1995 Restrospective
Articles from Emerson Today.
Conference to Examine Kent and Jackson State Shootings 25 Years Later, April 17-23, 1995
Twenty-five years later, what happened cannot be forgotten. The shootings of students by National Guardsmen at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 and Jackson State University 11 days later marked the beginning of the end of America's involvement in Vietnam, says many historians.
On Sunday, April 23 and Monday, April 24, Emerson College and the Division of Communication Studies will sponsor a 25-year retrospective of the controversial events which collectively left four students dead, nine others wounded, and a nation shaken.
The two-day conference will bring to the Emerson campus two of the surviving victims from Kent State, an eyewitness to the Jackson State shooting, and noted historians.
"Kent State was a touchstone, a watershed event just like the assasinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.," said conference organizer J. Gregory Payne, communication Studies chair and author of Mayday: Kent State.
In an historic first-time meeting, the conference is scheduled to bring together Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Filo and Mary Vecchio Gillum. Filo's photograph, which Life magazine recently named one of the top 25 photographs of the century," depicts a horror-stricken Vecchio kneeling over the body of a slain Jeffrey Miller.
Among those wounded at Kent State who are scheduled to participate in the Emerson Conference will be Alan Canfora, shot in the hand as he waved a black flag, and Dean Kahler, who was paralyzed from the waist down by a guardsman's bullet. In addition, Kent State eyewitness Alan Frank will speak on his research into the US government's possible involvement in the shootings.
The conference will begin at 2p.m. on Sunday, April 23 at 21 Commonwealth Avenue with a reading from "A Gathering of Poets." On Monday, April 24, following the presentation of the play "Kent State: A Requiem" at the First and Second Church, 66 Marlborough St. at 6p.m. , the conference will conclude with a candlelight vigil at the Boston Massacre statue in the Boston Common. For a complete schedule of conference events, call 578-8737.
Emerson Conference Helps Heal Victims' Wounds, May 1-7, 1995
It took 25 years and a trip to Emerson, but last Sunday photographer John Filo and Mary Ann Vecchio Gillum finally met. Gillum was the young woman pictured in the historic Kent State photo kneeling over the body of a slain student. They met at a 25-year retrospective of the shootings at Kent and Jackson State Universities sponsored by the Division of Communication Studies.
"I've kept what happened at Kent State bottled up inside for so long. This weekend has really helped to heal some old wounds," she said, echoing the sentiments of many of the other victims who came to Emerson to participate in the history conference.
Slain Students Honored
The Division of Communication Studies has announced that it will post-humously award the Robert F. Kennedy Award to the four students killed in the shootings at Kent State.
The parents of William Knox Schroeder, Sandra Lee Scheuer, Allison Beth Krause, and Jeffrey Glen Miller will receive the awards on behalf of their children at a ceremony in Kent, Ohio this week.
Gillum, whose life was changed forever when Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on student protesters, killing four and wounding nine others, praised the Emerson conference for allowing the victims of the shooting to talk about what happened.
