Writing in The Baltimore Sun, Dr. Kalyan Singhal, professor of innovation and supply-chain management in The University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business and a veteran educator and scholar, recalls his college days at Kent State University, where, on May 4, 1970, National Guard troops killed four students and injured nine others during a campus protest against the Vietnam War. Fifty-five years after the shocking episode, Singhal recalls the details of that time in a vivid account.
"I arrived in Kent, Ohio, from India in September 1969 to join the MBA program at the 866-acre campus of Kent State University. I soon fell in love with Kent's mesmerizing beauty, magnificent trees and alluring tranquility," Singhal writes. In the following months, he sees rising tensions between students and those who supported the war—including leaders from the state and federal government.
"On Monday, May 4, around noon, about two thousand people gathered near the commons to protest the war in Indochina and the presence of the National Guardsmen on campus," he writes. "I stood at a distance with some friends. Although I had strong views about the senseless war, I felt that, as a foreign student, I shouldn't say anything about the internal affairs of my host country."
Having met a young woman named Allison, who wanted to have a conversation with him about nonviolent civil disobedience, Singhal watched the protest unfold.
"The guardsmen ordered the protesters to disperse, but they refused to back down. Finding their tear gas ineffective in the freshening spring breeze and the crowd increasingly restive, the guardsmen retreated a short way. The next moment, 28 of them turned and began shooting toward the protesters. They fired between 61 and 67 rounds in 13 seconds, injuring nine students and killing four. Dean Kahler, 19, was permanently paralyzed by his injury. Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Miller, 20, William Schroeder, 19, and Sandra Scheuer, 20, were killed.
"Within hours, the media reported that on Sunday, Allison Krause had put a flower into a guardsman's rifle barrel, telling him, 'Flowers are better than bullets.' It was Allison whom I was supposed to meet that afternoon to talk about Mahatma Gandhi and nonviolence."
Read Dr. Singhal's opinion piece about the Kent State killings in The Baltimore Sun.
Learn about UBalt's recent awarding of the inaugural title of Distinguished University Professor to Dr. Singhal.