On Sunday, May 3, Kent State held its annual candlelight vigil honoring the victims of the Kent State Massacre in 1971 when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four unarmed students in addition to injuring nine others during a protest opposing the United States’ invasion of Cambodia. The vigil took place at 11:00 p.m, at the Victory Bell, where students and members of the communities gathered together to walk and mourn the lives lost that fateful day.
“I think it is important that we honor the legacy of May 4th, because I feel like personally that this is a story that people act like it has already come and gone, but this is an ongoing story,” said social media manager for the May Fourth Task Force, Addison Shepard. “I think it’s only the beginning. There’s still so many May 4th survivors around. Another thing that strikes me is that I feel like a lot of people our age will kind of just think of this as something that happened a long time ago, when it really wasn’t too long ago. And I just think it’s important to remember to honor the four students who died to make sure that something like this does not happen again.”
The first vigil began a year after the shooting in 1971, and was started by Jerry Lewis, a faculty marshal present during the shootings who dedicated the rest of his life to the preservation of May Fourth’s legacy. According to May Fourth Task Force co-chair Audrey King, the vigil was a collaboration between the students and Lewis, who recognized a need for the community to come together and have a collective space to grieve the events of May 4th, 1970.
“The May Fourth Task Force took it up when the task force was formed in 1975,” King said. “And then, every once in a while, there’s a really passionate group of community members that take it up. We took it over again a couple years ago, and in 2026 we are leading the vigil with support from the university in terms of supplies, but we lead the charge and the meaning behind it. We are excited to lead, and it really impacts a lot of community members and people who come back to commemoration every year.”
Attendees were handed out cups with a lighted candle to hold when walking the campus. At 11:00 p.m., May Task Force Secretary Lucas Hlavacek announced to the group to gather around the Victory bell, reminding everyone that the walk should be respectful, contemplative and mostly silent. The walk began shortly after walking around campus, and was designed by Lewis and the students to honor the events leading up to May Fourth.
“At the end once we reached Prentice Hall parking lot, the task force stood for the first half an hour on the sites where the four students were, holding a candle for each of them,” Hlavacek said. “And then the people recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Kaddish.”
Students and members of the community were also encouraged to sign up for slots to also stand with candle light over the memorials as well. These slots were open all throughout the early morning until the Task Force took the candles to the noon May Fourth commemoration, which was handled by Kent State’s administration. The vigil formally ended around midnight, but several community members and students stayed to commemorate the horrors of that fateful day in history.
“The best way we can continue the legacy of May Fourth is to continue organizing, dissenting and fighting against the system that led to their killing,” said Emily Smith, treasurer for the May Fourth Task Force. “Also, learning the history is of course a really big thing as a lot of people do not fully understand the history. Definitely visit the May Fourth visitor center, as it is a great introduction for students to learn about the history. But education and activism are the biggest things I recommend.”
Ava Dunn is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
