KENT, Ohio - In honor of the May 4 50th Commemoration, Kent State University Libraries (KSUL) has created three virtual exhibitions, as well as additional engaging opportunities for alumni and others to share their May 4 stories. 

KSUL’s Special Collections & Archives curated three virtual exhibits that feature historical sources related to the Kent State shootings. The exhibits described below are accessible online at https://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/current-events-and-exhibitions.

• “Civil Rights, Black Power, and Anti-War Actions: Orangeburg, Kent, and Jackson, 1960-1967” highlights social activism occurring in and around three state universities during the years leading up to the shootings at South Carolina State (Orangeburg), Kent State (Ohio), and Jackson State (Mississippi). Selected key events in each of the three institutions’ immediate environments are showcased, indicating a growing level of Civil Rights actions, anti-war protests, and the development of a Black Power movement occurring from 1960 through 1967. 
   
• “The Truth Demands Justice: A Snapshot History of the May 4th Task Force” features posters, flyers, photographs, and other items created by the May 4th Task Force, a student-run organization founded in 1975 to raise awareness among students, faculty, administrators, and the general public about the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970.
   
•  “Campus Strike Papers: The Aftermath of May 4 1970” highlights a selection of campus strike papers that provide evidence of the national student strike that occurred in response to the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and the shootings at Kent State and Jackson State universities in the spring of that year. 

KSUL is also offering new virtual ways to “Share Your May 4 Story." The Kent State Shootings Oral History Project invites participation by people of all perspectives, including those of Kent State alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators who were on campus that day, residents of Kent and nearby communities, members of the Ohio Army National Guard, or anyone whose life was affected by these historic events. Each person’s story is a unique and important contribution to the historical record, and these first-hand accounts are archived in the May 4 Collection in Special Collections and Archives, one of the largest archives related to the shootings and their aftermath. KSUL is offering three options for contributing a May 4 story remotely; details and clear instructions are available online at: www.library.kent.edu/May4OralHistory