Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Steve Sharp Oral History

Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Steve Sharp Oral History

Transcription Show Transcript
Narrator Sharp, Steve
Narrator's Role Student at Kent State University in 1970
Date of Interview 2000-05-03
Description Steve Sharp was an undergraduate student at Kent State University in 1970 and lived in the Moulton Hall dormitory. He relates his memories of the events surrounding the May 4, 1970, shootings on campus. He begins by discussing the events of Friday May, 1, and mentions the protest that took place in The Commons at noon and the unrest in downtown Kent later that night. He describes the burning of the ROTC Military Science Building on campus on May 2 and also discusses the burning of an archery shed nearby. He describes the National Guard presence on campus, the use of tear gas, and a student protest that he participated in on Sunday, May 3, in which the National Guardsmen used bayonets. He relates his eyewitness account of the shootings and then concludes by describing the scene in The Commons after the shootings had occurred and leaving campus during the evacuation. (Note: there are some technical problems with this recording: there are breaks and sound quality changes.)
Length of Interview 16:53 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
Kent State University. ROTC Building--Fires
Ohio. Army National Guard
Students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Tear gas munitions
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