Tom Grace was one of nine Kent State University students seriously wounded by a fusillade of gunshots from the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, when he joined a student rally after leaving his university classroom. Four other students were killed, two of whom were not even attending the protest rally.
In the aftermath of the shooting, numerous student leaders were prosecuted and imprisoned. None of the officers who had issued order for the guardsmen to fire and even themselves joined in the shooting were ever prosecuted for their arguably criminal actions.
More than forty years later Tom Grace authored a temperate, well-considered, and thoroughly researched history of the Kent State struggle. It is much more than a personal memoir. A succinct account of how he came to be shot on that day is included in a prologue and in sidebars to the description of the day of the shootings, but this is not why he wrote this history. [From “Talking Union” by Paul Garver.
Thomas M. Grace is adjunct professor of history at Erie Community College. A 1972 graduate of Kent State University, he earned a PhD in history from SUNY Buffalo after many years as a social worker and union representative.
Join us this Sunday, November 6, 4-6 p.m. (+ potluck) at RS Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Rd., Grand Island, NY 14072.
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