Diane Friese, Oral History

Recorded: April 13, 2026

Interviewed by Liz Campion

Transcribed by 3PlayMedia

 

[Interviewer]: This is Liz Campion speaking on Monday, April 13, 2026. As part of the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project, we are recording an interview over the phone today. Could you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yes, Diane Friese.

 

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

 

[Diane Friese]: Oh, born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but we moved to Kent when I was in the third grade. So I lived in Kent, was a townie from third grade all the way through graduating at Kent in '71—so Kent was my home.

 

[Interviewer]: And what year did you first come to Kent State University?

 

[Diane Friese]: 1967. I graduated from the [Kent State] University School, so it was fall of 1967.

 

[Interviewer]: And what brought you to Kent State?

 

[Diane Friese]: Well, Kent was my home, and I went to Kent State University School, which was the school that was connected with the university, and which was right across from the campus. And so both my parents worked at the college. My dad was the food service director, and my mom worked in the Honors College, so it was a given that I was going to Kent State. So that's how I came to go to Kent.

 

[Interviewer]: What was your major when you first arrived as a student?

 

[Diane Friese]: My major, so I ended up as an English major, but I started off, I think, in sociology. I have always been somebody that's interested in a lot of different things. And so I was sort of like, I changed my major every year, but I ended up getting a degree in English.

 

[Interviewer]: Were you involved in any student organizations? And if so, can you describe your roles in that organization.

 

[Diane Friese]: Yes. Well, in terms of I was in a sorority. I don't know if you consider that a student organization, but I was in a sorority, and I also was in Angel Flight, which was this auxiliary hostess thing that was connected with ROTC.

 

[Interviewer]: What sorority were you in?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yes. Chi Omega

 

[Interviewer]: And can you tell us a little bit more about Angel Flight?

 

[Diane Friese]: So Angel Flight was sort of this female sort of— I don't know. Looking back on it now. We would show up, we would march in parades. We wore these uniforms with tight skirts. I don't know. We were hostesses to events at ROTC, but we weren't like, going to go into the military. It was sort of like a sorority with the ROTC, let's put it that way. And I was only in that for a year and a half, but anyway.

 

[Interviewer]: Did you live on or off-campus, and where?

 

[Diane Friese]: I lived on campus for the first year to have the experience. And then the rest of the time, I lived at home.

 

[Interviewer]: OK. Oh, yes. Because you said you were at Kent—

 

[Diane Friese]: Within walking distance of the campus, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: Nice and easy. Describe your views on the Vietnam War when you first arrived on campus.

 

[Diane Friese]: When I first arrived on campus, I was pretty not connected at all to the thinking about the war in Vietnam or whatever. And then in that first year, I was in the sorority, and I was in this Angel Flight. And I was just— because I was really involved with all kinds of organizations in high school. And so I was really not very socially conscious, but by the year two, well, actually, the end of my freshman year, I met a young man that was a senior, that was graduated. And he went to Vietnam. And so we wrote for two and half years, and he kept my name in his helmet. And through him, and then started to hear more from other friends about— protests against the Vietnam War. So by the end of my sophomore year, I was like, totally sympathetic to the fact that we should not be in Vietnam, because I had a lot of friends that we'd sit in living rooms and wait for when they were drawing the numbers for who was going to go. It was horrible.

 

So this is connected to that. That second year, I started attending [rallies]; I never was like, a coordinator. I just went to rallies and stuff against the war. But my sorority told me that I could not wear my sorority pin or anything that had the Chi Omega on it if I was going to attend any protest. So I told them to forget it. And I resigned from Chi Omega. And then I resigned from Angel Flight because it was just such a contradiction.

 

[Interviewer]: Wow. 

 

[Diane Friese]: I went from being completely numb and unaware to just like, no way. I was just like completely anti-war.

 

[Interviewer]: How could you describe the prevailing attitudes or moods amongst the students in that spring of 1970, prior to the shootings?

 

[Diane Friese]: Oh, well, it was everybody knew somebody that was getting either drafted or they got a high number and they were lucky, there was just a lot more awareness of what was going on. And then by the time— well, we'll get to that the weekend of before May 4, but that when Nixon invaded, they sent the troops into Cambodia that just like was the trigger point.

 

[Interviewer]: How politically involved or active would you describe yourself at that time? And did you participate in any protests or political organizations?

 

[Diane Friese]: I didn't participate in any political organizations, but I went to lots of different protests and marched and stuff. And then I was writing to this person that was in Vietnam. And so there was that direct connection. He would write and tell me all the horrible stuff that was happening and all the people well, all of his people that were in his platoon ended up dying while he was there. He would send photographs back of people. I had that firsthand connection to somebody that was actually in ‘Nam on the front line. And then I was going to protest, but I wasn't involved in any organizations on the campus.

 

[Interviewer]: Were the protests you were attending, were they mostly on campus, local, or national level?

 

[Diane Friese]: No. They were just they were on campus, and then we went to a few that were down in Columbus, with some of my friends. But no, they were basically local.

 

[Interviewer]: Was your family aware of the protests that were taking place on campus, and did any of them communicate their feelings about the protest or the war?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah. So my father, yeah, he was a World War II Veteran and he was very patriotic. My parents were both Liberal Democrats [narrator’s note: mom more liberal than dad], but they were totally against the war, too, but they weren't active. We were raised that non-violence, and war is just not the answer to anything. But they weren't politically active in any protest movements.

 

[Interviewer]: Prior to the shootings, what was your sense of how local Kent community members perceived the Kent State students?

 

[Diane Friese]: Well, some of them were very supportive. And it's sort of a mixed bag, which it would be everywhere, in any college town. But it certainly was very evident after the shootings that there were a lot of people that were not as supportive as anticipated, as we thought.

 

[Interviewer]: Can you walk us through your experiences once [President Richard] Nixon made his announcement about the expansion into Cambodia?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah. So that was a Thursday night. And then Friday it was— do you want me to go into the chronology of where I was that weekend before May 4?

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely. Yes, please.

 

[Diane Friese]: Thursday was the announcement in Cambodia. And then Friday night was a warm muggy night and Kent had lots of music and bars downtown. So everybody headed down there, but there was like this real tension in the air. I went with some friends down to one of the bars, but we left early. It was about 10:30 [PM]. We went outside, and there were people gathering out in the street. I headed home. My other friend lived out of town. She went home. And so I wasn't there for when all the windows were broken and that whole thing.

 

Saturday, we learned that there was— after I had left downtown, there was this whole thing that happened with the windows being broken or whatever, and the mayor of Kent calling Governor Rhodes and calling for help, and the National Guard.

 

Rhodes, as I'm sure many other people have said, was running for the Senate at that time. He was the governor. And he hated students that were against the war. He was on record calling them Pinkos, communists, traitors. And so he arrived on campus and took over everything. And so that just inflamed things even more, because everybody knew where he stood in terms of students.

 

My father was the food service director, and so he was ordered to feed all the National Guard— on campus. And so the National Guard had been on duty up in Cleveland for over two months dealing with a trucker strike. And now they were called to come to Kent. And a lot of the men that were in the Guard were young men that were trying to get out of the draft. And so they were called to the campus and they arrived in Jeeps and tanks and helicopters. And so because my father was food service director, the military would come to pick him up in a military vehicle to our house.

 

I have a brother, he's three and half years younger than I. And so my brother and I saw my dad as being a traitor because he was with the military, and we just couldn't understand how he could be doing this, and they're picking him up. And my father kept saying, Well, these young men, they need to be fed, they need to have good food. I need to do this to make them so that they're in better condition. And my brother and I were just like, no way. My mother was sort of like in the middle, because we lived in Kent, and I lived at home. She was trying to mediate between my father and my brother and I. And we stopped talking to him for a while.

 

There was that whole kind of dynamic that was happening in my home with my parents. But my dad didn't believe, even though he was in World War II, he did n't believe in war. He respected the military. And had been a volunteer fireman at one time, but he got really upset when the ROTC building burned on the Saturday. And it wasn't as much that the building was burned, but that they had cut the firehoses of the firemen. And that really, really ticked him off. And so that he came home with that whole thing. And so that just added to this whole dynamic in our household of everybody being really upset, and he getting taken back and forth to campus with these military people.

 

Sunday, was the day that there was more knowledge that it was Martial Law. I stayed home that whole day, didn't go anywhere. And then on Monday, May 4, the classes were on. I went to my English class and there was a National Guard with a rifle right at the door as we go, went in the classroom. Do you want me to go into the May 4th?

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, I do have a question. What was your reaction or your response to seeing the National Guard on your college campus in a typical day?

 

[Diane Friese]: It was so unreal, so surreal. It was like, really? We're going to just business as usual, go to class? And then through the grapevine, everybody's saying there's going to be a big rally on the Commons at noontime. Rally on the Commons at noontime. It sort of was like the grapevine all around campus. So I was definitely going to go to it, that's for sure. But there was this naivete about not really thinking that they had live ammunition in their guns.

 

But the Guardsmen, they were everywhere—they were everywhere. And there were helicopters overhead. I mean, it was a complete takeover of the campus. They controlled everything. The campus administration certainly wasn't in charge of anything at that point.

 

Except that we were supposed to continue to go to class, which was ridiculous. But anyway.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you recall any of your professors mentioning anything about the Guardsmen, or was it just do business as is?

 

[Diane Friese]: No. On my English professor, he was very anti-war. And I mean, he wasn't leading anything, but he was very concerned about the safety of everybody. And he said, “I know, I hear that there's going to be a gathering, but that's not going to be a safe thing to do.” I remember him saying that, but we were just ignoring that. Everybody was going to go to rally in my class.

 

[Interviewer]: Can you walk us through your experiences the day of May 4, 1970?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah. Will do. I ran into a friend of mine. And so we went to the Commons and people were gathering there, and people were speaking and there were some chanting. And in the Guard circled around the Commons, which I'm sure lots of people have described and seen pictures of. And when the first tear gas canisters were lobbed by the Guard, that's when my friend and I decided we weren't going to stay there for that.

 

We walked up between Taylor Hall and there's the other dorm. So facing Taylor Hall from the Commons, we went up the right side, and there's a dorm on the right, and then there's Taylor Hall, and it's sort of a narrow little, I don't know, fifteen-foot spot there where the Guard eventually moved up through there. But that's where we went up.

 

And so the students were lobbing the canisters back that arrived. And some people were getting sprayed in the face, later, I read there were people that threw rocks, but I never saw any of that. When we got to the top, there was a fellow student that had gotten tear gassed really bad in the face and couldn't see. My friend and I dragged him into Taylor Hall, dragged him into the ladies' room, and splashed water in his face and his eyes until he could see. And then when we came out, this group of Guardsmen were starting to come up where we had walked up.

 

But we noticed at the top of the building of the dorm, there were two people standing up there, and it looked like one of the people had a pistol, but we weren't sure whether it was a pistol or not. But there were two people on the top of the roof of that flat roof dorm building. It wasn't any place that you would normally be.

 

And so as the Guards started to come up, and they almost got to the top where we are, we decided we made a split-second decision to go right instead of left. And if we had gotten left, I probably would have been killed. We both would have been killed. We went right, and we just started running down that [Blanket] Hill, and we heard a pistol, one shot pistol, and we kept running, and then we heard the whole volley of the sixty-one shots that I guess were the total number that were shot.

 

And we kept running. So we went down the hill, and we stood there for a while, and it was about ten minutes, I guess, or so. I don't know exactly how long it was. It wasn't that long. We came back up, and we saw Jeffrey Miller and a pool of blood with Mary Jo Vecchio [editor’s clarification: Mary Ann Vecchio], the one the famous photo leaning over him. And to our left was a Guardsman without a rifle that had a white armband around him—his arm. We assumed that he was a medic. So we went up to him and said, “There are people really severely injured here. Why aren't you helping them?” And he looked up in the face and said, “We are under orders not to help the enemy.”

 

And that is when my life changed 180 degrees. I mean, it was like my whole nice little secure, white, middle-class upbringing went out the window. It was a total lie. I was the enemy.

 

Anyway, and he refused to help. And I guess eventually, there were ambulances that came, but they had nothing to do with the Guard. Then my friend and I, we walked back down on the Commons because people were starting to gather there again. And then, of course, wonderful— what's his name, Frank— the geology—

 

[Interviewer]: Glenn Frank.

 

[Diane Friese]: Yes. He was there, and he was such a wonderful human being. And I had taken his class. And he's there. He's both yelling through a megaphone and crying at the same time. You must leave, you must disperse, because there's going to be more of a bloodbath if you don't. We only stood there for about five minutes, and then we took off. And we left campus. And so we went down [Summit Street].

 

While that was happening to my friend and I on that side of Taylor Hall, my other friend was Ellis Berns, who's also given an oral transcribe of what happened. And he and Sandy [Scheuer], who was one of the students murdered, were in the parking lot on the other side of Taylor Hall. And he was there, and then Sandy died in his arms.  

 

And then he went back down to the Student Union, where his girlfriend, who is my best friend, and still is, was working. And the reason I'm telling you all of this because when he came into the Union and found Betsy, my father, happened to be there. And my father also knew Ellis because we all hung out together and he had even been over to my house multiple times. So, dad knew him.  And he was so shocked to see Ellis was covered in blood. He wasn't injured, but it was Sandy's blood. And my dad consoled him as best he could.

 

My dad had that connection to the whole thing. So then he was concerned where I was because he knew I was at— I was probably at the protest. And so that really concerned him.

 

It was— the whole process of that day was something that as a family, we all went through. My mother was in the Honors College. She was the Secretary in the Honors College, and she was in her office, which was across from where the ROTC Building had burned. And during that whole time period, she was in the office when the shootings occurred and all the phones went dead on campus. I mean, it was a total military operation on campus. And so there was no— and phones at that time were the main communication. We didn't have cell phones then. Anyway— so that's the story of me that particular day.

 

[Interviewer]: To go back a little bit, you describe making a split-second decision to run. What do you recall thinking or feeling in that moment?

 

[Diane Friese]: Terror. Total terror.

 

I mean, they were coming up as a group and it was just like we have to get out of here. We are in total danger. We are in total danger, because the group, as has been noted, the people— that the group of Guardsmen that came up that day and did the shooting were people who had military experience and they knew exactly what they were doing.

 

And from my point of view, it was a completely planned event. And somebody with a pistol shot the shot. They crouched down and they shot. I mean, to me, it was absolutely a planned event.

 

[Interviewer]: When did you realize how close you had come to being shot?

 

[Diane Friese]: When we met— so it was just sort of surreal. Like, it wasn't real. When we came back and saw Jeffrey Miller dead on the ground, which we didn't know he was dead at the time, but it looked like he was. It was when we had that interaction with that medic. That was the point.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you have any memories immediately that took place after the shooting stopped? Were there any sounds, sights that you experienced?

 

[Diane Friese]: It was really quiet.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. Do you recall what your—

 

[Diane Friese]: I mean, there were students— there were students screaming. I mean, people gathering around, but there wasn't— yeah, it was just— it was— yeah. It was just so surreal. The whole thing was so surreal, was like, did this really happen? But it did.

 

[Interviewer]: Once you understood that students had been shot and killed, what was your immediate reaction to that news?

 

[Diane Friese]: Oh, absolute horror. And that we were indeed the enemy to them.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah. One of the things I wanted to ask was your interaction with that National Guard medic. Looking back, how has that interaction shaped your understanding of the events?

 

[Diane Friese]: It crystallized the whole thing, that they were intent on making an example at Kent.

 

And those Guardsmen knew exactly what they were doing. They weren't just— it wasn't just a random, and they weren't threatened. I mean, they had live— the fact that they even had live ammunition in their guns was just absurd.

 

[Interviewer]: You mentioned you're connecting with a friend, Ellis Berns, shortly after. Can you share what your reaction was when you saw him with blood?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah, so I [did eventually run into my friend Ellis.] So after he connected with my other friend [Betsy] at the Union and my father, then my friend and I walked down Summit Street and [happened to turn onto the street] where Ellis had been living. He then and Betsy [were on the sidewalk in front of his apartment house. And it was then and only that I realized that Ellis was with Sandy when she died and that he had given Betsy his blood jacket.]

 

And that's when I found out because I didn't know immediately that he wasn't— and he had been involved with it at all. I didn't see him at the rally. And then to understand that he witnessed and Sandy died in his arms, I mean, that whole thing was just like, unbelievable. I mean, that just— that was just— it was really hard to understand what I was experiencing that.

Meanwhile, Guard were still— after the shooting, there were jeeps and jeeps. It's just still such a military action. And it was just like, oh my God, are they going to be shooting more people? I mean, it just was frightening. It was just the whole thing was horrible.

 

[Interviewer]: Can you describe the atmosphere of trying to leave campus after being ordered to do so?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah, it was just we were in a war zone. I mean, just so many military jeeps and it was just like a war zone. It was a war zone. And of course, I lived very close to campus, so it didn't take very much to finally get home. And of course, when I got home, by that time, my mom had gone home. And so then they eventually realized that I was fine, that I hadn't gotten shot because they were very concerned about that because initially people didn't know who was injured and whatever.

 

[Interviewer]: What were the days and weeks like after May 4, 1970, for you?

 

[Diane Friese]: I went into— I was so depressed. I was really— I'm a really— I've always been a really glass half full person, and I am today, for sure too. But boy, that was a really, really low point for me. And of course, at that time, they just closed the university, and everybody went home. But Kent was home for me. And so they did not bring in psychologists and therapists to process things.

 

I didn't really— yeah, I was just really, really depressed. And when classes started in the fall—I went back to classes, but I was still really, really profoundly depressed. And I guess the biggest thing was I felt really stupid that I had been— and the reason I use that word stupid is I felt like I was stupid to be so gullible to believe this American dream that your government will always protect you.

 

You're really safe in this country and nothing bad is going to happen to you, and that you have the right to protest things. And that I was so— I felt that I was so stupid and gullible to believe that whole thing that I had been brainwashed my whole life. And because of that, because I really should have been in therapy, and I always asked my parents, why didn't you take me to therapy? And they said, Well, we just didn't do that then, unless there was something really off the wall. And for them, this wasn’t. It was in that fall of '70 when I went back to [school] I really— for the first time in my life, I really thought about maybe committing suicide. I wasn't really serious about it, but I was thinking about it.

 

Then my mother, she knew that I was really depressed and stuff, and that I was really having a hard time with everything, so she suggested that I that [next] winter— so that would have been the winter quarter of '71 because— and I had one more year. This was the last year before I graduated, and I did want to graduate. She said, “I think you ought to go to the Universidad de las Américas, the [KSU] exchange program in Cholula, Mexico, for winter— for the winter quarter.”

 

And so I did that. And that was one of the best things that happened. That was such a good decision because I got out of the country, completely away from everything. It was just really— I just let go and did this whole thing down there, took classes, and came back. And then I graduated in '71.

 

That's my story. But in the whole— it took me— so for twenty years after that, I never talked about Kent State. I even did not tell people where I went to undergraduate school. I eventually went on to get my master's in library science in Canada. [When I would] meet people and they say, Where did you do your undergraduate? I'd say, “Oh, in Northeastern Ohio.” And I would never even say the name of Kent State because I didn't want to talk about it. I just buried it—for twenty years, I buried it. I refused to talk about it.

 

And then about thirty-five years ago, I went— I actually did a little bit of therapy. And then ever since then, I've been feeling comfortable to talk about it and I've talked about it, my experience there, with a lot of different people. Not anything formal. I've never done an article for a newspaper or talked in front of a group or something. It's just been people that I've met and people— I've lived in a bunch of different places and I've shared my experience of that.

 

So here I am. And this is such— I can't tell you what a wonderful experience this is, doing this oral [history]. It's sort of like I didn't realize I needed to do this, and it's just such a positive thing to be able to tell my story of what happened.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely.

 

[Diane Friese]: I really appreciate it.

 

[Interviewer]: Good. I'm glad. One thing I wanted to ask, shortly after everyone was ordered to go home, do you have any memory of how you completed coursework?

 

[Diane Friese]: Oh, yeah. That was really strange. There was— yeah, that is really vague. It was like we didn't meet. There was stuff that we did— we didn't have online stuff. I don't remember how that was resolved.

 

[Interviewer]: I imagine that could have been a blur, especially considering the events.

 

[Diane Friese]: It was. Yeah, it was about. There was something— that summer I remember there were certain things that I think we had to read or submit something in writing, but I don't really know the specifics of that.

 

[Interviewer]: You mentioned your depression after the events of May 4. Were you hesitant to return to Kent State once the campus resumed?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yes, yeah. Except that Kent was my home and it was so familiar, and my parents both worked there. I mean, all growing up, I was on the campus a lot. I wasn't afraid that it was going to happen again there. That wasn't it. But that remained with— I mean, I was just depressed about—I was just so focused on my internal disarray over the whole thing.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you recall your father and/or mother having any concerns about your returning to campus?

 

[Diane Friese]: No, because they were on-campus all the time. So that was different being a townie and them both working there. But my parents did lose a lot of— not a lot, but some friends in the neighborhood that we had lived there all these years and who said they should have shot more students. I mean, it was very interesting the people that came— the reaction of some people about what happened at Kent. And of course, my parents just found that abhorrent that they would even consider that students should be shot.

 

Yeah. A lot of students that were at Kent didn't live in Kent and their parents didn't go through [it together]— so we— my family [in] different ways were connected and there during the whole thing. And we had ups and downs, obviously. There was this point in time where my brother and I were in warfare with my dad. But we all went through this experience together. And at the end, we all came back together valuing human life and non-violence. [Violence] is not the answer, and this is totally wrong.

 

But a lot of people didn't have that experience with their parents because their parents weren't there and then they didn't really understand the whole sort of dynamic of what happened.

 

[Interviewer]: You certainly have a unique perspective with that. I mean, like you said, so many people's parents were not on-campus or not even in the community. We had people out of state, et cetera. So you have a very unique perspective on that.

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah. Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: One of the questions I wanted to rephrase that I asked earlier was after the shootings, what was your sense of how local Kent community members perceived the Kent State students?

 

[Diane Friese]: Well, there were— more people came to the fore that were like the neighbors that my— that we lost, my family lost, that said, they should have shot more. I mean, they were— and then there was this whole thing about— there was this whole group of people that were promoting that there were these outside agitators and this big group of outside agitators that came and they got everybody riled up and stuff.

 

And I'm sure that there were some people that came, but that really was sort of like, I don't know. I didn't really believe that at all. I mean, there were so many of us that were getting drafted or have been drafted, or were afraid they were going to get drafted. I mean, it was just such a personal thing, the draft, in the connection with this war that we shouldn't even be there.

 

[Interviewer]: Do you have any memories of what the media's response was to the Kent State shootings?

 

[Diane Friese]: Oh, yeah. So the media, apparently, they had stuff already planned. There was stuff that was going to come out that said the Guardsmen were going to— it was like they already had it in the can what was going to be printed, that the Guardsmen had been shot. And that, of course, wasn't the case. It was like there was— the media— I mean, the immediate reaction to it.

 

But the Akron Beacon Journal did a really, really good job afterwards and then over the longer term of really careful research and investigation of what happened that day. And as you know, the annual yearbook [editor’s clarification: Chestnut Burr] with the black armband around it. And so in the back of that, it has this whole long article. It's like five— it's really long, about from the Akron Beacon Journal about May 4. And it's very well done.

 

They were very good about it. But [James A.] Michener came and did that book [editor’s clarification: Kent State: What Happened and Why] and there was stuff in there that— it's just like he was taking advantage of a situation. I don't know. I just—

 

[Interviewer]: Did faculty— did faculty, staff, or administrators address the events publicly or privately once students returned on-campus?

 

[Diane Friese]: Yeah, they did, but that's a fog for me because I was— again, I was so preoccupied in my own miasma of despair. I just— and because my parents both worked at the University, I mean, I heard things from them and the administration. But it seemed like the administration, as I recall— I mean, it's just like they didn't have any control over any— it was just the military— Rhodes came in and they just took over everything and it was like there wasn't any administration during that whole thing. Whether there was something they could have done more forceful or not, I don't know, but it's just like— it just seemed like they weren't in existence at all.

 

[Interviewer]: How have the events surrounding May 4 and its aftermath impacted you personally, professionally, and/or politically?

 

[Diane Friese]: In a very profound way, in hindsight now, I know that my experience at Kent really catapulted me into a whole life journey that has been really very different and wonderful in ways that I don't think would have been if I hadn't experienced that trauma. It's taken me a long time to get to that point, but I have had two careers, one in the library information field as director of a number of different libraries. And then I work for the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Health, Institute for Public Health, and worked on all kinds of research projects. I've done public service. I've volunteered for lots of nonprofits. I try— whatever I have done [to positively] interact with people, it's just this desire to help build communities, protest things in a positive, non-violent way for the environment, for climate change, for animals, everything with non-violence. And it's been good—it's been great.

 

[Interviewer]: Have you returned to campus to attend any commemorative events or memorials honoring those wounded and killed?

 

[Diane Friese]: No. No. No, I've never gone back.

 

[Interviewer]: Is there a hesitation in coming back, or is that something you would welcome now?

 

[Diane Friese]: Well, interestingly enough, my brother still lives in Ohio, yeah, now, because of how this has all transpired with this, I might consider coming back sometime, but that hasn't been a real strong thing up until now. I haven't been ready to do that, I guess.

 

[Interviewer]: Absolutely. What lessons do you think future generations should take away from what happened that day?

 

[Diane Friese]: Well, not to assume that you need not question authority that when people say that— I guess, particularly what's happening in this country today is a perfect example of you can't assume that things will always continue in a way that's going to be for the best for people and as a citizen of the United States. You need to speak up and resist, and in a peaceful way, to preserve the rights and equality for everybody.

 

And it's just really important to question things and not just assume that you're protected.

 

I do have one thing that I always— that I would like to include here. Can I say that?

 

[Interviewer]: Yes, please.

 

[Diane Friese]: Whenever I have talked about Kent State in the last thirty-five years, I always talk about Jackson State because as you know, [11 days] after Kent State, there were murders at Jackson State in Mississippi and a number of students injured there too and it is so unknown.

 

Every time I have talked about my experience with Kent State, with different people I've met in my life at different places, nobody to a one has ever heard of Jackson State and those murders. And it's the reason because it was a Black College and it— so everything Kent State was white middle-class America and we got all the attention. But what happened at Jackson State was just as bad. And so that's something that I have done over the years.

 

And people are amazed. They go, I can't believe that. I used to go— I've never heard of that. People, same generation. It's one thing I try to do because there's a lot more things that have happened that don't get in the media that people need to know about. And it's certainly happening in this country today. We just need to all be aware of all the different kinds of things that can happen [are happening in this country today].

 

[Interviewer]: I appreciate your— yeah, I appreciate your recognition of Jackson State and the tragedy that took place there, especially so shortly after Kent State shootings. Is there anything else you would like to talk about that we haven't covered today?

 

[Diane Friese]: No, I think we pretty much did it.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay, perfect. Well, thank you so much for participating, Diane, in the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. We appreciate your contribution.

 

[Diane Friese]: Thanks.

 

[End of Recording]

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