Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Richard Chemel Oral History

Kent State Shootings: Oral Histories

Richard Chemel Oral History

Transcription Show Transcript
Narrator Chemel, Richard
Narrator's Role Student at Kent State University in 1970
Date of Interview 2016-11-03
Description Richard Chemel was a student majoring in telecommunications at Kent State University in 1970. He was an eyewitness to the shootings on May 4 and relates his experiences that day and during the days leading up to it. He describes a confrontation with the National Guard at his fraternity house, Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) that weekend, which included pepper gas being fired and a fraternity brother, Jim Russell, being clubbed in the knees. He also describes his observations of the ROTC building fire and the atmosphere on campus during the weekend. He shares, in detail, what he saw on May 4 from his vantage point  on the terrace at the front of Taylor Hall. He also discusses something he observed on campus a day or two after the shootings: that investigators had set up a grid system in The Commons and were cataloging the weight and location of each rock found there.
Length of Interview 23:31 minutes
Places Discussed Cleveland (Ohio)
Kent (Ohio)
Time Period discussed 1970
Subject(s) College fraternity members--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
College students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Community and college--Ohio--Kent
Cronkite, Walter
Eyewitness accounts
Frank, Glenn W.
Jeep automobile
Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, 1970
Kent State Shootings, Kent, Ohio, 1970--Monuments
Kent State University. Major Events Committee
Kent State University. ROTC Building--Fires
Ohio. Army National Guard
Russell, Jim
Seeger, Pete, 1919-2014
Students--Ohio--Kent--Interviews
Tau Kappa Epsilon (Kent State University)
Tear gas munitions
United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Repository Special Collections and Archives
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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 digital file
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