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Campus "Unrest" demonstrations and consequences, 1970-1971

1971-11-12 American Report: Review of Religion and American Power Page 6

2-S AMERICAN REPORT NOVEMBER 12, 1971

A Chronology of Events 

Justice Delayed....

"Great Speech You Made Chief, Attacking The Courts For Being Too Slow."
REPORTS< KENT STATE KILLINGS< MAY 4, 1970, JACKSON KILLINGS, MAY 14 1970, DEPT. OF JUSTICE FILES, APPEALS FOR ACTION

"Justice delayed is not only justice denied, it is justice circumvented, justice mocked, and the system of justice undermined."
President Nixon 
March 11, 1971 

1970
May 4 - Four students killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard. Reaction demonstrations occur on hundreds of campuses leading to the first nationwide student strike in U.S. history, Gov. James Rhodes asks for F.B.I investigation.
May 8 - Mayor John Lindsay orders New York City public schools closed for a day of mourning in memory of the four killed at Kent State. Construction workers attack students in Wall Street area and break into Page College smashing plate glass windows and beating students in classrooms. 
May 4 - Two students killed and 15 wounded by police gunfire at Jackson State College in Mississippi.
June 13 - President Nixon establishes Commission on Campus Unrest with instructions to report within three months. William Scranton , former Governor of Pennsylvania. chosen to be chairman of the Commission, which is granted subpoena power. 
July 23- Akron Beacon Journal reveals contents of a 10 page Justice Department summary of the F.B.I investigation. The report concludes the shooting deaths were "not proper and not in order," and indicates that six Ohio National Guardsmen may be criminally prosecuted. 
August 3 - Governor Rhodes directs Ohio Attorney General to convene a special state grand jury to investigate violence at Kent State. This move blocks Portage County prosecutor Ronald Kane from calling local grand jury. Kane has publicly stated he would subpoena Gov. Rhodes to testify before his grand jury. 
August 19 - Commission on Campus Unrest opens three days of hearings at Kent State University. Gen. Robert Canterbury claims, under oath, his men were attacked by a "mob" of students coming to within "four or five years" of the guardsmen. He says Kent State President Robert White ordered noon rally dispersed. Not so, says White. It was Canterbury who decided to break up the assembly. 
September 24 - Assistant Attorney General Jerris Leonard, head of the Justice Department;s Civil Rights Division, promises Federal action if Ohio fails to capably handle legal proceedings in the matter. 
September 26 - Report of Commission on Campus Unrest transmitted to the President. Special report on Kent State concludes that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable."
October 16 - One Kent State professor and 24 students and nonstudents are indicted by the Ohio Grand Jury for offenses ranging from arson and first degree riot to interfering with firemen. Grand Jury exonerates the National Guard from any responsibility for the four deaths and nine injuries. 
October 24 - Governor Rhodes names the three special counsels to the special grand jury to handle prosecution of those indicted. One of them. Seabury Ford, tells a newsman "National Guardsmen should have shot all the troublemakers" at Kent State. It is revealed that Ford is a former member of the 107th Armored, the Guard unit involved in the shooting. Ohio Attorney General Brown claims he would not have recommended Ford to present evidence to the grand jury had he "known" of Ford's association with the 107th. 
October 31- The New York Times, acting on revelations made by Sen. Stephen Young of Ohio more than two weeks earlier, prints excerpts from a 35 page summary of the F.B.I investigation drawn up by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department Summary states the department has "some reason to believe that the claim by the National Guard that their lives were endangered by students was fabricated subsequent to the event." A suit is brought in Federal court in Cleveland to have the special grand jury report and the indictments thrown out. 
November 3 - Maj. John Simons chaplain of 107th Armored Regiment tells C.B.S News correspondent Robert Schakne the guardsmen should not have fired. 
November 9 - Kent State President White criticizes the special state grand jury report. He calls it "inaccurate" and said it "disregarded clear evidence." Robert Balycat, the Ohio chief special prosecutor for the grand jury probe, tells newsmen the 15 jurors never saw the Justice Department summary which said there is reason to believe Guardsmen fabricated the self defense story . Prior to the start of the grand jury hearings Balycat had stated that "all" available evidence and reports would be submitted to jurors. 
November 30- Commission member Joseph Rhodes Jr. speaking in North boror Mass says "There were two Guardsmen who committed second degree murder."
December 3 - Ohio Sen. Stephen Young says the special grand jury was "conceived in fraud and fakery" and as planned to "...clear Governor Rhodes of the blame for his abominable blunder." The jury. Young told the U.S. Senate "was planned as a whitewash job."
December 10 - President Nixon in a letter to former Governor Scranton, says "Law enforcement officers should use only the minimum force necessary in dealing with disorders when they arise. A human life - the life of a student, soldier or police officer - is a precious thing, and the taking of a life can be justified only as a necessary and last resort" The President also informs Scranton that the Attorney General is "reviewing" the Commission's special reports on Kent State and Jackson State. In Columbus, the Ohio National Guard filed its annual report with Governor Rhodes. The Kent State tragedy is summarized in less than 200 words in the 114 page document. The report said the K.S.U. disturbance "ended when National Guard troops, acting in self defense, fired their weapons killing four students and wounding several others. "

1971
January 12 - Portage County Prosecutor Ronald Kane accuses Governor Rhodes and other state officials of thwarting him "at every turn" during the campus disorders. Kane had urged Rhodes to close Kent State on Sunday May 3, for a cooling off period. Rhodes refused. 
January 28 - Federal Judge Thomas orders the special grand jury report expunged from the records and physically destroyed, but allows the indictments of 25 persons to stand. 
February 5 - Ohio's new governor, John Gilligan. challenges the authenticity of the Justice Department's 35 page summary of the F.B.I investigation. The Governor's executive counsel, James Friedman, said "We've got something that can't possibly be anything official"  In Washington, however, a Justice Department spokesman said the 35 page report was written by Robert Murphy, assistant chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division. 
March 21- Report in the Washington Post states that, "The Government has virtually decided against convening a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the killing of four Kent State students." and gives the reasoning of the Department of Justice for the anticipated decision. 
March 24 - The Rev. John Adams and members of Washington Interreligious Staff Council meet with Jerris Leonard at the Justice Department. 
April 7 - The Kent State University Commission on Violence, chaired by Professor Harold Mayer, fails to reach agreement on what happened and why. The Commission will not issue a formal report although four members of the Commission do issue a "minority" report. The Mayer Commission claims its work was hindered by the lack of information from "law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I., and the Ohio National Guard."
April 30 - James Michner's book "Kent State: What Happened and Why" is published. Michener states "it seems likely" there was "some kind of rough verbal agreement" reached on the football practice field "to shoot at the students" a few minutes later.
May 3 - James Ahern, a member of the President's Commission, addresses students at Kent State and says those who died and were wounded were victims of "the conscious deliberate acts" of other men.
May 4 - On the first anniversary of the killing of their children the parents issue a statement in Washington D.C., through Rev. John Adams. They called for the convening of a Federal Grand Jury "because the truth of what happened has become the fifth victim of this tragedy." They said, "It would be monstrous to deny us, the parents, the judicial forum wherein the attention of the American people may be focused on the viewpoint that responsibility for the killing of our children does not rest solely upon the students, faculty , and administration at Kent Sate." On the campus, memorial services are held with an all night vigil at the four points where those who were killed a year ago fell. Dr. Cynthia Wedel, President of the National Council of Churches of Christ, holds a news conference in Washington D.C., and urged the Attorney general of the U.S. to convene a Federal Grand Jury. 
May 13- Senators McGovern, Hughes, Tunney, Stevenson and Bayh, write a letter to Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird requesting a status report on what action has been taken to implement the recommendations of the President's Commission that state militias "never again" will be issued loaded weapons like the M-1 and M-16 when "confronting student demonstrators" The Office of the Secretary responded by detailing written commitments by all of the states bar three to follow the Army guidelines on controlling civil disorders. The reply also noted that during the period of January 1, 1968 through June 1971, The National Guard had been committed to civil disturbances duty on some 250 separate occasions throughout the country but in only one had they caused death and serious bodily injury - Kent State. 
May 17 - Mr. Adams and Attorney Steven Sindell meet with Deputy Attorney General Kleindienst 
May 19 - The Public Broadcasting System shows Paul Ronder's documentary "Part of the Family" which eulogizes three young Americans who died violently in 1970. Carmine Macedonio, killed by a mine in Viet Nam; Philip Gibbs, shot by police at Jackson State and Allison Krause, shot by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State. 
June 11- Peter Davies completes his study of the Kent State tragedy and submits it to Mr. Adams the following day. 
June 21 - The Davies report , "An Appeal for Justice" is presented by Mr. Adams in person to Jerris Leonard's successor as head of the Civil Right Division of the Justice Department, David Norman. 
June 22 - Davies delivers copes of the "Appeal" to the offices of Attorney General Mitchell and Deputy Attorney General Kleindienst Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee on Administrative Practices and Procedures, holds hearing on the Scranton Commission. Witnesses Scranton, Ahern, Rhodes and William Byrne urge the convening of a Federal Grand Jury. 
July 21- Senator McGovern addresses the U.S. Senate and calls the Ohio Grand Jury "That conducted an inquiry into these killings" nothing "but a whitewash of the agents of Government involved in the events that led to the killings," McGovern said "The burden must fall upon a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the killings..."
July 22 - Mr. Adams releases the Davies report to the press Congressman William Moorhead (D-Pa) enters the text of the report in the Congressional Record and says " I believe that a prima facie case has been made that there was murder committed at Kent State,,,, I hope that the work of Mr. Davies and the thousands of hours put into this investigation by friends and relatives of the four slain students is not wasted."
July 23 - Numerous newspapers across the country give considerable coverage to the report and its argument that official reports indicate the shooting was triggered as the result of a conspiracy on the part of several guardsmen to punish student demonstrators. 
August 13- Attorney General MItchelll announces that his department is closing its files on the Kent State killings despite his conclusion the shooting was "unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable" Mitchell says there is "no credible evidence" of a conspiracy and a little likelihood of "successful" prosecutions of individual guardsmen. The parents of those killed respond by stating that Mitchell's decision to do nothing is "almost as great a shock" as the news that their children had been killed. Mrs. Schroedeer says she now knows that the Department of Justice is capable of "fraud and deceit."
August 26 - Senator Kennedy announces at the National Press Club in Washington that his committee will investigate the Justice Department's handling of the Kent State tragedy. 
September 13- 1st Sgt. Myron C. Pryor of the Ohio National Guard files a $1.5 million libel and slander suit against Peter Davies in Federal court in Manhattan. Just over a week later Pryor amends the suit to include the Board of Christian Social Concerns of the United Methodist Church and claims $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages. 
September 23 - Dr. A. Dudley Ward, General Secretary of the Board of Christian Social Concerns, says the church will "resist" the suit with appropriate legal action and emphasizes the purpose of making Davies report public was to encourage debate and arouse concern in a national tragedy which has not been resolved judicially as our laws provide
September 30- Ohio's 8th District Court of Appeals, in a stunning 2-1 verdict, upset the concept that the state enjoys sovereign immunity and cannot be sued without its permission. The ruling, a landmark decision in Ohio if upheld by higher courts, came in a $2 million wrongful death suit against the state by Arthur Kraise whose daughter Allison was killed at Kent Sate. Appellate judges Day and Krenler ruled the lower court for trial, declaring: "The state of Ohio is responsible... for the tortious acts of its authorized agents."
October 4 - Two Kent students, Greg Rambo of the campus Young republicans, and Paul Keane, draw up a petition to President Nixon urging him to "overrule" Mitchell by convening a grand jury to resolve the conflicting reports "in the dignity of our Federal court system" Kent State President Dr. Glenn Olds agrees to accept the petition and transmit it to President Nixon if a majority of the faculty and student body sign it. 
October 15 - At a noon ceremony on the Commons, Greg Rambo and Paul Keane present Dr. Olds with the petition containing more than 10,000 signatures. 

October 20- Dr. Olds, Rambo, and Keane fly to Washington to present petition to White House aide.

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2-S AMERICAN REPORT NOVEMBER 12, 1971 A Chronology of Events Justice Delayed.... "Great Speech You Made Chief, Attacking The Courts For Being Too Slow." REPORTS< KENT STATE KILLINGS< MAY 4, 1970, JACKSON KILLINGS, MAY 14 1970, DEPT. OF JUSTICE FILES, APPEALS FOR ACTION "Justice delayed is not only justice denied, it is justice circumvented, justice mocked, and the system of justice undermined." President Nixon March 11, 1971 1970 May 4 - Four students killed and nine wounded by the Ohio National Guard. Reaction demonstrations occur on hundreds of campuses leading to the first nationwide student strike in U.S. history, Gov. James Rhodes asks for F.B.I investigation. May 8 - Mayor John Lindsay orders New York City public schools closed for a day of mourning in memory of the four killed at Kent State. Construction workers attack students in Wall Street area and break into Page College smashing plate glass windows and beating students in classrooms. May 4 - Two students killed and 15 wounded by police gunfire at Jackson State College in Mississippi. June 13 - President Nixon establishes Commission on Campus Unrest with instructions to report within three months. William Scranton , former Governor of Pennsylvania. chosen to be chairman of the Commission, which is granted subpoena power. July 23- Akron Beacon Journal reveals contents of a 10 page Justice Department summary of the F.B.I investigation. The report concludes the shooting deaths were "not proper and not in order," and indicates that six Ohio National Guardsmen may be criminally prosecuted. August 3 - Governor Rhodes directs Ohio Attorney General to convene a special state grand jury to investigate violence at Kent State. This move blocks Portage County prosecutor Ronald Kane from calling local grand jury. Kane has publicly stated he would subpoena Gov. Rhodes to testify before his grand jury. August 19 - Commission on Campus Unrest opens three days of hearings at Kent State University. Gen. Robert Canterbury claims, under oath, his men were attacked by a "mob" of students coming to within "four or five years" of the guardsmen. He says Kent State President Robert White ordered noon rally dispersed. Not so, says White. It was Canterbury who decided to break up the assembly. September 24 - Assistant Attorney General Jerris Leonard, head of the Justice Department;s Civil Rights Division, promises Federal action if Ohio fails to capably handle legal proceedings in the matter. September 26 - Report of Commission on Campus Unrest transmitted to the President. Special report on Kent State concludes that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable." October 16 - One Kent State professor and 24 students and nonstudents are indicted by the Ohio Grand Jury for offenses ranging from arson and first degree riot to interfering with firemen. Grand Jury exonerates the National Guard from any responsibility for the four deaths and nine injuries. October 24 - Governor Rhodes names the three special counsels to the special grand jury to handle prosecution of those indicted. One of them. Seabury Ford, tells a newsman "National Guardsmen should have shot all the troublemakers" at Kent State. It is revealed that Ford is a former member of the 107th Armored, the Guard unit involved in the shooting. Ohio Attorney General Brown claims he would not have recommended Ford to present evidence to the grand jury had he "known" of Ford's association with the 107th. October 31- The New York Times, acting on revelations made by Sen. Stephen Young of Ohio more than two weeks earlier, prints excerpts from a 35 page summary of the F.B.I investigation drawn up by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department Summary states the department has "some reason to believe that the claim by the National Guard that their lives were endangered by students was fabricated subsequent to the event." A suit is brought in Federal court in Cleveland to have the special grand jury report and the indictments thrown out. November 3 - Maj. John Simons chaplain of 107th Armored Regiment tells C.B.S News correspondent Robert Schakne the guardsmen should not have fired. November 9 - Kent State President White criticizes the special state grand jury report. He calls it "inaccurate" and said it "disregarded clear evidence." Robert Balycat, the Ohio chief special prosecutor for the grand jury probe, tells newsmen the 15 jurors never saw the Justice Department summary which said there is reason to believe Guardsmen fabricated the self defense story . Prior to the start of the grand jury hearings Balycat had stated that "all" available evidence and reports would be submitted to jurors. November 30- Commission member Joseph Rhodes Jr. speaking in North boror Mass says "There were two Guardsmen who committed second degree murder." December 3 - Ohio Sen. Stephen Young says the special grand jury was "conceived in fraud and fakery" and as planned to "...clear Governor Rhodes of the blame for his abominable blunder." The jury. Young told the U.S. Senate "was planned as a whitewash job." December 10 - President Nixon in a letter to former Governor Scranton, says "Law enforcement officers should use only the minimum force necessary in dealing with disorders when they arise. A human life - the life of a student, soldier or police officer - is a precious thing, and the taking of a life can be justified only as a necessary and last resort" The President also informs Scranton that the Attorney General is "reviewing" the Commission's special reports on Kent State and Jackson State. In Columbus, the Ohio National Guard filed its annual report with Governor Rhodes. The Kent State tragedy is summarized in less than 200 words in the 114 page document. The report said the K.S.U. disturbance "ended when National Guard troops, acting in self defense, fired their weapons killing four students and wounding several others. " 1971 January 12 - Portage County Prosecutor Ronald Kane accuses Governor Rhodes and other state officials of thwarting him "at every turn" during the campus disorders. Kane had urged Rhodes to close Kent State on Sunday May 3, for a cooling off period. Rhodes refused. January 28 - Federal Judge Thomas orders the special grand jury report expunged from the records and physically destroyed, but allows the indictments of 25 persons to stand. February 5 - Ohio's new governor, John Gilligan. challenges the authenticity of the Justice Department's 35 page summary of the F.B.I investigation. The Governor's executive counsel, James Friedman, said "We've got something that can't possibly be anything official" In Washington, however, a Justice Department spokesman said the 35 page report was written by Robert Murphy, assistant chief of the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division. March 21- Report in the Washington Post states that, "The Government has virtually decided against convening a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the killing of four Kent State students." and gives the reasoning of the Department of Justice for the anticipated decision. March 24 - The Rev. John Adams and members of Washington Interreligious Staff Council meet with Jerris Leonard at the Justice Department. April 7 - The Kent State University Commission on Violence, chaired by Professor Harold Mayer, fails to reach agreement on what happened and why. The Commission will not issue a formal report although four members of the Commission do issue a "minority" report. The Mayer Commission claims its work was hindered by the lack of information from "law enforcement agencies, the F.B.I., and the Ohio National Guard." April 30 - James Michner's book "Kent State: What Happened and Why" is published. Michener states "it seems likely" there was "some kind of rough verbal agreement" reached on the football practice field "to shoot at the students" a few minutes later. May 3 - James Ahern, a member of the President's Commission, addresses students at Kent State and says those who died and were wounded were victims of "the conscious deliberate acts" of other men. May 4 - On the first anniversary of the killing of their children the parents issue a statement in Washington D.C., through Rev. John Adams. They called for the convening of a Federal Grand Jury "because the truth of what happened has become the fifth victim of this tragedy." They said, "It would be monstrous to deny us, the parents, the judicial forum wherein the attention of the American people may be focused on the viewpoint that responsibility for the killing of our children does not rest solely upon the students, faculty , and administration at Kent Sate." On the campus, memorial services are held with an all night vigil at the four points where those who were killed a year ago fell. Dr. Cynthia Wedel, President of the National Council of Churches of Christ, holds a news conference in Washington D.C., and urged the Attorney general of the U.S. to convene a Federal Grand Jury. May 13- Senators McGovern, Hughes, Tunney, Stevenson and Bayh, write a letter to Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird requesting a status report on what action has been taken to implement the recommendations of the President's Commission that state militias "never again" will be issued loaded weapons like the M-1 and M-16 when "confronting student demonstrators" The Office of the Secretary responded by detailing written commitments by all of the states bar three to follow the Army guidelines on controlling civil disorders. The reply also noted that during the period of January 1, 1968 through June 1971, The National Guard had been committed to civil disturbances duty on some 250 separate occasions throughout the country but in only one had they caused death and serious bodily injury - Kent State. May 17 - Mr. Adams and Attorney Steven Sindell meet with Deputy Attorney General Kleindienst May 19 - The Public Broadcasting System shows Paul Ronder's documentary "Part of the Family" which eulogizes three young Americans who died violently in 1970. Carmine Macedonio, killed by a mine in Viet Nam; Philip Gibbs, shot by police at Jackson State and Allison Krause, shot by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State. June 11- Peter Davies completes his study of the Kent State tragedy and submits it to Mr. Adams the following day. June 21 - The Davies report , "An Appeal for Justice" is presented by Mr. Adams in person to Jerris Leonard's successor as head of the Civil Right Division of the Justice Department, David Norman. June 22 - Davies delivers copes of the "Appeal" to the offices of Attorney General Mitchell and Deputy Attorney General Kleindienst Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee on Administrative Practices and Procedures, holds hearing on the Scranton Commission. Witnesses Scranton, Ahern, Rhodes and William Byrne urge the convening of a Federal Grand Jury. July 21- Senator McGovern addresses the U.S. Senate and calls the Ohio Grand Jury "That conducted an inquiry into these killings" nothing "but a whitewash of the agents of Government involved in the events that led to the killings," McGovern said "The burden must fall upon a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the killings..." July 22 - Mr. Adams releases the Davies report to the press Congressman William Moorhead (D-Pa) enters the text of the report in the Congressional Record and says " I believe that a prima facie case has been made that there was murder committed at Kent State,,,, I hope that the work of Mr. Davies and the thousands of hours put into this investigation by friends and relatives of the four slain students is not wasted." July 23 - Numerous newspapers across the country give considerable coverage to the report and its argument that official reports indicate the shooting was triggered as the result of a conspiracy on the part of several guardsmen to punish student demonstrators. August 13- Attorney General MItchelll announces that his department is closing its files on the Kent State killings despite his conclusion the shooting was "unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable" Mitchell says there is "no credible evidence" of a conspiracy and a little likelihood of "successful" prosecutions of individual guardsmen. The parents of those killed respond by stating that Mitchell's decision to do nothing is "almost as great a shock" as the news that their children had been killed. Mrs. Schroedeer says she now knows that the Department of Justice is capable of "fraud and deceit." August 26 - Senator Kennedy announces at the National Press Club in Washington that his committee will investigate the Justice Department's handling of the Kent State tragedy. September 13- 1st Sgt. Myron C. Pryor of the Ohio National Guard files a $1.5 million libel and slander suit against Peter Davies in Federal court in Manhattan. Just over a week later Pryor amends the suit to include the Board of Christian Social Concerns of the United Methodist Church and claims $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages. September 23 - Dr. A. Dudley Ward, General Secretary of the Board of Christian Social Concerns, says the church will "resist" the suit with appropriate legal action and emphasizes the purpose of making Davies report public was to encourage debate and arouse concern in a national tragedy which has not been resolved judicially as our laws provide September 30- Ohio's 8th District Court of Appeals, in a stunning 2-1 verdict, upset the concept that the state enjoys sovereign immunity and cannot be sued without its permission. The ruling, a landmark decision in Ohio if upheld by higher courts, came in a $2 million wrongful death suit against the state by Arthur Kraise whose daughter Allison was killed at Kent Sate. Appellate judges Day and Krenler ruled the lower court for trial, declaring: "The state of Ohio is responsible... for the tortious acts of its authorized agents." October 4 - Two Kent students, Greg Rambo of the campus Young republicans, and Paul Keane, draw up a petition to President Nixon urging him to "overrule" Mitchell by convening a grand jury to resolve the conflicting reports "in the dignity of our Federal court system" Kent State President Dr. Glenn Olds agrees to accept the petition and transmit it to President Nixon if a majority of the faculty and student body sign it. October 15 - At a noon ceremony on the Commons, Greg Rambo and Paul Keane present Dr. Olds with the petition containing more than 10,000 signatures. October 20- Dr. Olds, Rambo, and Keane fly to Washington to present petition to White House aide.