"...there was a lot of student action. Most every campus had something major going on in it. There were students shot down in the South, too, at one school. I forget the name, but there were six or seven students killed there. It was a black college, so it didn't get the ink. I think it was Jackson State. Same time, right around the same time, you know, he National Guard there opened fire, but it was blacks killed and it never got the attention that Kent State got. That was a real heavy time.

The night of the shootings, I had 2,000 people gather in a parking lot, and we marched down to the National guard headquarters, because I wanted to do something, again theatrical, but people were ready to riot. Some wanted to go up there, a lot of my black friends and SDS friends were--it's hard to express how crazy people were--crying, beating on themselves, beating on others--just an incredible reaction. And they wanted to go back up to Kent and challenge the National Guard tanks. hey were surrounded.

All of the roads into Kent State were blocked with tanks, so I got them to march silently down to the National Guard headquarters in Akron where the National Guard was based--the Armory. There were cops as far as you could see, with helmets and clubs. I mean, everybody's ready to go at it--because of the tension. It was just thick. We brought in this big vat of water, big laundry vat, and we had 2,000 people dip their hands in the water and hold their hands up like washing their hands, and then we took the water and threw it under the door of the National Guard headquarters. Very powerful. It's one of those things you only see in movies, and it was very therapeutic. I don't know what else could have been done at that point Really, nothing anybody could do. People were shot. So that was a real heavy time..."

Wade Blank

Created on

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Posted on

Wednesday 9 October 2019

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• Wade Blank - Founder of Atlantis Co-Founder of ADAPT

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