Truth yt is a collection of more than 150 of the photos that surround kent state massacre of 1970 and in which four students lives were lost. So without further ado, please welcome howard ruffner. [ applause ] well, first of all, it is nice to see familiar faces out here. Lots of people from pasadena village and relatives, my daughter is out here with my soninlaw and his parents are here and it is really kind of people from where i live. But most of all i have to thank my wife for being here. My wife laura, if shell just raise her hand. [ applause ] as most of you know whenever you endeavor on a real good project your spouse is the one who picks up the other stuff and kept me organized and kept me going and made sure i didnt lose too much of a focus of where i was going with this. So let me get started. The intention of my book is to let you know more about me in the beginning before i attended kent state. My introduction to photography. And then the rest of the story starts with when i enrolled at kept state in march of 1969. I will give you a glimpse of the campus life i knew before may 4. The rest of the book is about my photography and experience photographing the events on campus from may 1 through may 4th. Thats me in the photo standing next to my mom. Looking up at my newest brother rick. The cleveland press back in those days thought a family of six boys made a good Human Interest story. So they titled it, sing a song of sick pants. [ laughter ] they sent a photographer to our home. I watched as the photographer came into the house, looked around and found a place to gather us together. He positioned us and took the picture. The photo ran on the front page of the paper the next day, above the fold. Friends and neighbors couldnt wait to share the front page. We were famous. This was 1953. Here we are, 18 years later. We are now seven boys in eight years. My youngest brother is on the far left. He was still in high school. Three of us have been in the service. Two air force, one army. Two more will be joining, one air force and the other one in the navy. It was about a year after high school when i enlisted in the air force. During my first two years as a writer in the Information Office in waco, texas, i applied and was accepted to a group, the department of defense broadcast specialist course. During the eight weeks of broadcast journalism, we were taught how to write for tv news and incorporate news film and slides and television broadcasts. After that, i was assigned to the American Forces philippines network. My duties included editing film, running a tlelevision camera an this sharpened my ability to frame and choose and compose pictures. My visual awareness was growing and later i became the primary news director and got to call all the shots at the station. So the base offered me lots of opportunities to take photographs of celebrities. Celebrities visited doing uso shows. Many included comedians, singers, movie stars to entertain troops and families. They were on their way to vietnam. General benjamin davis, the highest ranking africanamerican u. S. Air force officer, greeted bob hope upon his arrival. Davis would later be asked to serve on the president s commission on campus unrest to investigate the shootings at kent state in 1970. Many of the photos i took then were used during our daily television show. It was at Clark Air Base where i got seriously involved in photography. This is where i bought my first nikon camera and lens. Now i had a professional camera. The hobby shop on the base was my escape from work. Next came printing my images. Here they really taught me how to make a really finished photograph. Like i heard watching a photo appear and develop was like magic. I was giving myself assignments and taking pictures daily and printing what i thought was good. After a while, the photo lab techs encouraged me to enter a photo competition. I entered this photo which won first place. Another photo entered won third place for landscape. Having completed and won gave me a sense of accomplishment and encouraged me to get better. Now that my photography was taking off, so to speak, i decided to submit a recent photo i took to the base newspaper. This was my First Published photograph. It ran with my credit and it took some planning to get exa exactly what i wanted. Now im feeling im become morgue accomplished as a photographer. Now its march of 1969. I have enrolled at kent state university, ready to pursue my degree in broadcast journalism. Spring on campus was a time for students to get out and play and enjoy college life beyond books. These students had been involved in anything as silly as a mud fight probably, since they were in elementary school. It seemed like a perfectly natural way to break the ice, get to know your fellow classmates. This helped me realize that there was more to college than just going to class and studying. While i was surprised by seeing this, it just reminded me it was safe in a playful way to relieve the tensions of school. From mud fights to dating. Casual fridays had not been invented yet. Few students wore jeans. Sneakers were for gym class. It was date night for a sly and the family stone concert that spring. Sly arrived on stage with mutton chops, long hair and an outrageous hippie outfit. Students, however, wore their best date night clothes. They looked like theyre going to job interviews. Kents student conservative side was apparent at the concert. This was my First Student protest photograph. Up until now, school is quiet as far as protests were concerned. Students had been working on signs and banners during the week and the morning of the antiwar march. It was thursday morning, october 1969. Students grabbed signs and a banner as they left the campus and headed to downtown kent to protest the vietnam war. They did this on thursday because kent was a suitcase campus. A lot of students went home in nearby canton, ohio. Friday afternoon, weekends, campus was deserted. The woman behind the word all is alison krause. I will tell you about her later. The antiwar sentiment was on the minds of many kent students, especially young men who knew they were deferred as long as they remained in school. This would change on december 1st that year when the draft lottery was put into place. As a photographer on campus, other than this protest march, most of the protesting i heard was in the classrooms and the student union. The next large antiwar gathering wouldnt occur until may 1, 1970, when 300 to 500 students would attend a rally to protest nixons expansion of the vietnam war into cambodia. By the fall, the Antiwar Movement had grown off colleges campuses to the mall in d. C. Four of us from the newspaper decided to drive to washington, d. C. To join the antiwar protests on november 15th. Just a few weeks after our own homecoming. We arrived friday evening in time to watch people honoring the soldiers who had died in vietnam. That night, 18 of us slept in one room of a friends dorm. Our feet pointed in and our heads out. The next more than, we headed to the mall. I was impressed by the size of the crowd and by their focus and steadfastness to be part of something so big it would make the government take notice. This is my first trip to washington, d. C. Everything was very new and exciting. The resentment of half a Million People of this continued war could be felt as i moved my way through the crowd. Their determination to have their voices heard was deafening. With the u. S. Capital a background, the protesters demanded an end to the war. I needed to push my way through the crowd to find out where the march began. After a lot of walking and nudging around, i came to the beginning of the parade. I stood in awe as i spotted George Mcgovern at the front of the parade. I nudged my way through to get as close as i could and took my photos. Locked arm in arm, mcgovern and king and others showed the strength of their unity and commitment. I was moved to be so close to such committed and important people who opposed the war. Now its may 1, on campus. May 1, 1970. History graduate student steve sheroff urges a rally of 300 to 500 students to understand the severity of nixons decision to invade cambodia. Nixon did this without the consent of congress. According to steve, nixon murdered the constitution. Therefore, it was dead and needed to be buried. With the constitution buried, and the crowd beginning to leave, the grad students pack up and went on their way. One last grad student sees this as an opportunity to speak to the crowd, to remind them how important the rally was and that the discussion about the war needs to continue. He urged students to return to the same place on noon, monday, may 4. This rally took place between 12 00 noon and 1 00. Most students started leaving just before the lunch period ended. After the rotc building was set on fire saturday evening, i stayed up late into sunday morning and watched as the National Guard took up positions on the campus. I had a surreal feeling as i observed the movement of the armed troops. Where did they come from so quickly . How did they get here . What kind of trouble would happen when students arrived back on campus after the weekend . Well, students walked around the burned out rotc building sunday morning as they returned to campus. A wooden fence had been erected while they were gone. National guardsmen posted to keep gawkers from getting too close. Protesting had stopped. There were no resumers of more protesting or of more buildings being set on fire. Everybody had quieted down. So why would the National Guard not leave . Around 10 00 a. M. On may 3, Ohio Governor james rhodes and officials arrived on campus. They were there to survey the damage and determine what they would do about student protesters. The governor was running for a u. S. Congressional senate seat. The election was may 5th. Just a day later. Two days away. When i heard this, i realized this is his viewing of the rotc building was a planned event to get Media Coverage so cobe splashed across a newspaper and tv around the state. He wanted to impress voters that he was the law and order candidate. So they would send him to washington. They didnt. Using street lights and search lights from helicopters, sunday evening, i took photos of students staging a sitin at the center of town. They wanted to hear from the mayor of kent and from University President robert white. They wanted to know what was happening, who was in charge, what was the National Guards exact role, were the town and school under martial law . Confusion reigned all around. On may 4th, around 11 30 a. M. , students gathered on the commons to continue the rally of may 1st. I have adjusted this photo to allow specific students to stand out. If you cant see it very well, in the front row are the legs and arms of jeffrey miller, who is behind a female student. This is jeffrey miller. He was a native of new york where he was born in 1950. To his right is mary ann vechio. She had become the most recognizable nonuniversity student protester. Most iconic photograph you remember is the day after. Shes right here. 14 years old, runaway from florida. There are two shaded individuals in the middle right of the photo. These students carry their books as they pause on the way to class. On the right is william schroeder. He was a native of cincinnati, ohio, where he was born in 1950. To his left is sandy soyer. A speech therapist honor student, intent on going to class. She was born in 1949 in youngstown, ohio. I watched as a line of guards students reached the crest of the hill and the guard continued to advance on them. On the right, just under the pagoda is alison krause. Thats the person i took a photogra photograph. Alison krause was a freshman honor student. She was born in cleveland in 1951. This photo is particularly difficult for me to look at. I see her Holding Hands with her boyfriend. I go back to 1969 to remember the original federal i took of her. The banner that read, bring all the troops home. At this point, the guard completed its objective. They were supposed to disburse the students from the crowd that gathered. The guardsmen were still advancing. What more did they need to accomplish . What was their real objective here . What they really wanted was for this all to end so they could go home. As the guard continued their marching, they reached the corner of taylor hall. I witnessed the group at the rear turn in unison, some crouched down while others stood. Then the gunshots began. Of course, i thought they would be shooting blanks. I took a photograph as they turned and fired. I stood there. Then a moment later i thought to myself, i better get down. I probably look like a good target with these cameras around my neck. Back then lens were long and we didnt have a tiny lens or cameras. So what i did was swung any left arm around my camera and my bag and i went down on the ground. Just as i was getting down and dropping to my knees, i heard a young woman scream, oh, my god, get down. Theyre using real bullets. They are shooting real bullets. I was 80 feet in front of the guard when they turned and fired. This photo showed the ground in front of taylor hall where the National Guard turned and fired. It does not show evidence of anything thrown at the guard or anything they would have that would have put their lives in danger. As they would later testify at the civil trials. I show this because when you look at a photograph sometimes you look at what the photographer intends for you to see. What is of interest. In the first photograph, you see the guns pointed in the air, the bayonets, people looking. If i go back you will see what i mean. When i talk about somebody maybe im not in the right spot. Theres a guy right there, getting close to looking at me in my direction. As i looked around from my crouched position, i spotted john cleary lying wounded on the ground just to my left and a little behind me. He was at the base of the metal sculpture in front of taylor hall. I couldnt tell if he was dead or alive. Cleary was lucky. He survived a shot to the chest. The first time i saw this photo was more than a week later on the cover of life. Someone from life called me a week before about 2 00 a. M. To let me know they had chosen one of my photo s for the cover. Because i sent unprocessed rolled of film to life in chicago, i had no idea what my images looked like. I never knew exactly what the cover shot was until life hit newsstands later that week. Im sure some of you might remember this cover. I will leave it up here. So at the memorial site of the shootings, visitors see these engrave engraved memorials. If you have you wouldnt get there from here, but its a thing to see if you go there. First word is inquire. As i wrote this memoir, i asked myself hundreds of questions about what truth my photographs really captured. Who was to blame for killing unarmed students . What role did the students have . Were the guardsmens lives at risk . Was there an order to fire . For the word learn, shortly after the kent state shootings i realized that kent protests and subsequent killings of students precipitated the closing of colleges and universities around the country. I remember reading about this in the local paper and watching it on television news. It was later estimated that more than 4 Million Students at more than half the 2,551 colleges and universities in the country went on strike during the week of may 4th. In response to this is in response to the kent state shootings, making it the largest student protest in history. The last word is reflect. I always have been open and willing to share my kent state photos and memories. I have given talks in Public Schools to all grade levels, College Class and local community groups. However, my proudest moment was october of 2016. I told my story about the kent state tragedy and protest at Hanoi University where i was invited to speak to 200 English Speaking undergraduates. This couldnt have been possible without the help from kent state international department. These Young Students that heard about the protests in the unUnited States had heard from parents and aunts and uncles. This was the first time they heard the story from someone who was there and was a primary witness. The other thing that made this so important to me was the students at Hanoi University and their parents and grandparents recognized that the sacrifice at kent state and all the College Campuses that protested the war in 1970 was what actually determined the ending of the vietnam war, because then within ten months of what happened at kent state, 90 of the troops were leaving or scheduled to leave. They recognized that. I think they really responded to what i had to say. The people i told you about, alison krause, andy shoyer and jeffrey miller, those are the four students who died. Nine were wounded and one was crippled for life from the waist down. I would like to turn this over. Any questions anybody would have. I would be sure to share more than i have here. [ applause ] yes. Im interested in your transition from a family that had many people in the military and the military that you served in and how, if, how, your experience in the military affected your view of what was going on, if you became an antiwar activist at some point or just even antiwar without being an activist. Im just interested in that transition or relationship. Well, growing up in a family of seven boys born eight years apart and my dad never drove, we actually didnt have money for college. As a young poor middle class kid, i stayed out of school for a year working several jobs. Trying to go to an Extension School but realizing its not going to work out very well. A friend came in and decided he was he had just joined the air force. Asked me if i wanted to join. Didnt take a half a second. Im with you. I was ready to go. As far as the war goes, sure, i was against the war. But i knew if i didnt enlist and get g. I. Bill money, i could be something other than what i was. In 1965, when i enlisted, when you got to your draft place, if they drafted you, if the marines didnt have enough marines to fill their quota, you are a marine, you are a marine. Air force and navy didnt have that problem. So i