William Knox Schroeder was a student at Kent State University, Ohio, when he was killed by Ohio National Guardsmen in the Kent State shootings.
Schroeder, c. 1968
The Kent State shootings were the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State University campus. The shootings took place on May 4, 1970, during a rally opposing the expanding involvement of the Vietnam War into Cambodia by United States military forces as well as protesting the National Guard presence on campus and the draft.
Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired about 67 rounds over 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis. Students Allison Krause, 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, died on the scene, while William Knox Schroeder, 19, was pronounced dead at Robinson Memorial Hospital in nearby Ravenna shortly afterward.
John Filo's Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller minutes after the unarmed student was fatally shot by an Ohio National Guardsman
Kent State shootings
Poster calling for a student strike on May 4, 1970
Student Alan Canfora waves a black flag before the Ohio National Guard shortly before the armed forces opened fire