The Residual Landscape of Kent State, May 4th, 1970

Abstract

The killing of Kent State students by National Guard troops on May 4th, 1970 transformed an ordinary site into an extraordinary landscape of public memory. Since the tragedy occurred, the landscape, including its artifacts, has been the theater for an ongoing battlefield of contested views. John Bodnar's thesis (Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century) about the construction of public memory provides a framework within which to analyze this memorial site. The analysis reveals that official and vernacular cultural views have both struggled for dominance on the site over the years since May 4th, 1970.

The official memorial expression of May 4th is initiated and maintained by a sequence of Kent State administrations; the vernacular, on the other hand, issues forth from a variety of diverse grassroots organizations, and is maintained journalists, tourists, and representatives of popular culture. The official memorial that was commissioned and built by the university as the result of a national design competition was intended to provide a focal point of public memory. A close examination of the site, however, reveals an alternative vernacular memorial containing two parts: I shall name them the tragic landscape that centers around the bullet hole (the hole from a National Guardsman's bullet in a metal sculpture), and the gathering landscape that focuses on the victory bell (the focal point of the student gathering prior to the shootings). Although this vernacular memorial landscape is not officially acknowledged, it is continually revived by a steady stream of tourists and journalists. This vernacular memorial is more compelling than the official memorial, in part because its spaces and monuments are connected to the very land on which the protests and tragedy occurred.

The current landscape is the result of the fight between official and vernacular depictions of the event. Rather than it being a cohesive and instructive healing field, it is a disconnected and fragmented battlefield. Ultimately, this residual landscape of May 4th is a haphazard mixture of official and vernacular expressions with the majority of memorial artifacts existing as isolated individual elements. The somewhat repressed vernacular landscape seems to provide the beginnings of a powerful memorial field that could work in conjunction with the official memorial. This particular site provides a golden opportunity for Kent State University to show the world how to allow the diverse beliefs of a community to coexist in a public space, which, at the same time binds the community together through agreement and collective memory.