Subash Shah, Oral History

 

Recorded: August 20, 2020

Interviewed by: Liz Campion

Transcribed by the Kent State University Research & Evaluation Bureau

 

[Interviewer]: This is Liz Campion, May 4 Archivist, speaking on August 20, 2020, at Kent State University’s Special Collections and Archives Department. As part of the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, we are recording an interview over the telephone today. Could you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Subash Shah]: My name is Subash Shah, my longer name is Subashchandra Shah.

 

[Interviewer]: Perfect. Thank you. [00:00:34] I would like to begin with some brief information about your background, so we can get to know you a little better. Could you tell us where you were born and where you grew up?

 

[Subash Shah]: I was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in East Africa. And then I went to, I came to the United States in ’64. In ’65, I attended Hiram College. And then after Hiram College, I was at Kent State University in the fall of 1969.

 

[Interviewer]: Perfect. As a native of Zanzibar, what brought you to Kent State?

 

[Subash Shah]: Kent State had the program; I wanted a degree. Originally, I was going to go into economics and then I looked at the curriculum at quite a few universities and I said, “No, that’s not my direction.” So, I ended up at Kent State to do the master’s in public administration degree.

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you. [00:01:43] How did you view the protests and the Vietnam War when you first arrived on campus?

 

[Subash Shah]: I was against the war since my freshman year at Hiram because I viewed the whole crisis as a civil war among the Vietnamese people. And the whole idea that United States enters the war and everything, my fear was if it was going to end up strengthening the Chinese and the Russians. So, the very objective of challenging these two countries was literally not the case. In fact, from my viewpoint, it ended up enabling the Chinese government under Mao Zedong, and then you have the Russians under [Nikita] Khrushchev. 

 

I was against the war. And at Hiram, it was very difficult to speak about the war, because the vast majority of students were for the war. And so, to get the information about the war to the campus community, a handful of us, most of us who were foreign-born. One was from Cambodia, (unintelligible [00:03:15]), and then others were from different parts of the world, and then there was one American student. And what we decided was to get the information of the Vietnam War by having speakers at Hiram College to speak for the case, for the war, and those who were against the war, and then we made sure that the audience had free rein in terms of asking the speakers questions.

 

So, freshman, sophomore year, it was very difficult time, because all of us who were in this group were on some kind of student financial aid, and were being labeled, and et cetera, but we kept on going. And then, in my junior year, that would be ’68, that’s when the [audio cuts out] started turning, especially after the killing of Martin Luther King [Jr.] and the draft. I have vivid memory of classmates of mine, and we were all sitting in front of the TV and to see what numbers were pulled out and whoever’s number was pulled out, they had to go to the war. And so, in terms of after graduation, et cetera, so, after that, the climate on the campus, Hiram College changed. And more and more students realized that this war is not abstract and it’s not just us versus them, that this is much more than that.

 

So, that’s what happened and then in the fall, I came to Kent State University and to finance my education, I was lucky to get a position [editor’s clarification: the narrator was both a Graduate Counselor and a RA] in the freshman dormitory, Clark Hall. And in Clark Hall, there were positions created on each floor and individuals who held that position were known as graduate counselors. So, I was on the third floor of Clark Hall, and then we had two resident assistants, a total of four on each floor, resident assistants who helped us. So, that’s how I ended at the university. But once I was at Kent State in the fall, I mean I stated my viewpoints and everything, but I was not involved in an organized way like I was at Hiram College.

 

[Interviewer]: Good, that was actually my next question, was your involvement in any type of protest or political organizations. [00:06:24] Was your family aware of any of the protests that eventually took place on campus, and did any of them communicate their feelings about those protests or the war?

 

[Subash Shah]: They were aware. Those in my family, they would read the newspapers and the war that BBC News covered, they would hear about it. I never told them anything, because I knew they were going to get worried. So, I basically told them I’m well, fine, never discussed the situation at the university.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:07:01] Can you describe for us the prevailing attitudes of the students in that spring of 1970 on Kent’s campus?

 

[Subash Shah]: After the fall, well, the fall of ’69 was very important, because that’s when you find the younger students, incoming freshman students, especially because I was keeping an eye on the freshman students, and they were getting involved. And because, I remember Barry Levine was one of the freshman students on my floor. So, he was there and then in those days, he started dating Allison Krause. And so, she lived in Allyn Hall, which was right next to Clark dormitory. So, you could see all the meetings were taking place et cetera, and then in the spring, the turning point was the invasion of Cambodia and when Nixon sent American troops and everything. And that’s when I realized, this was going to really escalate.

 

So, I remember a group of historians [editor’s clarification: World Historians Opposed to Racism and Exploitation a.k.a. W.H.O.R.E.] had a rally at twelve noon, which was on a Friday, and up near the [Victory] Bell area. And so, I went to see what they have to say, and just pay attention. And I remember walking around that area, because the crowd wasn’t that big. I remember, and then, friends of mine of the fiftieth anniversary sent me emails saying there were photographs of me attending that particular meeting.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, wow.

 

[Subash Shah]: Yep, so I was in one of the photographs right standing right next to the [Victory] Bell behind one of the speakers, so that shot is there, there’s a couple other shots. So that’s how I got there, and then I remember at three o’clock, Black United Students [BUS] were going to have a rally. And I said, “Wow, on the same day. Let’s see what happens to this particular rally.” Because I knew quite a few of the leaders of the Black United Students, Erwind Blount and Rudy Perry and others.

 

I went there to see what they’re going go and say, because—and to my surprise, all the issues that they raised were basically local issues about their experiences of campus racism, the whole business about recruiting more Black faculty and staff and students and all that.

 

So, after that meeting, I took a deep breath and said—I’ve never seen a situation where on the same day, you have literally two meetings covering international and domestic issues, and it was a really serious matter. And then, I took a deep breath and my intuition kicks in and says, “Get ready, the hell is going to break loose.” So, I had a two-sense something was going to jump off, and that particular weekend, I was not on a dormitory duty, the resident assistants had to have a dorm duty for the weekend, so it was not my turn. That gave me the freedom to leave the university, and I went to Hiram College. And at Hiram, I made a point not to watch TV or listen to the radio or anything, because I had a funny feeling something was going to jump off.

 

And then on Sunday around three o’clock, one of the Hiram College students came and told me, he says, “Do you know what’s going on at Kent State?” I said, “No, tell me.” And that’s when I first hear about ROTC building that was burned, et cetera, in the demonstration. And at that point, I knew I had to rush back to the university, because I was an RA in the Clark dormitory, so I needed to be mixed with the students in the dormitory.  I got my ride from one of my friends and went back to Kent State, and I was in the third-floor efficiency apartment that the graduate counselors had, and when the friend of mine who had also attended Hiram College, and then later came to Kent State to finish up his undergraduate degree in English, Howard Wiley. He shows up to my room and Howard is all excited and he was telling me, because he was living on the other side of the campus, Main Street right near the current music school [editor’s clarification: Music and Speech Building] is, in that residential area. So, he saw what was going on in terms of the evening, night demonstrations.  So, he came and wanted me to join him and check the situation out. And basically, I told Howard, “No, hell no.” Because I’m the oldest in my family of ten, I’m on a student visa, and I just, just pure calculation, I didn’t want to jeopardize even their future, because I knew my family was going to emigrate. So, but then Howard kept on talking and the way he said it, he persuaded me. At that point I said, “Okay, yeah, let’s go, but I’d like to keep my distance from the crowd.” So, we tried to go in such a way that we were not part of the crowd, so that was a compromise that I worked with him, and that’s when I left the dormitory that Sunday night.

 

Sunday night, the crowd was near the tennis court area, near the [Music and] Speech Building, that area, so we decided to go slightly differently, so we went past what you have now as that memorial, and between the memorial and the library, past Bowman Hall, through Kent Hall, near the power plant area, and then through Kent Hall and we ended up at the library, and I think that building now is the School of Fashion or something, design and fashion or something, I’m not sure now. So, we ended up there and next to the library, those big industrial windows facing Main Street, and I looked at it and assessed the situation and said, “Howard, we are going to be in deep trouble,” because I can see the National Guard coming, and we were going to get caught. And Howard was all excited and brave and everything, and I’m nervous, and so I try to persuade him and say, “Hey, remember Shakespeare in your literature class, remember he writes about Birnam Woods moving, the forest, the Birnam Wood going to move,” [narrator’s clarification: Birnam Wood was the Scottish forest near Dunsinane Hill that plays a pivotal role in William Shakespeare's, Macbeth] I said, “The Guards are going to come at us, they’re going to move so fast on us that we are going to be taken by surprise.” And he didn’t pay attention. Next thing I know, about fifteen minutes later, Howard tells me, “Bash, get in.” And I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Luckily, a female student in the library who was on the lower-level floor opened a huge window, so Howard jumped in and then I got in. I had a choice of going in right away, but there was another student next to me, a woman student, that I would let her go, but then I realized literally two feet from her was one of the National Guard with a bayonet. I said this situation, I better forget being a gentleman and let me get in, because this guy’s going to hit both of us, the National Guard. So, I jumped in and soon as I got in, Howard and I, we pulled this woman in and as she was being pulled, the National Guard started, this guy started beating her back and her buttocks areas really badly. And so, we pulled her and then we pretended after that as if we were not outside enemy, we were in the library. And then, I think about in twenty minutes or so, the decision was made to close the library, so that’s when we had to leave the library. And I told Howard, I said, “Look, I’m not going to follow the crowd. This time, I’m going to be just fine walking behind the crowd.”

 

So, we started walking back to the dormitory complex and the crowd was going in that direction. And the wind that night was blowing towards the dormitory, so from the library area to dormitory, the wind is blowing in that direction. And then as we were walking, we remember a helicopter came by and started shooting, I don’t know what’s the word, grenades, but they were more like smoke bombs, tear gas. They started pouring tear gas at the students, at night. And as we were going back, around the parking lot near the current Student Union, where you’re located in the library, the current parking lot was the football field. And that area was packed with National Guard and their equipment and trucks and everything. So, if you’re going past that whole area, we saw National Guard literally everywhere. I mean, and I’m glad that they didn’t mess with us as we were just by ourselves.

 

And then, we got back into the dorm, Clark Hall, back into the efficiency apartment, and we started assessing the situation. So, I told Howard, I said, “Man, all the hell is going to break loose tomorrow, because if these guys are behaving this way at night, and the crowd is much smaller, and they look like they’re out of control or, I don’t know, what their strategy is, but tomorrow’s going to be a crazy situation.” At that point, I came up with the suggestion that I’m going to go to the small dormitory complexes. That’s where quite a few of the international students were living. And then I encouraged Howard, who was an African American student, I said, “We know who the Black students are who are against the war and Vietnam, so let’s touch base with them and others that they should not join the, what do you call it, demonstration tomorrow.” Because my concern was, by this time, Governor Rhodes was already talking about outside agitators and all that. The Ravenna paper, I forgot what it was called, Ravenna Journal [editor’s clarification: narrator is referring to Kent Ravenna newspaper, Record-Courier] kind of, now started talking about outsiders coming. Yes, outsiders were there, but some of them came as speakers, but they did not lead this anti-war movement at the university, at Kent State. That was pretty much a university-led situation.

 

So, my fear was that if a Black student or an international student gets hurt or gets killed tomorrow, or some tragedy, then the whole media coverage is going to go in a different direction, okay. And so, I said my concern was I didn’t want international students to fall in that kind of trap, because then the way the anti-war, the way the majority of the people are looking at the war, to have international students in this situation, it would mean that quite a few of us throughout the United States would be in a suspicious category and it would be tough. I mean this may sound selfish or whatever, but my feeling was that we should not make it easy for those forces that want to continue the war and those forces in America, that want to curtail free speech, to get an upper hand.

 

I went and walked all over the small dorm complexes and got a promise out of every international student I could find. I said, “Hey, don’t go to the demonstration tomorrow, even don’t be curious about it. Just stay away. Stay away. And if you’re going anywhere, take the bus. Don’t walk tomorrow.” And Howard did the same thing, and so, I remember my walking that night, I think I finished around two thirty or three o’clock in the morning, went back to Clark Hall, and just had my few hours of sleep. And in those days, I was also helping out an instructor in the Department of Pan-African Studies. In those days, it was known as the Institute of African American Affairs. And I remember the course towards the Black perspective in social sciences. So, that particular class was meeting from eleven to 11:50 in that building where BUS had its, what do you call, headquarters. That was the designated space. And then later that building was razed and I think either a parking lot was built there for the new School of Business or the new School of Business was right there, maybe I was not clear on that one, but that’s where the class was. And when the class ended at twelve noon, I got the promise from each and every one of the students that we had in that class, I got a promise out of them that they were going to take the bus back to the dormitory, because I didn’t want them to go in the direction of the library or the tennis court area or near The Pagoda, that area, because I knew Howard and I, we knew what the situation was there like Sunday night. I just didn’t want these students to get caught in the crossfire.

 

So, that’s what happened and so then from there, around twelve fifteen or so, 12:20, I was in the Student Union, and that Student Union now is where the Department of Pan-African studies is located, I think its name is Lowry Hall? No, no—

 

[Interviewer]: Oscar Ritchie?

 

[Subash Shah]: Oscar Ritchie, yes, yes. Lowry Hall is the old location where the Institute of African American started. Oscar Ritchie Hall, so, that was the university’s old Student Union.

 

Howard shows up there and a few of us were at a table eating our lunch, and this young, not young, I would say some white student, he was a doctoral student, and he must’ve been in his thirties or forties, ran in all red and blushing and crying. And that’s when he says, “Hey, they’re killing us. They’re killing us.” And, so, that’s when we know that the shooting had started and everything. So, that was that event, and then I realized that my responsibility was with the freshman class, the freshman students at Allyn Hall. I went back to Allyn Hall to see what was going on. And that’s when the housing authority informed us that they expected all staff members to stay behind, okay, and the university was supposed to shut down by five or six, something like, and then there was curfew. So, my question was, How would the National Guard know that we are staff members? Are we going to wear something that we can be identified? Otherwise, they are going to think we are trespassing, in fact, we are doing our job in the dormitory. So, they could not give me the answers, so I just told them, I said, “I’m sorry, I’ve gone through these kinds of situations before. When you have people with guns, you don’t take any chances, so I’m gone.” And I’ll take the responsibility for what happens to me in terms of my future work in the housing complex.

 

So, I left for Hiram College and then later that night, a few of the resident hall staff were beaten up by National Guard in the dormitory. National Guard folks were just making sure that the campus was cleared. So, that’s what happened.

 

[Interviewer]: So, it sounds like you made the right decision in leaving, to avoid exactly what you had anticipated. To go back a little bit, can you kind of describe what the crowds were like, those days leading up to May 4 and on May 4? Was it anxious, angry, excited, just kind of the mood of that time.

 

[Subash Shah]: The weekend, the crowds were, they were not huge in terms of thousands, I would not say that, okay. The crowds were what I could call peaceful, okay. But the situation started going crazy on that Monday. Because once the troops were there, all other meetings that I attended, anti-war meet, when I say I attended, I was against the war then. So, I attended, but not in an active capacity or being part of any of the leadership or anything, I was just playing the role of an observer. And if I could nudge the process in the direction so people would not get hurt, I would then speak up. But the crowds were not angry or mad or anything. In fact, I would say most of the students were, I would call it, categorized as—as I went through Zanzibar revolutions, I know what violence feels like, in ’64. So, I would say most of the folks who were there, I would call them really innocent. They just did not want the war to escalate, they were just tired of young folks going to Vietnam and all the dead bodies coming back, the caskets, and everything.

 

It was not a—and then the myths started that Kent State is a radical university, no, no. It wasn’t radical, because later after Kent State, in the fall of ’72, and I ended up going to Sacramento teaching at Cal State University, Sacramento, and I was shocked at the people in the Sacramento Bay area looked at Kent State as a radical university and everything. I had to tell them that’s the myth that’s been created, no, this is at best a middle-class, working-class, what do you call it, students were from middle-class, working class, there was not much radicalism. And that’s why I think it had a big impact, because if this thing had jumped off on the West coast, or Berkeley, or on the East coast in Boston or somewhere, I can see that. But Kent State, I would consider really—I remember, Allison [Krause] and Barry Levine really well, so if I look at them and assess the demonstrators to those two individuals, they were not angry.

 

And I remember in the fall, in the freshman dormitory I had a weekend duty and I remember Allison Krause and Barry Levine walking to a Clark Hall waiting area, they were walking and they were both bare feet and everything, and I looked at them and immediately, as they came close to me, I told them, I said, “Hey, the two of you are really innocent flowers, enjoy your life and be happy.” And I was so surprised, because that was not part of my normal vocabulary, so for me to just say it, it surprised me when I said that. I remember, it was that particular weekend, it was nighttime. So, if I look at Allison and I look at Barry, they were not radical, they were just against the war, period. And they were not, Allison, I could see that she had a sense of purpose, and it was clear to me, when I watched her when she was freshman, that she knew what she was talking about. And she had a really uncanny ability to deal with her classmates who were for the war. I never saw her screaming or arguing or anything, she was very good at trying to persuade them and very gentle. I’m looking at those two, now sure, in the crowd, you may have a few angry guys, but I did not see. I’m talking about not the crowd on the day of the shooting, because I was not there, I was in the cafeteria. I’m talking about all the other gatherings that I have attended, and I would say, I attended almost ninety percent of them since I arrived at Kent State University, because I knew this issue was of importance, so at the minimum I wanted to be a supporter of the anti-war movement but not to the point where I jeopardized my student visa and then have a negative impact on the family. And then in many ways, one could view that I was behaving in a selfish manner, but if I was the only child in my family, I would not have hesitated. But being the oldest of ten, I just could not justify that, it just then messes up their possibilities and their future. If I was an only child, I would have played a much, much more of an active role.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:35:09] Could you describe your reaction when you were in the Student Union and found out that they were shooting at the students?

 

[Subash Shah]: I mean I was shocked, but I was not surprised, because what I saw Sunday night pretty much informed me that the next day the hell is going to break loose. Because these National Guards were full of guns, powerful guns, and I mean they had declared the university pretty much like a war zone, okay. And any time you have people who declare anything heavy like a war zone, then you have to create the situation, us versus them, see, and the students’ reaction was, Why are you invading us? This is the university, it’s part of free speech, et cetera. So, for, I mean that does not mean I’m in support of what happened to the ROTC building or the hell that broke loose in downtown Kent, I’m not saying that. But those issues could have been addressed differently—

 

[Interviewer]: We hear that a lot, yeah.

 

[Subash Shah]: But the idea to send the National Guard and turn the university into a kind of garrison encampment, that just escalated the whole thing. So, I was in shock and everything and that’s why—people hearing my tune and think I was playing an opportunist role by convincing those international students not to be part of the demonstrations, because I didn’t want any one of us to get hurt, because I knew the way the coverage would have gone. See, and I had no idea that my thinking was accurate. And then later, I found out that an event had occurred in the south, in Carolina [editor’s clarification: should be Mississippi], Jackson State [University]. That’s where Black students were killed and there was hardly any coverage. I said, “Whoa, I’m a young guy” and I’m kind of telling myself, “Damn, I did a good job assessing the situation.” Because I guarantee you, if there was one African American and/or an international student in the dead category, the media coverage would have gone totally differently. Totally differently.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:37:59] What was the media coverage like in the days and weeks after May 4th, and how soon thereafter did you learn that Allison was one of the deceased?

 

[Subash Shah]: I found out about Allison very shortly because we were in the dorm complex. So, we knew, I think I found out within a day or two.

 

But, so, again what was the other part of your question? I didn’t get—

 

[Interviewer]: Just to describe the news coverage on the days and weeks after May 4th had occurred.

 

[Subash Shah]: Oh, my memory is that Kent State University was all over in the television media, there were just only, in those days only three major channels. Newspapers were covering it, and so, it was an idle discussion everywhere.

 

[Interviewer]: Had your family reached out after the shooting to see kind of what was happening on campus?

 

[Subash Shah]: Yeah, I just shot them kind of a letter, but the funny part is, what’s his name, the writer who wrote the book Hawaii and then he ends up writing the book on Kent State [editor’s clarification: narrator is referring to James A. Michener’s book entitled, Kent State: What Happened and Why], is it Michener?

 

[Interviewer]: Yes. Yes.

 

[Subash Shah]: Huh?

 

[Interviewer]: Yes. Michener.

 

[Subash Shah]: Michener was, later comes to the university to do his research, and his staff literally took over quite a few rooms at the motel, I think it was known as Kent Motel or something, it’s on Main and Lincoln, that area, it was there. And they were there, and then I started hearing that Michener was asking all kinds of questions, and one of the questions he was asking is, “Where were the Black students?” And as soon as I heard he started asking that question I said, Oops, the next question is going to be, Where were the international students? So, I made a point to avoid that group of researchers and lo and behold, he or somebody in his staff ends up interviewing Dr. Edward Crosby, who has been the director of Institute for African American Affairs, and later turned into Department of Pan-African Studies. And Crosby is the one who was quoted saying, “Hey, basically,” I’m paraphrasing, “the Black folks know that when somebody has guns, they’re going to shoot, so it was kind of a natural reaction to stay from that.” But BUS leadership also played a very important role to tell the Black students not to be part of the demonstrations, okay.

 

And so, you have those two things that—and the reasons I’m bringing Albert [editor’s clarification: narrator is referring to author by his middle name] Michener in this picture, is because my father reads the Reader’s Digest version of the book on Kent State and when he finished reading, he goes to my mother and says, “Your son was part of this.” And then, later when they emigrated to Toronto, Canada, we talked about it, and he looked at me, he said, “Yes, after reading the Reader’s Digest version, I knew you were a part of it.” Because at that particular time, his mission was doing the research. I was working, Crosby had recruited me as one of his staff members, okay. So, the first year the department, you had two people, the director and the associate director. There was Edward Crosby and Riley Smith, and then second year, Crosby recruited Willy Robinson and me into the department. And I started, in fact, my teaching career started with Crosby’s program, Institute for African American Affairs. And after two years in that program, somebody that’s familiar with Crosby and me kind of persuaded me to come to California, and so, I went to California. Crosby was really angry and upset, because we got along well and he wanted me to stay behind. But he’s the one who planted this idea in my head, he said, “Bash, if you ever get a chance to California, you better go there, because it’s another country.” So, I told Crosby, I said, “That’s what you told me. California is another country. So, I wanted to experience other countries, and so that’s why I’m leaving.” And I said, so I kind of teased him, I said, “No, you caused the problem by planting that idea in my head.” Because otherwise, California was not in my horizon. That’s how it happened, I guess.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:43:41] When you left Kent State after the shootings took place, can you kind of describe to us what Hiram was like? What was the atmosphere when you got back over there, was there a lot of talk about what had happened at Kent State?

 

[Subash Shah]: Yes, lot of talk, lot of teaching, and in fact, I would say literally Hiram student body changed like a flash after the shooting. Before, you had a lot more students supporting the war, and then after the shooting, the whole climate at Hiram College had shifted dramatically. Because that’s where I finished my, when Kent State University shut down, I literally stayed at Hiram College. One of the other undergraduates, they had the space and everything and there was no university approval, Hiram College administrators had no idea I was staying there, but that’s where I stayed until Hiram closed, and then I found some summer work and just, I was out of Hiram then.

 

[Interviewer]: Could you explain or describe—

 

[Subash Shah]: But—

 

[Interviewer]: Oops, sorry.

 

[Subash Shah]: But what happened in Hiram, my sense is it happened in most universities, because I started hearing the same thing at Akron U[niversity] and Youngstown [State University]. But the shooting at Kent State shifted the climate towards the war.

 

[Interviewer]: And you had mentioned Jackson State shortly thereafter. It sounds like obviously, the media coverage wasn’t nearly as much as it was for Kent State, is that an accurate assessment?

 

[Subash Shah]: Yes, yes. And because I retired from Winston-Salem State University, which is a historically Black university. I know how the administrations of vast majority HBCU’s [editor’s clarification: Historically Black Colleges and Universities] operate, so they’re very conservative. And since the administrators realized that the budgetary needs are always in the hands of the legislature, they could not get themselves involved in these kinds of issues to follow, and that’s why in the early days at Jackson State, there was no ceremony or remembrance in an organized fashion, the way it started emerging at Kent State. And then there was good on the part of the Kent State students and administrators to form the relationships with the students at Jackson State, because South Carolina [editor’s clarification: should be Mississippi] is just a whole different culture and political climate. So, in many ways the Jackson State student situation was very isolated, and Kent State ended up getting the floodlight, and maybe Jackson State got the flashlight.

 

[Interviewer]: I like that comparison. [00:47:21] Is there anything you’d like to share about how these experiences have affected your life over the years?

 

[Subash Shah]: Every May 4^th, I think about Allison and Barry, the students who were there. And I mean, it’s part of my being, I can’t separate it, so I mean that’s, yeah. I have fond memories of Kent State, because I taught classes in the political science department as graduate assistant, later as a teaching fellow. So, I spent a lot of time on the campus of the university.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:48:12] Is there anything else you’d like to talk about that we haven’t covered?

 

[Subash Shah]: No, if you have more questions, I’ll try to answer them. Or if you have questions for me later, feel free to contact me.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. Perfect. Well, I’d like to thank you again for participating in the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, and I’m going to conclude our interview here today.

 

[Subash Shah]: Okay, thank you.

 

[End of interview]

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