Today is May 4, 2025, the 55th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. In honor of this sad day in our nation’s history, today’s classic song of day chronicles that event—”Ohio,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
For those of you who think our nation is dangerously divided today, it was worse during the 1960s and early 1970s. Back then there were both generational and racial divides, with the country seemingly coming apart at the seams over the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. There were protests and riots everywhere, every day, most of which were aggressively opposed by the older white establishment.
Student protests against the Vietnam War led to then-President Lyndon B. Johnson opting not to run for re-election in 1968, which led to Richard Nixon winning the ’68 election on a law-and-order platform and with promises of a secret plan to end the war. There was no secret plan; in fact, Nixon ended up escalating the hostilities and, in mid-1970, expanded the Vietnam War into neighboring Cambodia. That led to outrage across the country, especially on college campuses—one of which was Kent State University in Ohio.
On May 4, 1970, a Monday, approximately 300 students gathered in protest on the Kent State campus. The National Guard was called in to contain the protesters and, one thing leading to another, opened fire on the students. Over two dozen National Guard soldiers fired 67 rounds into the crowd, killing four students (Allison Krause, 19; William Schroeder, 19; Jeffrey Miller, 20; and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20) and wounding nine others.
Citizens of all ages across the country were outraged at the sight of government troops attacking unarmed civilians. (Although many in the older generation blamed the protestors, not the Guard troops.) The shootings and subsequent student protests ultimately helped to further turn public opinion against the war—although it took five more years and another president (Gerald Ford) to end the hostilities and bring the troops home.
Neil Young read about the Kent State Massacre in that week’s issue of Life magazine and immediately put pen to paper. Young, along with fellow group members David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash, went into Hollywood’s Record Plant Recording Studios on the evening of May 21 and recorded “Ohio” live, no overdubs. Atlantic Records rush-released the single to stores and radio stations in early June, and the song captured the rage and frustration of the public, especially young people. “Ohio” became a top twenty hit, reaching #14 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100.
Today, “Ohio” is regarded as one of the greatest protest songs in our nation’s musical history. The lyrics tell it all, with barely suppressed rage:
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
That was 55 years ago today. With rising tensions between President Trump’s MAGA followers and the rest of the nation, one has to ask: can it happen again?
