Kent State exhibit honors student killed in Vietnam protests

Kent State University is opening the first in a planned series of exhibitions honoring students killed nearly 50 years ago during protests of the Vietnam War.

A tribute to Sandy Scheuer, titled “Sandy’s Scrapbook,” will open Monday at the school’s May 4 Visitors Center. The exhibition features photos and mementos from the scrapbook that Scheuer kept while in school.

Scheuer was walking to class when Ohio National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of demonstrators on May 4, 1970. Scheuer, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller and William Schroeder were killed. Nine others were wounded. The shooting triggered a nationwide student strike that led to hundreds of protests at other colleges and universities. The Visitors Center hopes to host three more exhibitions to honor Krause, Miller and Schroeder.

“Too often, Sandy, Bill, Allison and Jeff are only known for their tragic deaths,” Visitors Center Director Mindy Farmer said. “We want to show that they lived interesting and full lives.”

Farmer said the students’ stories underscore the divisions of the era.

“Allison and Jeff were activists. Bill was a member of the ROTC, struggling with the meaning of the Vietnam War. Sandy was an honors student trying to get to class,” she said. “They were people with enormous potential, taken way too soon. That is what we hope to convey.”

“They were people with enormous potential, taken way too soon. That is what we hope to convey.” — Visitors Center Director Mindy Farmer