KENT, Ohio — Kent State hosted a May 4 commemoration ceremony on Saturday. It was in honor of the four students who were killed by the National Guard on Kent State’s campus on May 4, 1970. 

What You Need To Know

  • Kent State had a commemoration ceremony for the four students who were killed by the National Guard on campus 54 years ago

  • There were also pro-Palestinian protesters at the ceremony 

  • A survivor of the incident, one of the 9 who were injured, was at the ceremony to honor his fellow classmates who passed away 

Dean Kahler, one of the nine other students who was injured during this incident, was back on Kent State’s campus on Saturday for the ceremony.

“If you forget your history, you are doomed to repeat it and having these events and reminding people of what happened here 54 years ago is very important,” Kahler said.

When this tragedy happened over 50 years ago, the demonstrators were protesting the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia. Now, students on college campuses across the country are protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Kahler said he sees the parallels between then and now.

“The issues of humanity and right and wrong and the abuse of power are still at the forefront in this country. We haven’t come all that far,” he said.

Pro-Palestinian protesters were at the May 4 ceremony. Yazen Issawi, a sophomore at Kent State, was among the demonstrators. He explained that he doesn’t hope a similar situation happens now that it did back in 1970, but he expressed the fact that some things are different now as all eyes are on these protests across the country.

“A lot of eyes are on the universities around the world and you know whatever happens, God forbid anything happened to these students there will be reparations,” Issawi said.

Issawi said that he and his fellow protesters are on the “right side of history”.