Panel Discussion on Kent State University’s New National Historic Landmark Status.
On May 4, 1970, The National Guard fired their guns for thirteen seconds toward Prentice Hall parking lot in efforts to seize demonstrators, killing four people and wounding nine. The tragic events had a profound impact on Kent State University and the rest of the United States.
The day before the 47th anniversary of the Tent City protests, The May 4 Task Force and Kent State’s May 4 Visitors Center, supported by the College of Arts and Sciences, hosted a panel discussion called “The Long Road to National Landmark Status.”
The panelists included Roger Di Poaolo, Chic Canfora, John Lawson, Jerry Lewis, Laura Davis and Mark Seeman, who all played a role in the process of the national recognition and represented those who blazed the trail to make sure that what happened was not lost.
The theme of this year’s commemoration of May 4 is “Tent City,” during which more than 200 people pitched tents outside of the Memorial Athletic and Convocation (M.A.C.) Center and slept there for two months in protest of the new building.
DiPaolo was an editor at the Record Courier for twenty-six years and reported on the shooting on May 4, 1970. National media covered the “Move the Gym” demonstration and The Jimmy Carter White House supported preservation efforts.
“What happened at Kent State mattered and it did change history. It started off as a struggle to have it remembered,” DiPaolo said. “You have to fight for history.”
Davis, a freshman at KSU at the time of the shooting and a current professor, compared the May 4 shooting to The Boston Massacre, Wounded Knee, Ludlow Tent Colony, Haymarket Martyrs, Matewan and Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Seeman, a professor at KSU, questions the future for the Prentice Hall Parking Lot. “It’s the very best thing in the world that it remains a parking lot like it was 47 years ago,” he says. “The university will grow and evolve but the question is what will happen to this space?”
“Nothing changes the circumstances and the death of those four people who died that day, but those who want to understand can come here and learn something and feel something that they could not otherwise,” Seeman said.
Lewis, a faculty Marshal on the day of the shooting, is now a sociology professor at KSU. Lewis covered the topic of social control violence and how the students at KSU had their voices taken away on May 4, 1970. Lewis said the landmark tells the story of social control violence.
The panel discussion ended with a Q&A amongst the audience and the panelists.
The panel discussion about the May 4th Memorial becoming a national landmark is just beginning in the KIVA at @KentState pic.twitter.com/IGRImplDgK
— Sammy FoyFoy (@hey_its_samf) May 3, 2017
That panel discussion last night was amazing ❤️ Now to go pay my respects on this May 4th to the tragedy that created this national landmark
— Sammy FoyFoy (@hey_its_samf) May 4, 2017
Did you know the May 4th Memorial became a national landmark 10 years early? Check out my LIVE coverage on this discussion later today.
— Sammy FoyFoy (@hey_its_samf) May 4, 2017
“The Long Road to National Landmark Status” has begun in the Kent State Kiva with six different panelists and Ken Bindas as Monitor.
— Hayley Dillow (@hdillow94) May 3, 2017
May 4 site became a national landmark in only 40 years when the agency usually only considers sites after 50 years.
— Hayley Dillow (@hdillow94) May 3, 2017
Laura Davis begins with how the Landmark Program saw May 4th's place in history.
— Hayley Dillow (@hdillow94) May 3, 2017
“Kent State is part of a large arc of tragic moments in American History.” – Landmark Program
— Hayley Dillow (@hdillow94) May 3, 2017
The May 4th Memorial located on the Kent State University campus became a national landmark in January of this year. As the memorial date approach, a panel met at the KIVA on campus to discuss the new national landmark status.
