The parents of the slain students
suffered as much as anyone. They must have relived their own personal tragedies every time
they returned to Kent for a pressconference. I remember Mrs. Schroeder, whose son Bill
died in 1970, standing at the Pagoda where the Guard stood as they fired-shaking as she
read a statement against the gym to the TV cameras. And as usual, it fell on deaf ears.
At a meeting in June, the parents invited the Trustees to discuss
with them their concerns. The only two trustees who attended were Joyce Quirk and David
Dix (who were in sympathy with the parents wishes that the gym facility not be built on
the site approved by the other trustees).
Seven years after the killings in 1970, none of the parents had
ever received even a note of condolence from the University.
A view of the Rally Crowd on September 4
It was now September 24, 1977. The
Commons was filling with protestors from all over the country. "Rutgers says 'Move
the Gym,' " "Oberlin Remembers," U. Mass, "Long Live the Spirit at
Kent and Jackson State!" Wisconsin, "Save the Site!" Over 3,000 people
filled the Commons in an incredible display of national support. Kunstler spoke, claiming
that the Courts and Legislatures
had "chickened out" by failing to halt construction. Reverend Charles Rawlings
of Cleveland, who had been arrested along with other clergy at the site, praised the
persistence of the Coalition. More speeches were made and
music was heard. Then the crowd marched thunderously around campus.
At each of the buildings which we had asked to be named for a
slain student, Carter Dodge gave a somber and powerful eulogy. The names of Jeff Miller,
Sandy Scheuer, Bill Schroeder, and Allison Krause were stencilled to the sides of the
appropriate buildings.
Finally, the march approached the contested site.
Street-wise radicals ripped the fence to shreds in a matter of minutes. The crowd surged
onto the site waving flags and banners as they sat on bulldozers and piles of dirt. I held
back. I had been arrested twice protesting the gym site.
Certainly, with the police churning their |
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ever-present
video cameras, I would be busted again if I participated. I ate my heart out-with envy and
pride. The crowd outside the fence chanted, "The People United Will Never Be
Defeated."
A veteran talking with a Faculty Observer at the
Rally on September 24
I talked with Dorothy Fuldheim on the phone. She is a
tough, crusty news commentator from Cleveland who had been one of our ardent supporters.
We were both angry and sad. The week before September 24, bulldozers and
buzzsaws had chopped Blanket Hill and the practice football field to a virtual moonscape
of rubble and dirt. The University had desecrated the site of the 1970 Massacre. The
destruction, the monstrous bulldozers and ugly buzz saws were an affront to any sensitive
person. Student
Government Representative Julia Cochrane and three other protestors could restrain
themselves no longer. They buried themselves in piles of dirt as the construction company
tried to remove some of the trees. Supporters stood in horror as the police let the
'dozers continue to dig over the
head of Julia. Finally, they arrested the four for disorderly conduct and Julia for
resisting arrest because she fainted when the bulldozer blade barely missed her head.
Protesters march through the Kent Campus
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