Roger A. Evans, Oral History

 

Recorded: May 27, 2020

Interviewed by: Devaun Tyler

Transcribed by the Kent State University Research & Evaluation Bureau

 

[Interviewer]: This is Devaun Tyler speaking on May 27, 2020. I’m recording from my home, with the narrator, as part of the May 4^th Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. Can you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Roger Evans.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you again for doing this, it’s an honor to be involved, and I’m really looking forward to hearing your perspective. [00:00:32] To begin, we want to get some brief information about backgrounds, so we can get to know you a little bit better and sort of get a better picture of the type of people that Kent [State] had at the time. Can you tell us a little about where you were born, where you grew up?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I apologize, I just took you off speakerphone. Could you repeat the question one more time?

 

[Interviewer]: Sure. I mentioned that we want to get some brief information about your background, so that we can get a better sense of the kinds of people that were coming to Kent at the time. Could you tell us where you were born, where you grew up?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I’d be happy to. I was born in Akron, Ohio. My father was a general practitioner doctor, he was a country doctor, my mom was a nurse. My early life was in Pennsylvania, rural Pennsylvania. I then eventually moved to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and I went to mostly junior high and high school, living in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and I graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:01:45] When did you first come to Kent State, and what brought you there?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Could you repeat that question one more time?

 

[Interviewer]: Sure. When did you first come to Kent State University, and then what brought you there?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Oh, well, it’s funny you ask that question. I played basketball, rather high-level basketball, and I had been to Kent State, starting my sophomore year, playing on the basketball court in high school playoffs and, for three years straight, the districts or regionals would be at Kent State, and I would go there and be playing basketball. Sort of a packed house, let’s put it that way. So, I got to know Kent State, basically, in my sophomore year of high school.

 

[Interviewer]: I did look you up, actually, and it was kind of a big deal when you went to Kent State, right?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, could have been a big deal, yes, I would guess so. Uh-oh, Devaun, you know a little bit about me.

 

[Interviewer]: Just a little bit, just from what I found from there and then from the email that I got from Kate.

 

[00:03:06] So, when you were admitted, what was your major?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: My original major was going to be accounting. I’ve always enjoyed basic numbers and understanding and arranging them. So, that was my original major, it was going to be in accounting. However, it eventually switched, like many students.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, that does tend to happen.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes.

 

[Interviewer]: You have one idea, and then you get there, and the whole world opens up for you.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:03:41] So, were you aware of the Vietnam War, in high school and when you went to Kent?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes, I was aware of the Vietnam War. My awareness, it wasn’t necessarily with any type of protesters, but I was aware that I had a real good friend that was in Vietnam and had come back home, fortunately. And I was aware of the unrest, but mostly, Devaun, I was an eighteen, nineteen, twenty-year-old who joined college. I was in love with a girl and I was playing some high-level basketball and getting my school paid for. So, it wasn’t on a front burner, it had been on a back burner. I was aware of the draft but, at the time you had student deferments, I had no concern about not being able to be in college because I was on a full scholarship. So, it wasn’t on a front burner for me but, yes, I was aware of the Vietnam War.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. And so, you started in, what, 1968, is that right?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes, in the fall of 1968, I was a freshman.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. [00:05:00] Did you notice any changes in the campus environment as time progressed?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, again that was my first year, what do you expect as a freshman. I was aware of groups not only against Vietnam, it was an opening—in that time of our history of the United States, it was—a lot of awareness was happening. Women were getting rights, Black students were organizing and uniting, there was demonstrations against the war. Hey, I went through school in the 1960s  and lived through 1968, all these fascinations we had. Campus life was what I expected it to be, a cornucopia of kids, young adults. That’s what it was for me.

 

I’m sure it’s the same today. If I were to go to the Student Union, there would be a wide range of topics being talked about.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely, it’s a very lively campus.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, that’s what college is about.

 

[Interviewer]: So, your experience wasn’t super political, is that sort of the sense?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I’m sorry Devaun, my experience was what?

 

[Interviewer]: Experience was not very explicitly political? You were just there to play basketball and have a good time?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, hold on, Devaun, I was there to get my education. I knew the value of an education, but I’d say basketball was right up there also. Have a good time—you know what, when I ran field and track, that was having a good time and fun. Basketball, fun? Yes. But there was a lot of pressure that went with it. Would you call pressure fun? Then, I guess it was fun. But I was there for my education and to play basketball.

 

I was not political. My affiliation was with the basketball team. And any other athlete that needed help, that’s what my affiliations were.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, I understand. [00:07:41] So, then, in the spring of 1970 before May, leading up until May, did you get a sense of what the mood among students was?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: No, and the reason being—the I would say [in] the winter, most definitely no. In the few weeks leading up to it, most definitely, you could sense that—I can’t say I was all that aware of it, even to this moment as we speak about it. Again, you got to remember all the way through February, I was playing basketball. So, I was going to class and playing basketball. Everything else was happening, I can’t say I was really all that aware of it. My time was pretty much—I was working full-time and overtime just doing those two things. And then when basketball was over, decompressing, but yeah, you could sense, not necessarily on campus, but just what’s happening to society and the world. And obviously, when President Nixon gave his speech, everybody knew about that, and that’s when things came to a boil.

 

[Interviewer]: If not so much among the students, because you were in class and playing basketball and working, did Vietnam make its way into your classrooms, like were your professors talking about it, classmates?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Devaun, I can’t really remember all that many discussions, to be honest with you. At the time, I was taking some introduction to education classes, that really wasn’t a topic that came up. Don’t remember, let’s see—a zoology class, really didn’t talk politics in that. Didn’t really have a class that really would’ve been—where that topic would have came up.

 

[Interviewer]: So, I don’t want you, like I said, these are all general questions just to try to get you thinking, it’s not—but I’m also interested in what you do remember. So, you are totally okay to talk about what you do remember about that day, about the rest of the spring, anything like that.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: From the days leading up to it?

 

Well, it all started with President Nixon when he comes on and says, “We’re bombing Cambodia.” Everybody thought we were deescalating the war, but obviously we were escalating the war. That’s what started the fuse, right there.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, absolutely.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Would you like me to continue on?

 

[Interviewer]: Yes, absolutely. This is—you are free to set the pace.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I have a pretty good—I remember somewhat of the days leading up to it. I was aware after Nixon gave that speech. The campus, I felt it. It was on edge.

 

Friday night, I was on campus all weekend, I was on campus in my dormitory. I was in Wright Hall the second year, I was there my freshman year and in 1970, spring of 1970 was my sophomore year, I was also in Wright Hall. Friday night, I was unaware of any commotion that happened downtown. I’m not a drinker by nature and as an athlete on scholarship, you really don’t go downtown, that’s the last thing you want to do, to get caught doing that. So, I really wasn’t aware of any problems happening Friday night.

 

Heard about them Saturday, just didn’t give all that much thought to it, because I was going to go down to North Canton [00:11:53] to see my girlfriend. I did go down Saturday, that would’ve been the 2^nd, to see my girlfriend, and I didn’t get back to campus until later that night. That’s when I noticed the presence of military people and I could sense that there was a problem. I got back to my dormitory and that’s when I found that the ROTC Building had been burned down. So, I went to bed, I remember that morning on the 4^th [editor’s clarification: narrator is now talking about Sunday, May 3], getting up and feeling the presence of the National Guard on campus. I remember walking up to Taylor Hall and looking down out across seeing the burned, smoldering [unintelligible] of what was the ROTC Building and just wondering, What’s going on?

 

So, we come up to May 4^th, and I remember waking up to just a gorgeous spring day. It was just a lovely day to be a student, the weather was just beautiful, probably at least low to mid-seventies, not very many clouds in the sky. I had a class or two in the morning, and then I had a main goal on May 4^th. After I ate lunch, there down at Tri-Towers, I had to make it to the Administration Building, because I had a class I wanted to cancel, and that was the last day that you could cancel a class. So, that was my main goal after lunch.

 

At around 12:45 [editor’s clarification: narrator misstated time, it was actually 11:45], I exit out of my dormitory and if you look at the maps, there is a straight line from the circle of Tri-Towers that you could walk to get exactly to Taylor Hall, the Prentice [Hall] parking lot, and then down over Blanket Hill to get to The Commons. I had to go past the ROTC Building to get to the Administration Building, where I needed to go. However, I’m scratching my brain, maybe you can help with this, you couldn’t go at a beeline. There was either some construction or fences. Now, there’s buildings there. So, you had to get—what’s the best line for me to get there was to go in the [unintelligible] trees that’s off the edge of the huge parking lot for the music and performing arts college. Those trees, I remember those trees are still there, and as you follow those trees on up, it will take you—you break out right at Midway Drive, right at the entrance to Prentice Hall parking lot.

 

As I entered into the Prentice Hall parking lot, I see a number of students that are on top of Blanket Hill, what I called it, right there at the corner of Taylor Hall. And as I approached the top of the hill, and again my goal was to get down across, past the ROTC Building to get to the Administration Building to cancel this class.

 

So, at about noon, I’m at the very top of this hill and mostly in the back of a crowd of people, because there was a number of people in front of me and I sensed there was a number of people that wrapped around Taylor Hall and the Commons there. I really didn’t know that there was a twelve o’clock protest rally going on, I was unaware of it.

 

So, I’m standing there, by the Pagoda up in that area of the hill, looking down over the heads of these fellow students, then there’s about seventy yards of no man’s land, and then you have a line of National Guardsmen surrounding the burned-out ROTC Building, and it looks like they’re forming a scrimmage line. And I’m thinking, Jeez, I can’t fight through these people and walk across no man’s land and go through the National Guard. I either have to go right or left because, still, that was my main goal. I can’t say I was standing there for any period of time as either a bystander or a protester—I guess you would call me a bystander. So, as I’m standing there, I notice the National Guard starting to move and shooting tear gas. I’m thinking, What do I do? The crowd in front of me sort of dispersed in all different ways. Some kids came up the hill, to where I was, some kids scattered the other directions around Taylor Hall, some kids scattered over to the parking lot over to the right side. And, as I watch the Guard, they’re coming straight for the hill.

 

I’m retreating with all the other students, and I now remember why I retreated back towards Prentice Hall parking lot. It’s because the football field, which would’ve been the straight—if I’m not mistaken, would’ve been the straight retreat, was fenced in. And I remember retreating over towards the side of the parking lot of Prentice Hall, along that row of cars closest to Prentice Hall. And, never really exposing myself to the Guard, because they came straight down the hill across the little road that leads you down to the gymnasium and then into the practice football field. And I remember I’m over in the far row of Prentice Hall parking lot. I keep an eye on them and I don’t have a sense of all that many students around me for as many changes there was, I don’t remember all that many students in the general vicinity.

 

And then, I remember the National Guard about facing, they form their lines, I remember distinctly, some of the Guards peeled off and they kneeled down. They were aiming at the Prentice Hall parking lot. I think that’s probably why I kept at a car, it was in between me and them. And they then retreated back across the football field, across the road, and began advancing up the hill. And as they were doing that, the students that were scattered started filling the vacuum, myself included.

 

And this is some emotions that have been flying over me the last few days as I’m not normally a person that would put myself in danger. But I remember working myself on up the parking lot, moving towards the middle aisle, not far from where the remembrance stone is there today, with that lovely tree.

 

And all of a sudden, I remember seeing them turn around and then “pop-pop” and, by instinct, on the first “pow-pow,” I dropped behind a car, and I was right on the driver’s side rear quarter panel is where I cowered at. And—like a dream sequence [00:22:13] [editor’s note: narrator imitates gun fire].

 

They said it was thirteen seconds. If you asked me at the time, I couldn’t give you how many shots were fired or for how long. All I know is the only way I can define it is, is it was a volley of gunfire. And, as soon as the shooting stopped, I remember still cowering there for just a few seconds, then I peeked my head up, and I noticed the Guard were retreating back over the hill, out of my sight.

 

I distinctly remember a student yelling out that they’re shooting blanks, and I distinctly remember the smell of gun powder. I was familiar with it because my dad and brother are avid gun collectors. I noticed that I had shards of glass on my arms and shoulders. I’m trying to take this all in, and my eyes are drawn to this figure lying just in the driveway leading down to memorial gymnasium off the parking lot, and I saw a body lying there in the road, twenty yards away from me, twenty-five yards at the best. I remember slowly walking over there, I had to have been in shock trying to take in not only what I’ve heard, but what I’m seeing right now.

 

And I remember walking over to Jeffrey Miller’s body, I remember to this day, the distinct redness—that was blood. It’s as if you had taken a bucket that you mopped your kitchen floor, and it was slowly being poured out of his neck and his right shoulder. I remember distinctly—just puddling and moving towards the curb. I stood up and I then moved to the curb, and I remember looking at the hill leading up to The Pagoda and I could see that other students had been hurt. So, Jeffrey was the first person that I know that had been hurt, and then, I then saw other kids that were on the ground and writhing and other kids eventually come to their aid.

 

But here’s what happened to me. It wasn’t—you know, time stood still but it couldn’t have been more than a minute had passed by. And over on the right-hand side, coming around the near corner of Taylor Hall, was four Guardsmen with their M-1s at their hips and their face masks on, and it seemed like they were coming over toward Jeffrey, who was laying right near my feet. To this day, I remember my first thought, They’ve already killed this kid right here, what’s to stop them now? I remember, I turned 180 degrees, and I started walking slowly away from Jeffrey Miller and making a beeline to get to that stand of trees that will get me back to where I feel comfortable and safe in Tri-Towers. As I walked slowly, I remember walking past William Schroeder, there were some kids coming to his aid and I remember walking past Allison Krause.

 

And I say that, because I was at the University—all these emotions are starting to flip more to me, the memories. Monday evening, we went to the memorial site and I retraced the best memories of my steps even though the terrain and topography are totally different than what it was when I went to school there. But you can still, you know—The Pagoda, the iron fixture that had the gun hole, you can see the lay of the land. And I always thought that, even though a window was shot out in the car I was by, that I was in the far left of the gunmen’s range. And that I wasn’t putting myself, I thought, in danger. But as I retraced my steps and I see where I was at when they were shooting and where the fallen students were at, and where the Guards deliberately aimed at, I was in the middle of the killing field, and I was the first person to leave that area.

 

I made it down to my dormitory in ten minutes after the shooting. I remember getting down there and all the kids were out in the circle parking lot laughing and joking and thinking they were having a good time. And I’m crying my eyes out. All the kids know me because I played basketball, and I’m saying the you kids don’t realize, there are students that are dead up there. And they were all laughing at me and saying I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about. And then you started hearing the wails and the sirens.

 

So, as I tell the story, I don’t know if I was a coward because, as I looked at the video and some of the pictures, you see all these students coming to the aid of their fellow students. When I saw that National Guard, my instinct was flight. I feel some regret about that.

 

So anyway, we found out that campus was closing, my roommate was another basketball player who lived up in Wisconsin, near Green Bay. He says, “Come on, man, let’s go up there.” They have a car, and we took off late afternoon after packing up. By that night, I was in Madison, Wisconsin. [Unintelligible] on the night of May 4^th, when everybody knows four kids had been shot at Kent State, it wasn’t a pretty sight in Madison, Wisconsin. They started rioting the next day. My friend and I got out of town, and that’s when they closed most of the—most of the universities were closed, if I remember correctly.

 

I remember getting a big packet in the mail. Basically it was just final exams for the classes that I had, and obviously they were open-book final exams, there wasn’t any internet back there or any security. And the irony of it is that I was never able to cancel that class. I ended up doing pretty good on my final and passed the class. That’s the stupid irony of it all.

 

Anything else you need from me?

 

[Interviewer]: I do have other questions, but I did want to say thank you. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for you to relive that as you were walking through, and then to have all these memories. And it’s interesting because kind what happens, especially with trauma, is that the brain sort of decides what you remember and then holds the rest of it back until it feels like you’re ready, right? And so, with enough time and distance, then more memories can appear.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, what’s so weird is for forty-nine, for one day short of fifty years, I always thought that I was to the left, far left of where the Guardsmen were shooting at. I never knew that the Guardsmen were aiming at the parking lot. The vast majority—why I never really knew that? I didn’t. The Beacon-Journal showed a map of the shooting, and I’m thinking, Man, I was in more danger than what I really thought I was.

 

And when I went up there Monday, that Monday evening, my best remembrance is that I was right near the end of the parking lot, where that tree and the remembrance plaque is. And I had never seen any pictures from that area, I have to assume—I’ve seen pictures of the very first row of the parking lot where you see the VW Bug and the flower, if you can get a camera angle more towards the left, towards Prentice Hall. Kate mentioned that there’s other photos and maybe when we open back up, I can get a chance to look at them. And then, as I look—I parked my car right there. And I got out of it, and these memories and emotions are flowing over me, and I look at the remembrances of where the four students were and I’m damn near right near in the middle of it. As I look at it, I’m thinking, I don’t remember it this way. I thought, Well, it’s—I don’t want to lightly take claim of being the first one to Jeffrey Miller’s body, that would be not fair to the memory of him. But I vividly just remember blood just beginning to pour off his shoulder, and then I’m not there much longer, the Guards show up and I leave.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. I mean that’s a normal reaction, right, it’s a natural reaction. You see people with M-1s coming towards you, you run. [00:37:03] So, you said you went to Wisconsin, right?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes, my roommate and teammate was from Appleton, Wisconsin, so we spent the night with a good friend of his from high school there at Wisconsin. The next day, we drove up to where he lived.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. Were you there all summer?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: No, no. I was there, I think, a week at the most. Everybody was all—anybody and everybody back in Ohio was all ticked off at me, they were all worried about me. I made phone calls but, you know, it’s not like today where you can text and email, social [unintelligible] everybody. You had to make phone calls. So, I had to go back, and people wanted to know how the hell I am.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, that makes sense. So, then you were back in Ohio about a week later?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Yes, and did the paperwork for in-house school.We were probably, I’m probably one of the first classes to be in-home school. Probably one of the first students to—for a shooting on a campus. So, yeah, there’s a lot of firsts there.

 

Then I remember just, over the summertime, getting some back-channel feelers from colleges wanting to know if I was thinking about transferring and, at no time, had I planned on transferring. I signed up with Kent State, I’m going to stay with Kent State, was my feeling. So, I stayed there all the way through graduation and played basketball.

 

[Interviewer]: And you did in-house schooling for fall 1970 and then the rest of that year?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, no. Just May of 1970, the spring quarter. Of course, they closed campus, so the only way they could get ahold of students was by mail, and I would assume every student received a big, huge envelope that had your finals in it. You were just going to take a final test, and that’s it, they were going to grad you, the quarter was over. In the fall of 1970, yes, I returned back to campus. The campus opened up, we were open for business, and school was on for fall of 1970. That would’ve been my junior year.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:39:56] Do you remember anything about how campus had changed, like the environment?

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I can’t say I remember feeling true differences in the campus. You know, again, my focus was education, basketball, get a girlfriend. I wasn’t—my teammates, that took most of my energy and my time. I didn’t go to the Student Center, in the socializing area of the dormitories, I wasn’t one to be there. My time is valuable. If I had spare time, I wanted it myself and I made sure I made of myself something. I can’t say I was into the pulse of the overall feeling on campus, I couldn’t say it felt any [unintelligle].

 

[Interviewer]: [00:41:01] So, since then—one of the last questions on here is, is there anything you’d like to share about how your experiences have affected you over the years? Like since then.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Could you repeat that question one more time?

 

[Interviewer]: Sure, so one of the last questions on this list that I have is whether there’s anything you’d like to share about how your experiences over that weekend affected you over the years, since then.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Well, life is precious. I could always say that. I was aware of death and life, because of my father. My father, again, was a country doctor, my mom was a nurse. So, I saw dead people ever since [audio cuts out] because of my father’s work and I also saw life. My dad gave birth [audio cuts out] slapping and the baby crying, so I saw the spectrum. Life is valuable. As I get older, it seems more valuable. I lost a wife just recently, and now it’s just these memories just flood over me, especially since I went up to campus before I knew I had the opportunity to speak with you today. Having these memories [audio cuts out] bringing back up, I’m sure there’s more that [audio cuts out]. But you’ve got these four students, their lives are cut short, and you got the others who were hurt, some seriously hurt. For what? For what? [audio cuts out] …hear a good answer to that, for what reason should they have been killed. Just doesn’t make sense to me.

 

I mean, who wants to make a statement [unintelligible] guns, the power of that statement [unintelligible]. And what did it gain? It gained them nothing, because very shortly, the war was over. So, life is precious. Carpe Diem. I try to tell that to my kids. Again, I’ve been substitute teaching ever since I semi-retired a little over ten years ago. I thoroughly enjoy it, I love working with kids, preferably third grade and up, they still amaze me. I try to instill some of the things I’ve learned. And it’s sad, some kids are interested and other kids [unintelligible].

 

Any other questions, Devaun?

 

[Interviewer]: I don’t think so unless there’s anything else you would like to talk about.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Nope, that was my experience. From about a quarter till noon until probably 12:40 p.m., I was involved with May 4^th. Going from my dormitory, trying to get to the Administration Building, becoming a part of the demonstration, living through the volley of shots. Seeing death. That was my involvement.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you again.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak today.

 

[Interviewer]: Of course. We’re honored to have you give us your experience as well. Like I said, I will send you an email, because I have your email address from Kate, to sort of let you know. I can keep you posted about when your interview gets added to the general archive and, that way, then you also have me as a contact if you remember anything else, or if there’s anything you want to clarify, or anything like that.

 

[Roger A. Evans]: Okay, sure.

 

[End of interview]

 

 

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