John Hansan, Oral History

Recorded May 4, 1995
Interviewed by Connie Sickels
Transcribed by T. J. Perkins and Kate Medicus 

My name is John Hansan, h-a-n-s-a-n. I'm a former Kent State student - attended various times. I was on the 10th [ 20th?] Anniversary Commemoration Committee and I wanted to tell you a little bit about what I knew about 1990's 20th Anniversary Commemoration. I've been coming to Kent State since - oh God - at least '74, kicked out of high school for wearing a black arm band on May 4th - so I was not a student at Kent State [then]. I currently live at [removed for reasons of privacy] and I'm thirty-nine. So that's all the background bio stuff. In May of 1990, I was working for Governor Celeste in the Governor's office with Dennis Carey, who is a former professor here at Kent State. I was part of the Governor's advance team for coming up for May 4th -- for the 20th Anniversary Commemoration. A few days before the Commemoration I saw an article in the New York Times. I believe it was by Sandy Scheuer's Mom - - I think - - it was one of the mothers of one of the students that was killed. It was an op-ed piece in the New York Times that said "Why no honest apology?" And it was a very good article and I cut it out and wrote a memo to Governor Celeste, saying [silence] and attached the article to it. 'Cause I was responsible for coming up for some talking points for his talk here. He was going to introduce McGovern. And so I gave him that article and two days later we're standing here in the rain at the dedication of the memorial and Governor Celeste did issue an apology on behalf of the state of Ohio and in his role as Governor, to the students that were killed or wounded and the parents of the students who were killed. Rhodes, when he was Governor, went out of his way to assure that there would not be an apology. When the court case, the civil suit was settled, there was a statement of regret and at the time Governor Rhodes said, "This is not an apology," and there was some animosity with the students -- the wounded students -- against Governor Rhodes because of that. I think that in 1990 [Celeste] - that helped close the wound a little bit more, at least with the students in the state of Ohio. That's what I wanted to share.

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