Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Richard Karl Watkins Oral History

Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Richard Karl Watkins Oral History

Transcription Show Transcript
Narrator Watkins, Richard Karl
Narrator's Role Student at Kent State University in 1970
Date of Interview 1990-05-04
Description A sophomore at Kent State University in 1970, Richard Karl Watkins discusses his memories of the days surrounding the May 4 shootings on campus. He was an eyewitness to the shootings; he watched the events from the third floor study lounge in Dunbar Hall. From there, he had a clear view of Taylor Hall, the pagoda, the Prentice Hall parking lot, and the practice field. He describes the Guardsmen moving the students over the hill, the shootings, Robert Stamps being wounded, and the arrival of the ambulances. He also discusses the use of bayonets and tear gas on campus. He had been in a class that semester with Allison Krause, one of the students who was killed in the shootings, and also knew two of the students who were wounded: Douglas Wrentmore and Thomas Mark Grace. He discusses completing his classes by mail after the campus had been closed and how important the contact with his professors was to him. He also talks about the reactions he got from people in his home town in western Ohio when they learned he was a student at Kent State; he felt it affected his abililty to find a job that summer. [Note: this is the first of two oral histories given by Richard Karl Watkins].
Length of Interview 28:43 minutes
Places Discussed Kent (Ohio)
Time Period discussed 1970
Subject(s) Ambulances
Bayonets
College students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Eyewitness accounts
Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, 1970
Krause, Allison, 1951-1970
Stamps, Robert
Students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Tear gas munitions
Wrentmore, Douglas
Repository Special Collections and Archives
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Institution Kent State University
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Disclaimer The content of oral history interviews, written narratives and commentaries is personal and interpretive in nature, relying on memories, experiences, perceptions, and opinions of individuals. They do not represent the policy, views or official history of Kent State University and the University makes no assertions about the veracity of statements made by individuals participating in the project. Users are urged to independently corroborate and further research the factual elements of these narratives especially in works of scholarship and journalism based in whole or in part upon the narratives shared in the May 4 Collection and the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project.
Provenance/Collection May 4 Collection