Squad members draw parallels between pro-Palestinian protest crackdowns and Kent State massacre on 54th anniversary

Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) compared current law enforcement reactions on university campuses to the National Guard that committed the Kent State University massacre.

Saturday was the 54th anniversary of National Guardsmen opening fire on Kent State students who were mid-protest. At the time, students were protesting the bombing of Cambodia. Four people were fatally shot, and another nine were injured. While many students have been arrested in recent weeks in the name of pro-Palestinian causes, none have reported injuries or deaths as a result of clashes with police.

“54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State. Students have a right to speak out, organize, and protest systemic wrongs,” Omar wrote on X. “We can’t silence those expressing dissent, no matter how uncomfortable their protests may be to those in power.”

“On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across our country are being brutalized for standing up to endless war,” Bush wrote. “Our country must learn to actually uphold the rights of free speech & assembly upon which it was founded. Solidarity with our students.”

Other activists joined in, including failed congressional candidate Nina Turner and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights President Maya Wiley. Turner included the victims’ names of the May 4, 1970, incident, who were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder. They were all between the ages of 19 and 20 when they died.

“Today, we see antiwar protesters on campuses. We must not repeat history,” Turner wrote.

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“Imagine if a student had been shot or killed at Columbia? All students deserve to be safe and police involvement can be its own escalation,” Wiley wrote.

Omar visited the Columbia campus, where she walked and shook hands with those in the “anti-war encampment.” Her daughter, Isra Hirsi, was arrested for her part in the protests and subsequently suspended from Barnard College, a women’s liberal arts college offshoot of Columbia University.