Naomi Goelman Etzkin, Oral History

Recorded: May 4, 1990
Transcribed by Rhonda Rinehart

Note: This transcript includes geo-references to locations that are discussed in the oral history. Geographical names linked in the transcript will open in a new window or tab that takes you to that location information and map in the Mapping May 4 project. To request a transcript without geo-reference links included, please contact Kent State University Special Collections & Archives.

My name is Naomi Goelman Etzkin. I lived in Olson Hall, room 409, overlooking the football field. Got up on Monday, May 4th, to see additional troops camped on that football field. And watched that morning as different units of the National Guard were practicing running around our dorm and other buildings, in what appeared to be getting familiar with the setup on campus. That was midterm week and I had an exam scheduled -- an English exam -- for 1:10 p.m. We had received flyers -- there were student flyers -- there were also some flyers that had been sent around by the faculty senate, which had not been permitted to meet over the weekend. And we knew that there was to be a rally at noon on The Commons. And so we went to the rally.

We were on the side of the hill that was between what was then the Student Union and the architecture building. And there were speakers at the bell, which was always the focal point of the rallies. And the National Guard was just hanging out at that time. There was a lot of chanting and speaking. And then the National Guard began to throw canisters of tear gas. Students really dispersed somewhat; but also some students picked up the canisters and threw them back at the Guard. And they were cheered on by everyone who was at the rally. There was kind of a different sort of feeling than from the night before -- and Saturday night -- just not so much fear of the National Guard. And Sunday had been kind of a circus atmosphere where people were driving around our campus to come and see this spectacle. It was a gorgeous day and everyone was out.

The students then -- then the Guard began to march up the hill, and students dispersed. I went over the hill on the side of the pagoda. There was a practice football field on the other side of the driveway that led to the parking lot by the architecture building, and the Guardsmen marched over the hill and down to the practice football field. They were being given some orders; they knelt, they pointed guns, then they got up and they started to march back up the hill by this time. They were separated from the rest of the Guardsmen. This time they really had been surrounded by the students, because when they marched up the hill and the students went all around the hill, then they marched back up to the pagoda. There was taunting and jeering at the Guards, calling to them to get off the campus. And that moment -- without any warning -- because they already had been shouting some orders and going through little maneuvers and marching right and left and so on. Evidently the order came to shoot, and they pointed in the opposite direction where I was standing. When we heard the gunshots, we did not believe that they were real bullets. We thought they were shooting in the air, and we just didn't believe that bullets could be real. And we went running back to our dormitory, and we watched out the fourth floor window in Olson Hall as the ambulances came over the hill. People began coming back into the dorm, having walked over bleeding bodies. We then went to another window in the dorm, and we watched Dr. Frank address the students who were still on the hill. Everybody sat down in shock, and he said -- that to the best of my recollection --that something like, "They had already committed murder and they can do it again. Now I want you to follow me off this hill." And miraculously everyone followed.

About an hour later, jeeps came around -- all around by the dorms -- with bullhorns, telling us that the campus had been closed, and we were all to leave. And at that time there were 18,000 students on campus. They all picked up the phones to call home at the same time, and the circuits went dead. I packed up a bag and hitch-hiked off campus to my boyfriend's house. My roommates had also left. I finally got through to my parents. They said, "Go back to the dorm. We're coming to get you." So I went back to Olson Hall, and I was the only one left in the dorm who was a resident. The National Guardsmen were having dinner in our cafeteria. And I sat down at dinner, and a couple of them came and joined me. The guys who I was having dinner with were not the people who had shot because it was my understanding that they were wisked away. The guys that I had dinner with were people my age who went into the National Guard so they didn't have to go to Vietnam, and they felt a deep sense of horror over what had happened.

My parents came to get me at approximately 8:00 p.m. It took them four hours to drive from Cleveland to Kent. They had to go through Streetsboro where shop owners were boarding up their windows with giant sheets of wood because they were terrified that the students were going to come and destroy their city, too. And two weeks later we were told to come back and pack up our bags, in a matter of four hours. And then we finished our courses by correspondence. The campus was never the same.

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