April 1, 2015 at 8:15 pm

Troops, Turmoil and Teargas, Ohio University 1968-70 | Opens April 16

Troops on Court Street

The Athens County Historical Society and Museum presents “The Sky Has Fallen: Troops, Turmoil and Teargas, Ohio University 1968-1970.”

The exhibit opens Thursday, April 16, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 65 N. Court St.

Sponsors in addition to the Athens County Historical Society and Museum are the Ohio University Department of History, Contemporary History Institute, and Libraries.

Heidi Summerlin, a doctoral History student studying with Dr. Katherine Jellison, conducted research for the exhibit. She and museum curator Jessica Cyders prepared the following narrative of the events during that time.

Abstract: This year is the 45^th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University, a tragedy that brought national attention to the State of Ohio. This event sparked protests on college campuses across the United States, including in Athens. Unlike all the other universities in the state, Ohio University did not immediately shut down after the shootings in Kent. Ohio University stayed open for 11 days before clashes between students and law enforcement forced President Claude Sowle to shut down the campus and send the students home.

Even though the student protest movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s was of national significance, we have found that there are still widely held misconceptions about the cause of the protests among current Ohio University students and the Athens community. We have also found through extensive research and interviews that the reasons students were protesting at Ohio University in May, 1970 were more complex than simply the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia. The Civil Rights movement and the Women’s Rights movement all played a role in motivating the students to protest. Additionally, many of the underlying “town and gown” tensions we experience today drove some of the violent clashes between students and law enforcement officials in 1970. We would like to use this exhibit to explore the topics of protest, civil disobedience, nonviolence, and civil rights, and to spark discussion among OHIO students and Athens community members.

Summerlin and Cyders worked closely with co-sponsors from Ohio University’s Archives and Special Collections, the Department of History and the Contemporary History Institute.