I graduated in 1965. I do remember that the “protestors” were not peaceful and they were throwing rocks -like today, they had provocateurs. Don’t recall too much else about it. Most people I knew back then were kinda like -well gee how stupid do you have to be to throw rocks at someone that’s armed? Media and anti-war activists made a big deal about it.
Normal people just shrugged and went about their daily grind. Later, in 1968 they watched the Democrat National Convention, and stood in their living rooms and cheered while the police arrested Yippies and clapped when they administered a baton here and there-and said BDT.
> Kent State
What happened that day is the protests had gone violent the night before with a lot of destruction in the town. That day the protestors basically backed the Guardsmen into a literal corner. Facing overwhelming numbers they panicked. In my opinion their actions were completely justified. In fact I wish they had have been far more accurate.
-SB