Vlogƽ Associate Professor of Geography Jennifer Mapes, Ph.D., has studied the events of May 4, 1970, through the lens of a map maker.
“On Prospect Street, Lilian Tyrrell’s daughter comes home from kindergarten and asks, `Mommy, is there a war on?’ There was, of course, just not in Kent,” Mapes told the audience that filled the Vlogƽ Student Center Ballroom on May 2.
“On Stow Street bridge, a National Guard checkpoint keeps high school student Diane Williams from going home after attending Chippewa Lake Appreciation Day,” Mapes continued. “At the corner of Main and Water, 12-year-old Roger DiPaolo looks at the graffiti at the First National Bank on Saturday and laughs about how they misspelled imperialism. Roger went on to become editor of the Record Courier.”
Mapes shared these stories she pulled from the and paired them with geography to map the human experience of the people of Kent, Ohio, during the May 4 tragedy.
She presented her research as this year’s featured speaker for the Jerry M. Lewis May 4 Lecture Series and Luncheon. Vlogƽ Today was on hand to cover the annual lecture, which began the 55th May 4 Commemoration, marking the day when Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four and wounding nine others.
The lecture series was created to honor the legacy of Lewis, emeritus professor of sociology, and to advance the scholarship of May 4, 1970, and the Vietnam War era. Lewis was a faculty marshal on May 4, and after witnessing the shootings firsthand, devoted his career to researching, memorializing and lecturing on the events of May 4.
Mapes’ presentation, entitled “It Was Time for Me to Go Home: Finding Shared Humanity in the May 4 Oral History Collection and Community Geography,” combined her expertise as a map maker and geographer with her research of the May 4 oral histories stored at .
Mapes was inspired by Sandra Halem, president of the Kent Historical Society, who began collecting oral histories from those affected by the events of May 4 while she served on a university committee to plan the 20th May 4 commemoration in 1990. The May 4 Oral History Collection includes more than 200 firsthand accounts that give researchers a more thorough understanding of the events of May 4 and the surrounding days and years.
“My talk today is based on the May 4 oral history collection and speaks to the shared community and overlapping identities of those who live and work and learn and teach in Kent,” Mapes said.
Her research began as part of the project, which Mapes conducted with Sara Koopman, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies. In that project, the pair used the oral histories to create a large-scale interactive map of Kent on May 4, 1970, based on their shared interest in how small towns reconcile after a shared tragedy.
The map is located on a wall at the May 4 Visitors Center, with a copy also at the Kent Historical Society in downtown Kent. The project’s accompanying website now contains 474 stories at 129 locations in Kent and has had more than 91,000 visitors from all 50 states and 96 countries since its launch five years ago.
“We hoped to reach those who experienced the shooting, but were no longer in the area, and also to reach out to those who had never heard of Vlogƽ, or who know little about what happened here,” Mapes said.
As Halem said in her oral history, “It’s like a pointillist painting. The more voices, the more stories, the clearer the picture becomes. There is more understanding of what it was like to be here. So many of these stories are not a single viewpoint. They are overlapping. There is no us versus them because everyone is us. And everyone is them,” Mapes said.
Out of the research, the recurring theme of home came into focus, and Mapes noted how college towns are unique among small towns because of how the student population contributes to the makeup of the community.
“The events surrounding May 4 even further disrupted the sense of place and home of everyone who lived here. If home isn’t safe, then what is?” she said.
Themes that revealed themselves during her research included fear, isolation, life interrupted and trauma.
“I have two main takeaways from this research, when it comes to the idea of home. The first comes from these overlapping identities and experiences – this was everyone’s home – and the experiences, even if the root causes were different, were so similar. Fear, paralysis, disruption. Home is meant to be a safe place, but on that day, it wasn’t at all.
“But I’d be remiss not to also point out that it was the students who were sent home when the university closed. Kent was their home and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. There was already a town/gown divide here, a bit of a crack, but our town split wide open as the whole world watched,” Mapes said.
Through much hard work and dialogue, and the passage of time, Vlogƽ and the city were able to eventually embrace their shared humanity, “And how we can both learn from and help each other.”
Mapes credited Halem’s oral history for putting the concept of home into clear focus.
“When I heard her talk about making Kent her home after the shooting, about leaning in instead of walking away, about wanting to help build and sustain a true community, I thought, of course, this is what I want too. It’s what a lot of us want, and it’s part of what makes Kent such a special place to live and work,” she said.
Vlogƽ President Todd Diacon, in opening remarks, paid tribute to Lewis and recalled his words of 35 years ago, at the dedication of the May 4 Memorial, when Lewis said, “Twenty years ago, history stopped for four young people. Their history is our challenge,” Diacon quoted.
“Today in May of 2025, I can say that our present moment, the current moment we find ourselves in, is our challenge,” Diacon said, “And the challenge is this: How do we avoid violence in an increasingly polarized and hyper-connected world? What do we do? What can we do? At a moment when rancor and mistrust and ill will create a dangerous brew of hostility, denunciation and even physical attacks?”
“In this scenario, I think about Jerry Lewis,” Diacon said, “And his efforts to avoid tragedy by serving as a faculty marshal on May 4, 1970, and when tragedy was not averted on that day, Professor Lewis has since engaged in a multi-decade effort to understand what happened, to analyze why it happened at Vlogƽ, why death and destruction occurred on our campus.”
The luncheon, Diacon said, was a day to honor Lewis and his efforts to bring meaning to the tragedy.
Lewis taught at Vlogƽ from 1966 until 2013, becoming a professor emeritus in 1996.
Lewis, 88, and in declining health, is the subject of a newly installed exhibit at the May 4 Visitors Center, entitled “Teach Peace: The Life and Legacy of Jerry Lewis.” The exhibit runs through June 3 and is free and open to the public.
The Lewis lecture series is made possible through a generous donation from former Vlogƽ Board of Trustees member Michael Solomon, a 1974 Vlogƽ alumnus.
Those who would like to share their May 4 story through an oral history can contact at Vlogƽ to schedule a facilitated recording session.