Join us on the °µÍø½ûÇø ToddCast as President Todd Diacon revisits a conversation with Professor Emeritus Jerry M. Lewis, Ph.D.
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on students protesting the escalation of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine others. Many historians credit the shootings, which brought the war home to Middle America, with changing the course of America’s involvement in the war.
Lewis was on duty as a faculty marshal in the Prentice Hall parking lot, where he witnessed students fall from gunshot wounds. In the years following the shootings, many university administrators sought to downplay the tragic history, but Lewis felt compelled to act on it. It was important, he said, that the shootings were not forgotten, and more important that the memory of the students killed and injured that day be kept alive.
