Flashes 101 Resources

May 4 Visitors Center Experience

The May 4 Visitors Center and Historic site is a museum consisting of a permanent exhibition examining the events leading up to the May 4, 1970, the shootings, and their aftermath. Flashes 101 tours last 50 minutes and are led by May 4 Visitors Center staff. During the tour:

Students will explore an introductory gallery that illustrates the tumultuous time of the 1960鈥檚, from the Civil Rights movement and social unrest on campus to generational differences and the Vietnam War.
Students will watch an award-winning short film about the shootings featuring interviews with students who were injured or experienced the trauma of the day.
Students will understand the historic relevance of the May 4 shootings and their impact upon history and make relevant connections to their personal lives and place within Kent State.

Booking Information

Use the button below to schedule a tour for your Flashes 101 class. The link will take you to a Microsoft Form. Classes are advised to register at least three weeks prior to the potential tour date. Once you submit the tour request form, we will reach out to you to confirm details. A calendar invite will be sent to you upon confirmation.

Day-of-Tour Directions

Flashes 101 tours start in our Reflections Gallery - 141 Taylor Hall. This is the location we'll include on your calendar invitation and where everyone should meet for the tour.
Students are able to leave their belongings in the Reflections Gallery while on tour in the Visitors Center across the hall.
They are welcome to bring water bottles on the tour.
We suggest students have something to eat before their tour, especially morning ones, to avoid getting woozy while standing throughout the 50 minutes.

The May 4th augmented reality experience is designed to engage and immerse users as they journey through the events of May 4, 1970, and reflect on its meaning for today. The experience invites users to view multiple perspectives of the Kent State shootings through the lens of augmented reality using historical imagery, audio and related experiences that highlight past and current humanitarian struggles. Visitors to Kent State's campus can explore multiple hotspots and see historical images in real time and locations. Users unable to visit the campus can explore those same audio and visual materials from any location using the application's 360 images of the Kent Campus. All users will have a chance to see and hear about the context leading up to May 4, 1970, events on the day of the shootings, yearly commemorations at the particular hotspot, and questions that promote voices for change.

This web app draws from the oral histories in the May 4 Collection, Kent State Special Collections & Archives. It maps stories from those histories that describe memories of events at a particular place in Kent between May 1 and May 5, 1970. Users of the app can click through the map or take guided tours, either online or in person, with their mobile device. This web app is designed to serve as a digital memorial to remember and honor these events. We have made it both for those who have stories to share and those who are interested in hearing these stories.

鈥淎rmed With Our Voices,鈥� the May 4 Listening Wall Exhibit. The tragedy revealed the grave consequences that result when communication collapses. Today, polarized perspectives, divided communities and school violence are commonplace. As we approach the 50th Commemoration of the May 4 tragedy, the Wick Poetry Center, with its partners, has developed an interactive exhibit, encouraging visitors to explore the history of student protest and the timely themes of peace and conflict transformation.

This website honors the lives of Jeff, Allison, Bill and Sandy. It is the product of a multiyear collaboration between Glyphix, a student design firm, and the May 4 Visitors Center with special thanks to the May 4 families and friends.

Part of 50 Years: Long Live the Memory programming, this exhibit showcases selected key events in and around Jackson State University (Jackson, MS), South Carolina State University (Orangeburg, SC), and Kent State University (Kent, OH) from 1960-1967. Civil rights actions, anti-war protests, and an emerging Black Power movement are featured. Curated by Cara Gilgenbach, Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University Libraries.

This exhibition features posters, flyers, and other items created by the May 4th Task Force, a student-run organization founded in 1975 to raise awareness among students, faculty, administrators and the general public about the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. Curated by Haley Antell, Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University Libraries.

May 4: Through the Looking Glass

RMay 4: Through the Looking Glass, created within Kent State University鈥檚 School of Emerging Media and Technology in collaboration with Alan Canfora, is an interactive exhibition that seeks to open up new spaces for thinking and feeling the profound legacies of May 4, 1970.

In the aftermath of the shootings of May 4, 1970, Kent State University Libraries sent letters to colleges and universities across the nation requesting campus strike newspapers and related documents to be archived for future research. This exhibit highlights a selection of the responses that are found in the Campus Strike papers in Special Collections and Archives. Curated by Anita Clary, Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University Libraries.

Showcased in this exhibit is the activism of Black students at South Carolina State College, Kent State University and Jackson State College and images of the shootings which occurred there. While the focus of the shootings at Kent State University has historically been on the anti-war activism of the students, this exhibit seeks to frame the activism in a larger political, social and cultural context, examining the civil rights struggles of the time and the self-determination of Black students in particular.

Global Peace Poems

The Wick Poetry Center collected more than 600 poems resonating with the themes of peace, conflict transformation and student advocacy. View the winners, entries and poster artwork. Winners were chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Trace the steps of history through this documentary in the style of Ken Burns -- based on 500 archival photographs never before brought together and narrated by notable civil rights leader Julian Bond. The chapters of the documentary are keyed to the seven Walking Tour trail markers.

These videos are now available via the link below. To view them while off-campus, just .

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