforcement agencies, the university, and the students. Appendices include a 191-item bibliography, commission hearings and investigations, and official documents. Photographs of the Kent State incident may be copyrighted and have been omitted from the text.