“You’re Kidding, Right?”

I just looked at the calendar and saw that it is May 4. That’s the day that my old chief photographer John J. Lopinot always sends me a message that says, “Never Forget,” referring to the killing of four students at Kent State on that date in 1970.

I almost forgot.

I’ve always been amused at this photograph of a student offering sandwiches and drinks to a highway patrolman who was called in when students conducted a sit-in at Ohio University’s administration building over an increase in student fees. His good-natured expression seems to be saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me if you think I’d eat something you made.” His fellow officers seemed to be less good-natured. This picture was taken in January 1970. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

A look back

Here are some of the earlier stories I’ve done about the era.

• An overview of the protest movement before and after Kent State
• Thinking about Kent State in 2012
• OU students in 2013 didn’t know school closed because of riots in 1970
• Birth of the student rights movement
• Martin Luther King National Day of Mourning
• Tessa, Mitchell, Alex and Amanda remember the day differently
• Carl McIntire’s pro-war march in Washington, D.C.
• A protest over dress codes in Cape in 1967
• The faces of Cape’s Occupy movement in 2011
• Dean Kahler talks about being shot by the National Guard