Other campus riots were aimed against the war in Vietnam. In
May of 1970, when President Nixon sent American troops into Cambodia
supposedly in the process of de-escalating the war in Vietnam,
protests spread all across the country, and several campuses exploded
with riots.
At Kent State University in Ohio, the National Guard shot and killed
four white student protesters. At Jackson State in Mississippi, the
police killed two black students. Campus riots escalated, and dozens
of colleges and universities were compelled to close their doors for
the remainder of the academic year. While some Americans felt that
these killings were a result of government repression of the freedom
of speech, others believed that more action of this kind was necessary
to curb what they viewed as extremist protest. Blacks again noticed
that it had been the death of four white students which brought forth
the widespread indignation. They believed that killings of blacks by
police and Guardsmen were usually taken for granted or ignored. Even
liberals, they believed, were only really stirred by repressive
measures aimed against whites.
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