Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Mary Ann Costa Oral History

Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Mary Ann Costa Oral History

Item Information

Transcription	Show Transcript Print Transcript Back Mary Ann Costa, Oral History Recorded: May 2, 1995 Interviewed by Connie Sickels My name is Mary Ann Costa. I teach speech and drama, and I'm the drama director at Roosevelt High School. My address is [address removed to protect right to privacy], Kent Ohio. On May 4th, 1970, I was a student at Bowling Green University. And it's -- it's funny -- I remember when the incident happened, I had already made plans to transfer to Kent State. So, my transfer papers were, you know, processed and I was going to transfer. And then, when this happened, everyone questioned me about "Why are you going to Kent State? Is it because you want to get into the action?" And I just thought that was a little foolish. But I remember very specifically, at Bowling Green, when this happened how angry and how upset everyone was. And students at Bowling Green struck their classes for one week. They just -- we kind of -- the students closed all classes down, in protest of what happened on May 4th. And I was a -- I remember we had many, many meetings, we had marches on different days, and I signed up to be a student marshal for crowd control. And I remember wearing a black armband and we marched all over campus, we marched through the streets of Bowling Green, we held signs, we chanted. And it was a very, very moving experience, to know that we could lend our support for what happened at Kent State. And I, just, I will never ever forget that. And then, when I transferred, I was very, very proud to be a part of the Kent State community after that. And I ended up graduating from Kent two years later. ×
Narrator	Costa, Mary Ann
Narrator's Role	Student at Bowling Green State University in 1970
Date of Interview	1995-05-02
Description	An undergraduate student at Bowling Green State University in May, 1970, Mary Ann Costa describes Bowling Green students' reactions to the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University. She participated as a student marshal and describes meetings and protest marches both on and off the Bowling Green campus. She also discusses a week-long student strike that was held at Bowling Green State University in protest of the shootings.
Length of Interview	1:51 minutes
Places Discussed	Bowling Green (Ohio)
Time Period discussed	May, 1970
Subject(s)	Bowling Green State University--Student strike, 1970 Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, 1970 Peace movements--Ohio--Bowling Green Student movements--Ohio--Bowling Green Students--Ohio--Bowling Green--Interviews
Repository	Special Collections and Archives
Access Rights	This digital object is owned by Kent State University and may be protected by U.S. Copyright law (Title 17, USC). Please include proper citation and credit for use of this item. Use in publications or productions is prohibited without written permission from Kent State University. Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives for more information.
Duplication Policy	http://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/duplication-policy
Institution	Kent State University
DPLA Rights Statement	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Format of Original	audio cassette
Disclaimer	The content of oral history interviews, written narratives and commentaries is personal and interpretive in nature, relying on memories, experiences, perceptions, and opinions of individuals. They do not represent the policy, views or official history of Kent State University and the University makes no assertions about the veracity of statements made by individuals participating in the project. Users are urged to independently corroborate and further research the factual elements of these narratives especially in works of scholarship and journalism based in whole or in part upon the narratives shared in the May 4 Collection and the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project.
Provenance/Collection	May 4 Collection