title: Diego Rivera

text: Also in 1929, American journalist Ernestine Evans's book "The Frescoes of Diego Rivera", was published in New York City; it was the first English-language book on the artist. In December, Rivera accepted a commission from the American Ambassador to Mexico to paint murals in the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca, where the US had a consulate.


title: Diego Rivera

text: In September 1930, Rivera accepted a commission by architect Timothy L. Pflueger for two works related to his design projects in San Francisco. Rivera and Kahlo went to the city in November. Rivera painted a mural for the City Club of the San Francisco Stock Exchange for US$2,500. He also completed a fresco for the California School of Fine Art, a work that was later relocated to what is now the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute.


title: Diego Rivera

text: During this period, Rivera and Kahlo worked and lived at the studio of Ralph Stackpole, who had recommended Rivera to Pflueger. Rivera met Helen Wills Moody, a notable American tennis player, who modeled for his City Club mural.


title: Diego Rivera

text: In November 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective exhibition of Rivera's work; Kahlo attended with him.


title: Diego Rivera

text: Between 1932 and 1933, Rivera completed a major commission: twenty-seven fresco panels, entitled "Detroit Industry," on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Part of the cost was paid by Edsel Ford, scion of the entrepreneur.


title: Diego Rivera

text: During the McCarthyism of the 1950s, a was placed in the courtyard defending the artistic merit of the murals while attacking his politics as "detestable."


title: Diego Rivera

text: His mural "Man at the Crossroads", originally a three-paneled work, begun as a commission for John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1933 for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, was later removed. Because it included a portrait of Vladimir Lenin, former leader of the Soviet Union and Marxist pro-worker content, Rockefeller's son, the press, and some of the public protested. Anti-Communism ran high in some American circles, although many others in this period of the Great Depression had been drawn to the movement as offering hope to labor.


title: Diego Rivera

text: When Diego refused to remove Lenin from the painting, he was ordered to leave the US. One of Diego's assistants managed to take a few photographs of the work so Diego was able to later recreate it. American poet Archibald MacLeish wrote six "irony-laden" poems about the mural. "The New Yorker" magazine published E. B. White's light poem, "I paint what I see: A ballad of artistic integrity", also in response to the controversy with number of sponsors taking offense to it.As a result of the negative publicity, officials in Chicago cancelled their commission for Rivera to paint a mural for the Chicago World's Fair. Rivera issued a press statement, saying that he would use the remaining money from his commission at Rockefeller Center to repaint the same mural, over and over, wherever he was asked, until the money ran out. He had been paid in full although the mural was reportedly destroyed. There have been rumors that the mural was covered over rather than removed and destroyed, but this has not been confirmed.


title: Diego Rivera

text: In December 1933, Rivera returned to Mexico. He repainted "Man at the Crossroads" in 1934 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, calling this version "Man, Controller of the Universe".


title: Diego Rivera

text: On June 5, 1940, invited again by Pflueger, Rivera returned for the last time to the United States to paint a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. His work, "Pan American Unity" was completed November 29, 1940. Rivera painted in front of attendees at the Exposition, which had already opened. He received US$1,000 per month and US$1,000 for travel expenses. The mural includes representations of two of Pflueger's architectural works, and portraits of Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, woodcarver Dudley C. Carter, and actress Paulette Goddard. She is shown holding Rivera's hand as they plant a white tree together. Rivera's assistants on the mural included Thelma Johnson Streat, a pioneer African-American artist, dancer, and textile designer. The mural and its archives are now held by City College of San Francisco.


title: Diego Rivera

text: In 1926, Rivera became a member of AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, an occult organization founded by American occultist Harvey Spencer Lewis. In 1926, Rivera was among the founders of AMORC's Mexico City lodge, called Quetzalcoatl after an ancient indigenous god. He painted an image of Quetzalcoatl for the local temple.


title: Diego Rivera

text: In 1954 Rivera tried to be readmitted into the Mexican Communist Party. He had been expelled in part because of his support of Trotsky, who had been exiled and assassinated years before in Mexico. Rivera was required to justify his AMORC activities. At the time, the Mexican Communist Party excluded persons involved in Freemasonry, and regarded AMORC as suspiciously similar to Freemasonry. Rivera told his questioners that, by joining AMORC, he wanted to infiltrate a typical “Yankee” organization on behalf of Communism. However, he also claimed that AMORC was “essentially materialist, insofar as it only admits different states of energy and matter, and is based on ancient Egyptian occult knowledge from Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti.”


title: Diego Rivera

text: Diego Rivera has been portrayed in several films. He was played by Rubén Blades in "Cradle Will Rock" (1999), by Alfred Molina in "Frida" (2002), and (in a brief appearance) by José Montini in "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" (2015).


title: Diego Rivera

text: Barbara Kingsolver's novel, "The Lacuna" features Rivera, Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky as major characters.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but only the gray form, which has a metallic appearance, is important to industry.


title: Arsenic

text: The primary use of arsenic is in alloys of lead (for example, in car batteries and ammunition). Arsenic is a common n-type dopant in semiconductor electronic devices. It is also a component of the III-V compound semiconductor gallium arsenide. Arsenic and its compounds, especially the trioxide, are used in the production of pesticides, treated wood products, herbicides, and insecticides. These applications are declining with the increasing recognition of the toxicity of arsenic and its compounds.


title: Arsenic

text: A few species of bacteria are able to use arsenic compounds as respiratory metabolites. Trace quantities of arsenic are an essential dietary element in rats, hamsters, goats, chickens, and presumably other species. A role in human metabolism is not known. However, arsenic poisoning occurs in multicellular life if quantities are larger than needed. Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a problem that affects millions of people across the world.


title: Arsenic

text: The United States' Environmental Protection Agency states that all forms of arsenic are a serious risk to human health. The United States' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ranked arsenic as number 1 in its 2001 Priority List of Hazardous Substances at Superfund sites. Arsenic is classified as a Group-A carcinogen.


title: Arsenic

text: The three most common arsenic allotropes are gray, yellow, and black arsenic, with gray being the most common. Gray arsenic (α-As, space group Rm No. 166) adopts a double-layered structure consisting of many interlocked, ruffled, six-membered rings. Because of weak bonding between the layers, gray arsenic is brittle and has a relatively low Mohs hardness of 3.5. Nearest and next-nearest neighbors form a distorted octahedral complex, with the three atoms in the same double-layer being slightly closer than the three atoms in the next. This relatively close packing leads to a high density of 5.73 g/cm. Gray arsenic is a semimetal, but becomes a semiconductor with a bandgap of 1.2–1.4 eV if amorphized. Gray arsenic is also the most stable form.


title: Arsenic

text: Yellow arsenic is soft and waxy, and somewhat similar to tetraphosphorus (). Both have four atoms arranged in a tetrahedral structure in which each atom is bound to each of the other three atoms by a single bond. This unstable allotrope, being molecular, is the most volatile, least dense, and most toxic. Solid yellow arsenic is produced by rapid cooling of arsenic vapor, . It is rapidly transformed into gray arsenic by light. The yellow form has a density of 1.97 g/cm. Black arsenic is similar in structure to black phosphorus.


title: Arsenic

text: Black arsenic can also be formed by cooling vapor at around 100–220 °C and by crystallization of amorphous arsenic in the presence of mercury vapors. It is glassy and brittle. Black arsenic is also a poor electrical conductor. As arsenic's triple point is at 3.628 MPa (35.81 atm), it does not have a melting point at standard pressure but instead sublimes from solid to vapor at 887 K (615 °C or 1137 °F).


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic occurs in nature as one stable isotope, As, a monoisotopic element. As of 2003, at least 33 radioisotopes have also been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 60 to 92. The most stable of these is As with a half-life of 80.30 days. All other isotopes have half-lives of under one day, with the exception of As ("t"=65.30 hours), As ("t"=26.0 hours), As ("t"=17.77 days), As ("t"=1.0942 days), and As ("t"=38.83 hours). Isotopes that are lighter than the stable As tend to decay by β decay, and those that are heavier tend to decay by β decay, with some exceptions.


title: Arsenic

text: At least 10 nuclear isomers have been described, ranging in atomic mass from 66 to 84. The most stable of arsenic's isomers is As with a half-life of 111 seconds.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic has a similar electronegativity and ionization energies to its lighter congener phosphorus and accordingly readily forms covalent molecules with most of the nonmetals. Though stable in dry air, arsenic forms a golden-bronze tarnish upon exposure to humidity which eventually becomes a black surface layer. When heated in air, arsenic oxidizes to arsenic trioxide; the fumes from this reaction have an odor resembling garlic. This odor can be detected on striking arsenide minerals such as arsenopyrite with a hammer. It burns in oxygen to form arsenic trioxide and arsenic pentoxide, which have the same structure as the more well-known phosphorus compounds, and in fluorine to give arsenic pentafluoride. Arsenic (and some arsenic compounds) sublimes upon heating at atmospheric pressure, converting directly to a gaseous form without an intervening liquid state at . The triple point is 3.63 MPa and . Arsenic makes arsenic acid with concentrated nitric acid, arsenous acid with dilute nitric acid, and arsenic trioxide with concentrated sulfuric acid; however, it does not react with water, alkalis, or non-oxidising acids. Arsenic reacts with metals to form arsenides, though these are not ionic compounds containing the As ion as the formation of such an anion would be highly endothermic and even the group 1 arsenides have properties of intermetallic compounds. Like germanium, selenium, and bromine, which like arsenic succeed the 3d transition series, arsenic is much less stable in the group oxidation state of +5 than its vertical neighbors phosphorus and antimony, and hence arsenic pentoxide and arsenic acid are potent oxidizers.


title: Arsenic

text: Compounds of arsenic resemble in some respects those of phosphorus which occupies the same group (column) of the periodic table. The most common oxidation states for arsenic are: −3 in the arsenides, which are alloy-like intermetallic compounds, +3 in the arsenites, and +5 in the arsenates and most organoarsenic compounds. Arsenic also bonds readily to itself as seen in the square ions in the mineral skutterudite. In the +3 oxidation state, arsenic is typically pyramidal owing to the influence of the lone pair of electrons.


title: Arsenic

text: One of the simplest arsenic compounds is the trihydride, the highly toxic, flammable, pyrophoric arsine (AsH). This compound is generally regarded as stable, since at room temperature it decomposes only slowly. At temperatures of 250–300 °C decomposition to arsenic and hydrogen is rapid. Several factors, such as humidity, presence of light and certain catalysts (namely aluminium) facilitate the rate of decomposition. It oxidises readily in air to form arsenic trioxide and water, and analogous reactions take place with sulfur and selenium instead of oxygen.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic forms colorless, odorless, crystalline oxides AsO ("white arsenic") and AsO which are hygroscopic and readily soluble in water to form acidic solutions. Arsenic(V) acid is a weak acid and the salts are called arsenates, the most common arsenic contamination of groundwater, and a problem that affects many people. Synthetic arsenates include Scheele's Green (cupric hydrogen arsenate, acidic copper arsenate), calcium arsenate, and lead hydrogen arsenate. These three have been used as agricultural insecticides and poisons.


title: Arsenic

text: The protonation steps between the arsenate and arsenic acid are similar to those between phosphate and phosphoric acid. Unlike phosphorous acid, arsenous acid is genuinely tribasic, with the formula As(OH).


title: Arsenic

text: A broad variety of sulfur compounds of arsenic are known. Orpiment (AsS) and realgar (AsS) are somewhat abundant and were formerly used as painting pigments. In AsS, arsenic has a formal oxidation state of +2 in AsS which features As-As bonds so that the total covalency of As is still 3. Both orpiment and realgar, as well as AsS, have selenium analogs; the analogous AsTe is known as the mineral kalgoorlieite, and the anion AsTe is known as a ligand in cobalt complexes.


title: Arsenic

text: All trihalides of arsenic(III) are well known except the astatide, which is unknown. Arsenic pentafluoride (AsF) is the only important pentahalide, reflecting the lower stability of the +5 oxidation state; even so, it is a very strong fluorinating and oxidizing agent. (The pentachloride is stable only below −50 °C, at which temperature it decomposes to the trichloride, releasing chlorine gas.)


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is used as the group 5 element in the III-V semiconductors gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, and aluminium arsenide. The valence electron count of GaAs is the same as a pair of Si atoms, but the band structure is completely different which results in distinct bulk properties. Other arsenic alloys include the II-V semiconductor cadmium arsenide.


title: Arsenic

text: A large variety of organoarsenic compounds are known. Several were developed as chemical warfare agents during World War I, including vesicants such as lewisite and vomiting agents such as adamsite. Cacodylic acid, which is of historic and practical interest, arises from the methylation of arsenic trioxide, a reaction that has no analogy in phosphorus chemistry. Cacodyl was the first organometallic compound known (even though arsenic is not a true metal) and was named from the Greek "κακωδία" "stink" for its offensive odor; it is very poisonous.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic comprises about 1.5 ppm (0.00015%) of the Earth's crust, and is the 53rd most abundant element. Typical background concentrations of arsenic do not exceed 3 ng/m in the atmosphere; 100 mg/kg in soil; 400 μg/kg in vegetation; 10 μg/L in freshwater and 1.5 μg/L in seawater.


title: Arsenic

text: Minerals with the formula MAsS and MAs (M = Fe, Ni, Co) are the dominant commercial sources of arsenic, together with realgar (an arsenic sulfide mineral) and native (elemental) arsenic. An illustrative mineral is arsenopyrite (FeAsS), which is structurally related to iron pyrite. Many minor As-containing minerals are known. Arsenic also occurs in various organic forms in the environment.


title: Arsenic

text: In 2014, China was the top producer of white arsenic with almost 70% world share, followed by Morocco, Russia, and Belgium, according to the British Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey. Most arsenic refinement operations in the US and Europe have closed over environmental concerns. Arsenic is found in the smelter dust from copper, gold, and lead smelters, and is recovered primarily from copper refinement dust.


title: Arsenic

text: On roasting arsenopyrite in air, arsenic sublimes as arsenic(III) oxide leaving iron oxides, while roasting without air results in the production of gray arsenic. Further purification from sulfur and other chalcogens is achieved by sublimation in vacuum, in a hydrogen atmosphere, or by distillation from molten lead-arsenic mixture.


title: Arsenic

text: The word "arsenic" has its origin in the Syriac word "(al) zarniqa", from Arabic al-zarnīḵ 'the orpiment', based on Persian zar 'gold' from the word "zarnikh", meaning "yellow" (literally "gold-colored") and hence "(yellow) orpiment". It was adopted into Greek as "arsenikon" (), a form that is folk etymology, being the neuter form of the Greek word "arsenikos" (), meaning "male", "virile".


title: Arsenic

text: The Greek word was adopted in Latin as "arsenicum", which in French became "arsenic", from which the English word arsenic is taken. Arsenic sulfides (orpiment, realgar) and oxides have been known and used since ancient times. Zosimos (circa 300 AD) describes roasting "sandarach" (realgar) to obtain "cloud of arsenic" (arsenic trioxide), which he then reduces to gray arsenic. As the symptoms of arsenic poisoning are not very specific, it was frequently used for murder until the advent of the Marsh test, a sensitive chemical test for its presence. (Another less sensitive but more general test is the Reinsch test.) Owing to its use by the ruling class to murder one another and its potency and discreetness, arsenic has been called the "poison of kings" and the "king of poisons". In the Renaissance era, arsenic was known as “inheritance powder” due to use in killing family members.


title: Arsenic

text: During the Bronze Age, arsenic was often included in bronze, which made the alloy harder (so-called "arsenical bronze").


title: Arsenic

text: The isolation of arsenic was described by Jabir ibn Hayyan before 815 AD. Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great, 1193–1280) later isolated the element from a compound in 1250, by heating soap together with arsenic trisulfide. In 1649, Johann Schröder published two ways of preparing arsenic. Crystals of elemental (native) arsenic are found in nature, although rare.


title: Arsenic

text: Cadet's fuming liquid (impure cacodyl), often claimed as the first synthetic organometallic compound, was synthesized in 1760 by Louis Claude Cadet de Gassicourt by the reaction of potassium acetate with arsenic trioxide.


title: Arsenic

text: In the Victorian era, "arsenic" ("white arsenic" or arsenic trioxide) was mixed with vinegar and chalk and eaten by women to improve the complexion of their faces, making their skin paler to show they did not work in the fields. The accidental use of arsenic in the adulteration of foodstuffs led to the Bradford sweet poisoning in 1858, which resulted in 21 deaths. Wallpaper production also began to use dyes made from arsenic, which was thought to increase the pigment's brightness.


title: Arsenic

text: Two arsenic pigments have been widely used since their discovery – Paris Green and Scheele's Green. After the toxicity of arsenic became widely known, these chemicals were used less often as pigments and more often as insecticides. In the 1860s, an arsenic byproduct of dye production, London Purple, was widely used. This was a solid mixture of arsenic trioxide, aniline, lime, and ferrous oxide, insoluble in water and very toxic by inhalation or ingestion But it was later replaced with Paris Green, another arsenic-based dye. With better understanding of the toxicology mechanism, two other compounds were used starting in the 1890s. Arsenite of lime and arsenate of lead were used widely as insecticides until the discovery of DDT in 1942.


title: Arsenic

text: The toxicity of arsenic to insects, bacteria, and fungi led to its use as a wood preservative. In the 1930s, a process of treating wood with chromated copper arsenate (also known as CCA or Tanalith) was invented, and for decades, this treatment was the most extensive industrial use of arsenic. An increased appreciation of the toxicity of arsenic led to a ban of CCA in consumer products in 2004, initiated by the European Union and United States. However, CCA remains in heavy use in other countries (such as on Malaysian rubber plantations).


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic was also used in various agricultural insecticides and poisons. For example, lead hydrogen arsenate was a common insecticide on fruit trees, but contact with the compound sometimes resulted in brain damage among those working the sprayers. In the second half of the 20th century, monosodium methyl arsenate (MSMA) and disodium methyl arsenate (DSMA) – less toxic organic forms of arsenic – replaced lead arsenate in agriculture. These organic arsenicals were in turn phased out by 2013 in all agricultural activities except cotton farming.


title: Arsenic

text: The biogeochemistry of arsenic is complex and includes various adsorption and desorption processes. The toxicity of arsenic is connected to its solubility and is affected by pH. Arsenite () is more soluble than arsenate () and is more toxic; however, at a lower pH, arsenate becomes more mobile and toxic. It was found that addition of sulfur, phosphorus, and iron oxides to high-arsenite soils greatly reduces arsenic phytotoxicity.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is used as a feed additive in poultry and swine production, in particular in the U.S. to increase weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and prevent disease. An example is roxarsone, which had been used as a broiler starter by about 70% of U.S. broiler growers. Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc., which produces roxarsone, voluntarily suspended sales of the drug in response to studies showing elevated levels of inorganic arsenic, a carcinogen, in treated chickens. A successor to Alpharma, Zoetis, continues to sell nitarsone, primarily for use in turkeys.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is intentionally added to the feed of chickens raised for human consumption. Organic arsenic compounds are less toxic than pure arsenic, and promote the growth of chickens. Under some conditions, the arsenic in chicken feed is converted to the toxic inorganic form.


title: Arsenic

text: A 2006 study of the remains of the Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, determined that the 1932 death of the famous champion was caused by a massive overdose of arsenic. Sydney veterinarian Percy Sykes stated, "In those days, arsenic was quite a common tonic, usually given in the form of a solution (Fowler's Solution) ... It was so common that I'd reckon 90 per cent of the horses had arsenic in their system."


title: Arsenic

text: During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a number of arsenic compounds were used as medicines, including arsphenamine (by Paul Ehrlich) and arsenic trioxide (by Thomas Fowler). Arsphenamine, as well as neosalvarsan, was indicated for syphilis, but has been superseded by modern antibiotics. However, arsenicals such as melarsoprol are still used for the treatment of trypanosomiasis, since although these drugs have the disadvantage of severe toxicity, the disease is almost uniformly fatal if untreated.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic trioxide has been used in a variety of ways since the 15th century, most commonly in the treatment of cancer, but also in medications as diverse as Fowler's solution in psoriasis. The US Food and Drug Administration in the year 2000 approved this compound for the treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia that is resistant to all-trans retinoic acid.


title: Arsenic

text: A 2008 paper reports success in locating tumors using arsenic-74 (a positron emitter). This isotope produces clearer PET scan images than the previous radioactive agent, iodine-124, because the body tends to transport iodine to the thyroid gland producing signal noise. Nanoparticles of arsenic have shown ability to kill cancer cells with lesser cytotoxicity than other arsenic formulations.


title: Arsenic

text: In subtoxic doses, soluble arsenic compounds act as stimulants, and were once popular in small doses as medicine by people in the mid-18th to 19th centuries; its use as a stimulant was especially prevalent as sport animals such as race horses or with work dogs.


title: Arsenic

text: The main use of arsenic is in alloying with lead. Lead components in car batteries are strengthened by the presence of a very small percentage of arsenic. Dezincification of brass (a copper-zinc alloy) is greatly reduced by the addition of arsenic. "Phosphorus Deoxidized Arsenical Copper" with an arsenic content of 0.3% has an increased corrosion stability in certain environments. Gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material, used in integrated circuits. Circuits made from GaAs are much faster (but also much more expensive) than those made from silicon. Unlike silicon, GaAs has a direct bandgap, and can be used in laser diodes and LEDs to convert electrical energy directly into light.


title: Arsenic

text: After World War I, the United States built a stockpile of 20,000 tons of weaponized lewisite (ClCH=CHAsCl), an organoarsenic vesicant (blister agent) and lung irritant. The stockpile was neutralized with bleach and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico in the 1950s. During the Vietnam War, the United States used Agent Blue, a mixture of sodium cacodylate and its acid form, as one of the rainbow herbicides to deprive North Vietnamese soldiers of foliage cover and rice.


title: Arsenic

text: Some species of bacteria obtain their energy in the absence of oxygen by oxidizing various fuels while reducing arsenate to arsenite. Under oxidative environmental conditions some bacteria use arsenite as fuel, which they oxidize to arsenate. The enzymes involved are known as arsenate reductases (Arr).


title: Arsenic

text: In 2008, bacteria were discovered that employ a version of photosynthesis in the absence of oxygen with arsenites as electron donors, producing arsenates (just as ordinary photosynthesis uses water as electron donor, producing molecular oxygen). Researchers conjecture that, over the course of history, these photosynthesizing organisms produced the arsenates that allowed the arsenate-reducing bacteria to thrive. One strain PHS-1 has been isolated and is related to the gammaproteobacterium "Ectothiorhodospira shaposhnikovii". The mechanism is unknown, but an encoded Arr enzyme may function in reverse to its known homologues.


title: Arsenic

text: In 2011, it was postulated that a strain of "Halomonadaceae" could be grown in the absence of phosphorus if that element were substituted with arsenic, exploiting the fact that the arsenate and phosphate anions are similar structurally. The study was widely criticised and subsequently refuted by independent researcher groups.


title: Arsenic

text: Some evidence indicates that arsenic is an essential trace mineral in birds (chickens), and in mammals (rats, hamsters, and goats). However, the biological function is not known.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic has been linked to epigenetic changes, heritable changes in gene expression that occur without changes in DNA sequence. These include DNA methylation, histone modification, and RNA interference. Toxic levels of arsenic cause significant DNA hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes p16 and p53, thus increasing risk of carcinogenesis. These epigenetic events have been studied "in vitro" using human kidney cells and "in vivo" using rat liver cells and peripheral blood leukocytes in humans. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is used to detect precise levels of intracellular arsenic and other arsenic bases involved in epigenetic modification of DNA. Studies investigating arsenic as an epigenetic factor can be used to develop precise biomarkers of exposure and susceptibility.


title: Arsenic

text: The Chinese brake fern ("Pteris vittata") hyperaccumulates arsenic from the soil into its leaves and has a proposed use in phytoremediation.


title: Arsenic

text: Inorganic arsenic and its compounds, upon entering the food chain, are progressively metabolized through a process of methylation. For example, the mold "Scopulariopsis brevicaulis" produces trimethylarsine if inorganic arsenic is present. The organic compound arsenobetaine is found in some marine foods such as fish and algae, and also in mushrooms in larger concentrations. The average person's intake is about 10–50 µg/day. Values about 1000 µg are not unusual following consumption of fish or mushrooms, but there is little danger in eating fish because this arsenic compound is nearly non-toxic.


title: Arsenic

text: Naturally occurring sources of human exposure include volcanic ash, weathering of minerals and ores, and mineralized groundwater. Arsenic is also found in food, water, soil, and air. Arsenic is absorbed by all plants, but is more concentrated in leafy vegetables, rice, apple and grape juice, and seafood. An additional route of exposure is inhalation of atmospheric gases and dusts.


title: Arsenic

text: Extensive arsenic contamination of groundwater has led to widespread arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and neighboring countries. It is estimated that approximately 57 million people in the Bengal basin are drinking groundwater with arsenic concentrations elevated above the World Health Organization's standard of 10 parts per billion (ppb). However, a study of cancer rates in Taiwan suggested that significant increases in cancer mortality appear only at levels above 150 ppb. The arsenic in the groundwater is of natural origin, and is released from the sediment into the groundwater, caused by the anoxic conditions of the subsurface. This groundwater was used after local and western NGOs and the Bangladeshi government undertook a massive shallow tube well drinking-water program in the late twentieth century. This program was designed to prevent drinking of bacteria-contaminated surface waters, but failed to test for arsenic in the groundwater. Many other countries and districts in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam and Cambodia, have geological environments that produce groundwater with a high arsenic content. was reported in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand in 1987, and the Chao Phraya River probably contains high levels of naturally occurring dissolved arsenic without being a public health problem because much of the public uses bottled water. In Pakistan, more than 60 million people are exposed to arsenic polluted drinking water indicated by a recent report of Science. Podgorski's team investigated more than 1200 samples and more than 66% exceeded the WHO minimum contamination level.


title: Arsenic

text: Since the 1980s, residents of the Ba Men region of Inner Mongolia, China have been chronically exposed to arsenic through drinking water from contaminated wells. A 2009 research study observed an elevated presence of skin lesions among residents with well water arsenic concentrations between 5 and 10 µg/L, suggesting that arsenic induced toxicity may occur at relatively low concentrations with chronic exposure. Overall, 20 of China's 34 provinces have high arsenic concentrations in the groundwater supply, potentially exposing 19 million people to hazardous drinking water.


title: Arsenic

text: In the United States, arsenic is most commonly found in the ground waters of the southwest. Parts of New England, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas are also known to have significant concentrations of arsenic in ground water. Increased levels of skin cancer have been associated with arsenic exposure in Wisconsin, even at levels below the 10 part per billion drinking water standard. According to a recent film funded by the US Superfund, millions of private wells have unknown arsenic levels, and in some areas of the US, more than 20% of the wells may contain levels that exceed established limits.


title: Arsenic

text: Low-level exposure to arsenic at concentrations of 100 parts per billion (i.e., above the 10 parts per billion drinking water standard) compromises the initial immune response to H1N1 or swine flu infection according to NIEHS-supported scientists. The study, conducted in laboratory mice, suggests that people exposed to arsenic in their drinking water may be at increased risk for more serious illness or death from the virus.


title: Arsenic

text: Some Canadians are drinking water that contains inorganic arsenic. Private-dug–well waters are most at risk for containing inorganic arsenic. Preliminary well water analysis typically does not test for arsenic. Researchers at the Geological Survey of Canada have modeled relative variation in natural arsenic hazard potential for the province of New Brunswick. This study has important implications for potable water and health concerns relating to inorganic arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: Epidemiological evidence from Chile shows a dose-dependent connection between chronic arsenic exposure and various forms of cancer, in particular when other risk factors, such as cigarette smoking, are present. These effects have been demonstrated at contaminations less than 50 ppb. Arsenic is itself a constituent of tobacco smoke.


title: Arsenic

text: Analyzing multiple epidemiological studies on inorganic arsenic exposure suggests a small but measurable increase in risk for bladder cancer at 10 ppb. According to Peter Ravenscroft of the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, roughly 80 million people worldwide consume between 10 and 50 ppb arsenic in their drinking water. If they all consumed exactly 10 ppb arsenic in their drinking water, the previously cited multiple epidemiological study analysis would predict an additional 2,000 cases of bladder cancer alone. This represents a clear underestimate of the overall impact, since it does not include lung or skin cancer, and explicitly underestimates the exposure. Those exposed to levels of arsenic above the current WHO standard should weigh the costs and benefits of arsenic remediation.


title: Arsenic

text: Early (1973) evaluations of the processes for removing dissolved arsenic from drinking water demonstrated the efficacy of co-precipitation with either iron or aluminum oxides. In particular, iron as a coagulant was found to remove arsenic with an efficacy exceeding 90%. Several adsorptive media systems have been approved for use at point-of-service in a study funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). A team of European and Indian scientists and engineers have set up six arsenic treatment plants in West Bengal based on in-situ remediation method (SAR Technology). This technology does not use any chemicals and arsenic is left in an insoluble form (+5 state) in the subterranean zone by recharging aerated water into the aquifer and developing an oxidation zone that supports arsenic oxidizing micro-organisms. This process does not produce any waste stream or sludge and is relatively cheap.


title: Arsenic

text: Another effective and inexpensive method to avoid arsenic contamination is to sink wells 500 feet or deeper to reach purer waters. A recent 2011 study funded by the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Superfund Research Program shows that deep sediments can remove arsenic and take it out of circulation. In this process, called "adsorption", arsenic sticks to the surfaces of deep sediment particles and is naturally removed from the ground water.


title: Arsenic

text: Magnetic separations of arsenic at very low magnetic field gradients with high-surface-area and monodisperse magnetite (FeO) nanocrystals have been demonstrated in point-of-use water purification. Using the high specific surface area of FeO nanocrystals, the mass of waste associated with arsenic removal from water has been dramatically reduced.


title: Arsenic

text: Epidemiological studies have suggested a correlation between chronic consumption of drinking water contaminated with arsenic and the incidence of all leading causes of mortality. The literature indicates that arsenic exposure is causative in the pathogenesis of diabetes.


title: Arsenic

text: Chaff-based filters have recently been shown to reduce the arsenic content of water to 3 µg/L. This may find applications in areas where the potable water is extracted from underground aquifers.


title: Arsenic

text: For several centuries, the people of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile have been drinking water that is contaminated with arsenic, and some evidence suggests they have developed some immunity.


title: Arsenic

text: Around one-third of the world's population drinks water from groundwater resources. Of this, about 10 percent, approximately 300 million people, obtains water from groundwater resources that are contaminated with unhealthy levels of arsenic or fluoride. These trace elements derive mainly from minerals and ions in the ground.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is unique among the trace metalloids and oxyanion-forming trace metals (e.g. As, Se, Sb, Mo, V, Cr, U, Re). It is sensitive to mobilization at pH values typical of natural waters (pH 6.5–8.5) under both oxidizing and reducing conditions. Arsenic can occur in the environment in several oxidation states (−3, 0, +3 and +5), but in natural waters it is mostly found in inorganic forms as oxyanions of trivalent arsenite [As(III)] or pentavalent arsenate [As(V)]. Organic forms of arsenic are produced by biological activity, mostly in surface waters, but are rarely quantitatively important. Organic arsenic compounds may, however, occur where waters are significantly impacted by industrial pollution.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic may be solubilized by various processes. When pH is high, arsenic may be released from surface binding sites that lose their positive charge. When water level drops and sulfide minerals are exposed to air, arsenic trapped in sulfide minerals can be released into water. When organic carbon is present in water, bacteria are fed by directly reducing As(V) to As(III) or by reducing the element at the binding site, releasing inorganic arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: The aquatic transformations of arsenic are affected by pH, reduction-oxidation potential, organic matter concentration and the concentrations and forms of other elements, especially iron and manganese. The main factors are pH and the redox potential. Generally, the main forms of arsenic under oxic conditions are HAsO, HAsO, HAsO, and AsO at pH 2, 2–7, 7–11 and 11, respectively. Under reducing conditions, HAsO is predominant at pH 2–9.


title: Arsenic

text: Oxidation and reduction affects the migration of arsenic in subsurface environments. Arsenite is the most stable soluble form of arsenic in reducing environments and arsenate, which is less mobile than arsenite, is dominant in oxidizing environments at neutral pH. Therefore, arsenic may be more mobile under reducing conditions. The reducing environment is also rich in organic matter which may enhance the solubility of arsenic compounds. As a result, the adsorption of arsenic is reduced and dissolved arsenic accumulates in groundwater. That is why the arsenic content is higher in reducing environments than in oxidizing environments.


title: Arsenic

text: The presence of sulfur is another factor that affects the transformation of arsenic in natural water. Arsenic can precipitate when metal sulfides form. In this way, arsenic is removed from the water and its mobility decreases. When oxygen is present, bacteria oxidize reduced sulfur to generate energy, potentially releasing bound arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: Redox reactions involving Fe also appear to be essential factors in the fate of arsenic in aquatic systems. The reduction of iron oxyhydroxides plays a key role in the release of arsenic to water. So arsenic can be enriched in water with elevated Fe concentrations. Under oxidizing conditions, arsenic can be mobilized from pyrite or iron oxides especially at elevated pH. Under reducing conditions, arsenic can be mobilized by reductive desorption or dissolution when associated with iron oxides. The reductive desorption occurs under two circumstances. One is when arsenate is reduced to arsenite which adsorbs to iron oxides less strongly. The other results from a change in the charge on the mineral surface which leads to the desorption of bound arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: Some species of bacteria catalyze redox transformations of arsenic. Dissimilatory arsenate-respiring prokaryotes (DARP) speed up the reduction of As(V) to As(III). DARP use As(V) as the electron acceptor of anaerobic respiration and obtain energy to survive. Other organic and inorganic substances can be oxidized in this process. Chemoautotrophic arsenite oxidizers (CAO) and heterotrophic arsenite oxidizers (HAO) convert As(III) into As(V). CAO combine the oxidation of As(III) with the reduction of oxygen or nitrate. They use obtained energy to fix produce organic carbon from CO. HAO cannot obtain energy from As(III) oxidation. This process may be an arsenic detoxification mechanism for the bacteria.


title: Arsenic

text: Equilibrium thermodynamic calculations predict that As(V) concentrations should be greater than As(III) concentrations in all but strongly reducing conditions, i.e. where SO reduction is occurring. However, abiotic redox reactions of arsenic are slow. Oxidation of As(III) by dissolved O is a particularly slow reaction. For example, Johnson and Pilson (1975) gave half-lives for the oxygenation of As(III) in seawater ranging from several months to a year. In other studies, As(V)/As(III) ratios were stable over periods of days or weeks during water sampling when no particular care was taken to prevent oxidation, again suggesting relatively slow oxidation rates. Cherry found from experimental studies that the As(V)/As(III) ratios were stable in anoxic solutions for up to 3 weeks but that gradual changes occurred over longer timescales. Sterile water samples have been observed to be less susceptible to speciation changes than non-sterile samples. Oremland found that the reduction of As(V) to As(III) in Mono Lake was rapidly catalyzed by bacteria with rate constants ranging from 0.02 to 0.3-day.


title: Arsenic

text: As of 2002, US-based industries consumed 19,600 metric tons of arsenic. Ninety percent of this was used for treatment of wood with chromated copper arsenate (CCA). In 2007, 50% of the 5,280 metric tons of consumption was still used for this purpose. In the United States, the voluntary phasing-out of arsenic in production of consumer products and residential and general consumer construction products began on 31 December 2003, and alternative chemicals are now used, such as Alkaline Copper Quaternary, borates, copper azole, cyproconazole, and propiconazole.


title: Arsenic

text: Although discontinued, this application is also one of the most concerning to the general public. The vast majority of older pressure-treated wood was treated with CCA. CCA lumber is still in widespread use in many countries, and was heavily used during the latter half of the 20th century as a structural and outdoor building material. Although the use of CCA lumber was banned in many areas after studies showed that arsenic could leach out of the wood into the surrounding soil (from playground equipment, for instance), a risk is also presented by the burning of older CCA timber. The direct or indirect ingestion of wood ash from burnt CCA lumber has caused fatalities in animals and serious poisonings in humans; the lethal human dose is approximately 20 grams of ash. Scrap CCA lumber from construction and demolition sites may be inadvertently used in commercial and domestic fires. Protocols for safe disposal of CCA lumber are not consistent throughout the world. Widespread landfill disposal of such timber raises some concern, but other studies have shown no arsenic contamination in the groundwater.


title: Arsenic

text: One tool that maps the location (and other information) of arsenic releases in the United States is TOXMAP. TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) funded by the US Federal Government. With marked-up maps of the United States, TOXMAP enables users to visually explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Basic Research Programs. TOXMAP's chemical and environmental health information is taken from NLM's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET), PubMed, and from other authoritative sources.


title: Arsenic

text: Physical, chemical, and biological methods have been used to remediate arsenic contaminated water. Bioremediation is said to be cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Bioremediation of ground water contaminated with arsenic aims to convert arsenite, the toxic form of arsenic to humans, to arsenate. Arsenate (+5 oxidation state) is the dominant form of arsenic in surface water, while arsenite (+3 oxidation state) is the dominant form in hypoxic to anoxic environments. Arsenite is more soluble and mobile than arsenate. Many species of bacteria can transform arsenite to arsenate in anoxic conditions by using arsenite as an electron donor. This is a useful method in ground water remediation. Another bioremediation strategy is to use plants that accumulate arsenic in their tissues via phytoremediation but the disposal of contaminated plant material needs to be considered.


title: Arsenic

text: Bioremediation requires careful evaluation and design in accordance with existing conditions. Some sites may require the addition of an electron acceptor while others require microbe supplementation (bioaugmentation). Regardless of the method used, only constant monitoring can prevent future contamination.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic and many of its compounds are especially potent poisons. Small amount of arsenic can be detected by pharmacopoial methods which includes reduction of arsenic to arsenious with help of zinc and can be confirmed with mercuric chloride paper.


title: Arsenic

text: Elemental arsenic and arsenic sulfate and trioxide compounds are classified as "toxic" and "dangerous for the environment" in the European Union under directive 67/548/EEC.


title: Arsenic

text: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recognizes arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds as group 1 carcinogens, and the EU lists arsenic trioxide, arsenic pentoxide, and arsenate salts as category 1 carcinogens.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is known to cause arsenicosis when present in drinking water, "the most common species being arsenate [; As(V)] and arsenite [; As(III)]".


title: Arsenic

text: In the United States since 2006, the maximum concentration in drinking water allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is 10 ppb and the FDA set the same standard in 2005 for bottled water. The Department of Environmental Protection for New Jersey set a drinking water limit of 5 ppb in 2006. The IDLH (immediately dangerous to life and health) value for arsenic metal and inorganic arsenic compounds is 5 mg/m (5 ppb). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set the permissible exposure limit (PEL) to a time-weighted average (TWA) of 0.01 mg/m (0.01 ppb), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set the recommended exposure limit (REL) to a 15-minute constant exposure of 0.002 mg/m (0.002 ppb). The PEL for organic arsenic compounds is a TWA of 0.5 mg/m. (0.5 ppb).


title: Arsenic

text: In 2008, based on its ongoing testing of a wide variety of American foods for toxic chemicals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration set the "level of concern" for inorganic arsenic in apple and pear juices at 23 ppb, based on non-carcinogenic effects, and began blocking importation of products in excess of this level; it also required recalls for non-conforming domestic products. In 2011, the national "Dr. Oz" television show broadcast a program highlighting tests performed by an independent lab hired by the producers. Though the methodology was disputed (it did not distinguish between organic and inorganic arsenic) the tests showed levels of arsenic up to 36 ppb. In response, FDA tested the worst brand from the "Dr." "Oz" show and found much lower levels. Ongoing testing found 95% of the apple juice samples were below the level of concern. Later testing by Consumer Reports showed inorganic arsenic at levels slightly above 10 ppb, and the organization urged parents to reduce consumption. In July 2013, on consideration of consumption by children, chronic exposure, and carcinogenic effect, the FDA established an "action level" of 10 ppb for apple juice, the same as the drinking water standard.


title: Arsenic

text: Concern about arsenic in rice in Bangladesh was raised in 2002, but at the time only Australia had a legal limit for food (one milligram per kilogram). Concern was raised about people who were eating U.S. rice exceeding WHO standards for personal arsenic intake in 2005. In 2011, the People's Republic of China set a food standard of 150 ppb for arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: In the United States in 2012, testing by separate groups of researchers at the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth College (early in the year, focusing on urinary levels in children) and Consumer Reports (in November) found levels of arsenic in rice that resulted in calls for the FDA to set limits. The FDA released some testing results in September 2012, and as of July 2013, is still collecting data in support of a new potential regulation. It has not recommended any changes in consumer behavior.


title: Arsenic

text: A 2014 World Health Organization advisory conference was scheduled to consider limits of 200–300 ppb for rice.


title: Arsenic

text: In 2020, scientists assessed multiple preparation procedures of rice for their capacity to reduce arsenic content and preserve nutrients, recommending a procedure involving parboiling and water-absorption.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic is bioaccumulative in many organisms, marine species in particular, but it does not appear to biomagnify significantly in food webs. In polluted areas, plant growth may be affected by root uptake of arsenate, which is a phosphate analog and therefore readily transported in plant tissues and cells. In polluted areas, uptake of the more toxic arsenite ion (found more particularly in reducing conditions) is likely in poorly-drained soils.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic's toxicity comes from the affinity of arsenic(III) oxides for thiols. Thiols, in the form of cysteine residues and cofactors such as lipoic acid and coenzyme A, are situated at the active sites of many important enzymes.


title: Arsenic

text: Arsenic disrupts ATP production through several mechanisms. At the level of the citric acid cycle, arsenic inhibits lipoic acid, which is a cofactor for pyruvate dehydrogenase. By competing with phosphate, arsenate uncouples oxidative phosphorylation, thus inhibiting energy-linked reduction of NAD+, mitochondrial respiration and ATP synthesis. Hydrogen peroxide production is also increased, which, it is speculated, has potential to form reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. These metabolic interferences lead to death from multi-system organ failure. The organ failure is presumed to be from necrotic cell death, not apoptosis, since energy reserves have been too depleted for apoptosis to occur.


title: Arsenic

text: Occupational exposure and arsenic poisoning may occur in persons working in industries involving the use of inorganic arsenic and its compounds, such as wood preservation, glass production, nonferrous metal alloys, and electronic semiconductor manufacturing. Inorganic arsenic is also found in coke oven emissions associated with the smelter industry.


title: Arsenic

text: The conversion between As(III) and As(V) is a large factor in arsenic environmental contamination. According to Croal, Gralnick, Malasarn and Newman, "[the] understanding [of] what stimulates As(III) oxidation and/or limits As(V) reduction is relevant for bioremediation of contaminated sites (Croal). The study of chemolithoautotrophic As(III) oxidizers and the heterotrophic As(V) reducers can help the understanding of the oxidation and/or reduction of arsenic.


title: Arsenic

text: Treatment of chronic arsenic poisoning is possible. British anti-lewisite (dimercaprol) is prescribed in doses of 5 mg/kg up to 300 mg every 4 hours for the first day, then every 6 hours for the second day, and finally every 8 hours for 8 additional days. However the USA's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) states that the long-term effects of arsenic exposure cannot be predicted. Blood, urine, hair, and nails may be tested for arsenic; however, these tests cannot foresee possible health outcomes from the exposure. Long-term exposure and consequent excretion through urine has been linked to bladder and kidney cancer in addition to cancer of the liver, prostate, skin, lungs, and nasal cavity.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre, were the killings of four and wounding of nine other unarmed Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, south of Cleveland. The killings took place during a peace 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. The incident marked the first time that a student had been killed in an anti-war gathering in United States history.


title: Kent State shootings

text: 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.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Krause and Miller were among the more than 300 students who gathered to protest the expansion of the Cambodian campaign, which President Richard Nixon had announced in an April 30 television address. Scheuer and Schroeder were in the crowd of several hundred others who had been observing the proceedings more than from the firing line; like most of the observers, they were watching the protest during a break between their classes.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. It increased participation in the student strike that began on May. Ultimately, more than 4 million students participated in organized walk-outs at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools. The shootings and the strike affected public opinion at an already socially contentious time over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The Vietnam War had escalated under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson before Richard Nixon took office. Johnson increased the number of American troops in Vietnam from 16,000 in 1963 to more than 500,000 in 1968. When Nixon was elected in 1968, he promised to end the conflict. The My Lai Massacre by American troops of between 347 and 504 Vietnamese villagers, exposed in November 1969, heightened opposition to the war, especially among younger people around the country. The nature of military participation also changed on December 1, 1969, when the first draft lottery since World War II took place. The new procedure eliminated deferments allowed in the prior draft process, leaving many college students and teachers unsure of their immediate futures.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On April 29, 1970, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces invaded eastern Cambodia in what they claimed was an attempt to defeat the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops based there. The expansion of the war into Cambodia angered those who believed it only exacerbated the conflict and was a violation of a neutral nation's sovereignty. Across the U.S., campuses erupted in protests in what "Time" called "a nation-wide student strike", setting the stage for the events of early May 1970.


title: Kent State shootings

text: During the 1966 Homecoming Parade, protesters walked dressed in military paraphernalia with gas masks.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In the fall of 1968, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and a campus Black Student Organization staged a sit-in to protest police recruiters on campus. Two hundred fifty black students walked off campus in a successful amnesty bid for the protesters.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On April 1, 1969, SDS members attempted to enter the administration building with a list of demands where they clashed with police. In response, the university revoked the Kent State SDS chapter charter. On April 16, a disciplinary hearing involving two of the protesters resulted in a confrontation between supporters and opponents of SDS. The Ohio State Highway Patrol was called and fifty-eight people were arrested. Four SDS leaders spent six months in prison as a result of the incident.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On April 10, 1970, Jerry Rubin, a leader of the Youth International Party (also known as the Yippies), spoke on campus. In remarks reported locally, he said: "The first part of the Yippie program is to kill your parents. They are the first oppressors." Two weeks after that, Bill Arthrell, an SDS member and former student, distributed flyers to an event in which he said he was going to napalm a dog. The event turned out to be an anti-napalm teach-in.


title: Kent State shootings

text: President Nixon announced that the "Cambodian Incursion" had been launched by United States combat forces.


title: Kent State shootings

text: At Kent State University, a demonstration with about 500 students was held on May 1 on the Commons (a grassy knoll in the center of campus traditionally used as a gathering place for rallies or protests). As the crowd dispersed to attend classes by 1 p.m., another rally was planned for May 4 to continue the protest of the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. There was widespread anger, and many protesters issued a call to "bring the war home". A group of history students buried a copy of the United States Constitution to symbolize that Nixon had killed it. A sign was put on a tree asking: "Why is the ROTC building still standing?"


title: Kent State shootings

text: Trouble exploded in town around midnight, when people left a bar and began throwing beer bottles at police cars and breaking windows in downtown storefronts. In the process they broke a bank window, setting off an alarm. The news spread quickly and it resulted in several bars closing early to avoid trouble. Before long, more people had joined the vandalism.


title: Kent State shootings

text: By the time police arrived, a crowd of 120 had already gathered. Some people from the crowd lit a small bonfire in the street. The crowd appeared to be a mix of bikers, students, and transient people. A few members of the crowd began to throw beer bottles at the police, and then started yelling obscenities at them. The entire Kent police force was called to duty as well as officers from the county and surrounding communities. Kent Mayor LeRoy Satrom declared a state of emergency, called the office of Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes to seek assistance, and ordered all of the bars to be closed. The decision to close the bars early only served to increase tensions in the area. Police eventually succeeded in using tear gas to disperse the crowd from downtown, forcing them to move several blocks back to the campus.


title: Kent State shootings

text: City officials and downtown businesses received threats, and rumors proliferated that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and university. Several merchants reported they were told that if they did not display anti-war slogans, their businesses would be burned down. Kent's police chief told the mayor that according to a reliable informant, the ROTC building, the local army recruiting station, and post office had been targeted for destruction that night. There were unconfirmed rumors of students with caches of arms, plots to spike the local water supply with LSD, and of students building tunnels for the purpose of blowing up the town's main store. Satrom met with Kent city officials and a representative of the Ohio Army National Guard. Because of the rumors and threats, Satrom feared that local officials would not be able to handle future disturbances. Following the meeting, Satrom made the decision to call Rhodes and request that the National Guard be sent to Kent, a request that was granted immediately.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The decision to call in the National Guard was made at 5:00 p.m., but the guard did not arrive in town that evening until around 10 p.m. By this time, a large demonstration was underway on the campus, and the campus Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) building was burning. The arsonists were never apprehended, and no one was injured in the fire. According to the report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest:


title: Kent State shootings

text: Information developed by an FBI investigation of the ROTC building fire indicates that, of those who participated actively, a significant portion weren't Kent State students. There is also evidence to suggest that the burning was planned beforehand: railroad flares, a machete, and ice picks are not customarily carried to peaceful rallies.


title: Kent State shootings

text: There were reports that some Kent firemen and police officers were struck by rocks and other objects while attempting to extinguish the blaze. Several fire engine companies had to be called because protesters carried the fire hose into the Commons and slashed it. The National Guard made numerous arrests, mostly for curfew violations, and used tear gas; at least one student was slightly wounded with a bayonet.


title: Kent State shootings

text: During a press conference at the Kent firehouse, an emotional Governor Rhodes pounded on the desk, which can be heard in the recording of his speech. He called the student protesters un-American, referring to them as revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio.


title: Kent State shootings

text: We've seen here at the city of Kent especially, probably the most vicious form of campus-oriented violence yet perpetrated by dissident groups... they make definite plans of burning, destroying, and throwing rocks at police and at the National Guard and the Highway Patrol. ...this is when we're going to use every part of the law enforcement agency of Ohio to drive them out of Kent. We are going to eradicate the problem. We're not going to treat the symptoms. ...and these people just move from one campus to the other and terrorize the community. They're worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. Now I want to say this. They are not going to take over [the] campus. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Rhodes also claimed he would obtain a court order declaring a state of emergency that would ban further demonstrations and gave the impression that a situation akin to martial law had been declared; however, he never attempted to obtain such an order.


title: Kent State shootings

text: During the day, some students came to downtown Kent to help with clean-up efforts after the rioting, actions which were met with mixed reactions from local businessmen. Mayor Satrom, under pressure from frightened citizens, ordered a curfew until further notice.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Around 8 p.m., another rally was held on the campus Commons. By 8:45 p.m., the Guardsmen used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and the students reassembled at the intersection of Lincoln and Main, holding a sit-in with the hopes of gaining a meeting with Mayor Satrom and University President Robert White. At 11:00 p.m., the Guard announced that a curfew had gone into effect and began forcing the students back to their dorms. A few students were bayoneted by Guardsmen.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On Monday, May 4, a protest was scheduled to be held at noon, as had been planned three days earlier. University officials attempted to ban the gathering, handing out 12,000 leaflets stating that the event was canceled. Despite these efforts, an estimated 2,000 people gathered on the university's Commons, near Taylor Hall. The protest began with the ringing of the campus's iron Victory Bell (which had historically been used to signal victories in football games) to mark the beginning of the rally, and the first protester began to speak.


title: Kent State shootings

text: According to most estimates, some 200-300 protesters gathered around the Victory Bell on the Commons, with some 1,000 more gathered on a hill behind the first crowd. The crowd was largely made up of students enrolled at the university, with a few non-students (that included Kent State dropouts and high school students) also present. The crowd appeared to be leaderless, and was initially peaceful and relatively quiet. One person made a short speech and some protesters carried flags.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Companies A and C, 1-145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2-107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio National Guard (ARNG), the units on the campus grounds, under the command of Brigadier General Robert Canterbury, attempted to disperse the students. The legality of the dispersal was later debated at a subsequent wrongful death and injury trial. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that authorities did indeed have the right to disperse the crowd.


title: Kent State shootings

text: At about noon, the National Guard obtained a bullhorn from the University police department and used it to order the crowd to disperse. However, the announcement was apparently too faint to hear as it elicited no response from the crowd. Campus patrolman Harold Rice, accompanied by three guardsmen, then approached the crowd in a National Guard Jeep, again using the bullhorn to order the students to disperse. Students responded by making obscene gestures at the Jeep, singing protest songs, and chanting. At some point, a few rocks were thrown at the Jeep as it drove by the crowd, with one rock striking the Jeep and a second one striking a guardsman, but without causing any damage. Repeated orders to disperse were ignored by the crowd.


title: Kent State shootings

text: After the crowd failed to follow the order to disperse, grenadiers were ordered to fire tear gas from M79 grenade launchers, but the canisters fell short and only managed to make the protesters retreat somewhat from their previous positions. The tear gas was also made ineffective by the wind. Some protesters lobbed the canisters back at the Guard to the merriment of the crowd. The crowd also began to chant "Pigs off campus". Another demand to disperse was made over the loudspeaker, but only elicited more oppositional chanting.


title: Kent State shootings

text: After repeatedly failing to disperse the crowd, a group of 96 National Guard troops from A Company and Company C, 145th Infantry, and Troop G, 107th Armored Cavalry, were ordered to advance. The guardsmen had their weapons "locked and loaded" (according to standard Ohio National Guard rules) and affixed with bayonets. Most carried M1 Garand rifles, with some also carrying .45 handguns, a few carrying shotguns with 7% birdshot and 00 buckshot munitions, and one officer carrying a 22 Beretta handgun. Prior to advancing, Company C was instructed to only fire into the air and that only a single guardsman fire. It is not known whether the other two National Guard groups received any instructions about firing.


title: Kent State shootings

text: As the advancing guardsmen approached the crowd, tear gas was again fired at the crowd, making the protesters retreat. At this point, some protesters threw stones at the Guard to no significant effect. Some students may have brought rocks to the protest anticipating a confrontation.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The students retreated up and over Blanket Hill, heading out of the Commons area. Once over the hill, the students, in a loose group, moved northeast along the front of Taylor Hall, with some continuing toward a parking lot in front of Prentice Hall (slightly northeast of and perpendicular to Taylor Hall). The guardsmen pursued the protesters over the hill, but rather than veering left as the protesters had, they continued straight, heading toward an athletic practice field enclosed by a chain link fence. Here they remained for about 10 minutes, unsure of how to get out of the area short of retracing their path: they had boxed themselves into a fenced-in corner. During this time, the bulk of the students congregated to the left and front of the guardsmen, approximately away, on the veranda of Taylor Hall. Others were scattered between Taylor Hall and the Prentice Hall parking lot, while still others were standing in the parking lot, or dispersing through the lot as they had been previously ordered. While on the practice field, the guardsmen generally faced the parking lot, which was about away. At one point the guardsmen formed a loose huddle and appeared to be talking to one another. They had cleared the protesters from the Commons area, and many students had left.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Some students who had retreated beyond the practice field fence obtained rocks and possibly other objects with which they again began pelting the guardsmen. The number of rock throwers is unknown, with estimates of 10-50 throwers. According to an FBI assessment, rock throwing reached a peak at this point. Tear gas was again fired at crowds at multiple locations.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Just prior to departing the practice field, some members of Troop G were ordered to kneel and aim their weapons toward the parking lot. The troop did so, but none of them fired. At the same time, one person (likely an officer) fired a handgun into the air. The Guard was then ordered to regroup and move up the hill past Taylor Hall. Protesters began following the guard as it retraced its steps up the hill. Some guardsmen claim to have been struck by rocks as they retreated up the hill. The crowd on top of the hill parted to allow the guardsmen to pass through. After reaching the crest of Taylor Hall, the Guard fired at the protesters that had been following them. No verbal warning was given to the protesters before the Guard opened fire.


title: Kent State shootings

text: During their climb back to Blanket Hill, several guardsmen stopped and half-turned to keep their eyes on the students in the Prentice Hall parking lot. At 12:24 p.m., according to eyewitnesses, a sergeant named Myron Pryor turned and began firing at the crowd of students with his .45 pistol. A number of guardsmen nearest the students also turned and fired their rifles at the students. In all, at least 29 of the 77 guardsmen claimed to have fired their weapons, using an estimated 67 rounds of ammunition. The shooting was determined to have lasted 13 seconds, although John Kifner reported in "The New York Times" that "it appeared to go on, as a solid volley, for perhaps a full minute or a little longer."


title: Kent State shootings

text: When the Guard began firing, many protesters began running while others dropped to the ground. Some believed the Guard was firing blanks and only reacted after they noticed the bullets striking the ground around them.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Suddenly, they turned around, got on their knees, as if they were ordered to, they did it all together, aimed. And personally, I was standing there saying, they're not going to shoot, they can't do that. If they are going to shoot, it's going to be blank.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Chris Butler, who later formed "The Waitresses", was there with his friend Jeffrey Miller. Butler said that as the guardsmen formed in a kneeling position and pointed their rifles, "Everybody laughed, because, c'mon, you're not going to shoot us."<ref name="post-gazette/shooting-music-history"></ref>


title: Kent State shootings

text: Another witness was Chrissie Hynde, a Kent State student who would become the lead singer of The Pretenders. In her 2015 autobiography she described what she saw:


title: Kent State shootings

text: Gerald Casale, visual artist and future bassist/singer of Devo, also witnessed the shootings.<ref name="kent.edu/may-4-casale"></ref> In 2005, Casale told the "Vermont Review":


title: Kent State shootings

text: Many guardsmen later testified that they fired because they were in fear for their lives, which was questioned partly because of the distance between them and the students killed or wounded. Guardsmen that claimed they feared for their lives variously listed an assortment of reasons, including: that they were surrounded, that the crowd pursuing them was almost on top of them, that the protesters "charged" them or were advancing on them "in a threatening manner", that "the sky was black with stones", and that they were fired at by a sniper; some listed a combination of multiple such reasons, and some gave no explanation as to why they believed their lives were in danger. Most guardsmen that fired said they did so because they heard other fire or assumed an order to fire in the air had been given, and did not claim they felt in danger. There was no order to fire, and no guardsmen requested permission to fire, though several guardsmen later claimed they heard some sort of command to fire. Some guardsmen (including some who claimed their lives were in danger) had their backs turned to the protesters when the firing broke out. No guardsman claimed to have been hit by rocks immediately prior to firing, and the group of guardsmen was not surrounded. The FBI determined that at least two guardsmen that denied firing likely lied and had in fact fired, and that there was reason to believe that guardsmen's claims of fearing for their lives was fabricated after the event.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard told reporters that a sniper had fired on the guardsmen. Eleven of the 76 guardsmen at Taylor Hall claimed they were under sniper fire or some other sort of gunfire just before guardsmen began shooting. A subsequent FBI investigation concluded that the Guard was not under fire and that the first shots were fired by the guardsmen.


title: Kent State shootings

text: "Time" magazine later concluded that "triggers were not pulled accidentally at Kent State". The President's Commission on Campus Unrest avoided probing the question of why the shootings happened. Instead, it harshly criticized both the protesters and the Guardsmen, but it concluded that "the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."


title: Kent State shootings

text: The shooting enraged the crowd of protesting students, with some of them preparing to attack the National Guard. Several hundred students sat down in the Commons, demanding to know why the guardsmen opened fire. An officer told the sitting students: "disperse or we will shoot again". Student photographer John Filo also recalled guardsmen telling lingering students that they would shoot again if the students did not disperse. The commander of the National Guard also warned faculty members that the students must disperse immediately. Some faculty members, led by geology professor and faculty marshal Glenn Frank, pleaded with the students to leave the Commons to avoid any further escalation of the confrontation, with Frank telling the students:I don't care whether you've never listened to anyone before in your lives. I am begging you right now. If you don't disperse right now, they're going to move in, and it can only be a slaughter. Would you please listen to me? Jesus Christ, I don't want to be a part of this ... !


title: Kent State shootings

text: After Professor Frank's intervention, students left the area and ambulances moved in to attend to the victims. Frank's son, who was present, said, "He absolutely saved my life and hundreds of others".


title: Kent State shootings

text: Of those shot, none was closer than to the guardsmen. Of those killed, the nearest (Miller) was away, and their average distance from the guardsmen was . The victim furthest from the Guard was away.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In the "President's Commission on Campus Unrest" (pp. 273–274) they mistakenly list Thomas V. Grace, who is Thomas Mark Grace's father, as the Thomas Grace injured.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Initial newspaper reports had inaccurately stated that a number of National Guard members had been killed or seriously injured. Though many guardsmen claimed to have been hit by stones that were pelted at them by protesters, only one Guardsman, Sgt. Lawrence Shafer, was injured enough to require medical treatment (he received a sling for his badly bruised arm and was given pain medication), and sustained his injuries approximately 10 to 15 minutes prior to the shootings. Shafer is mentioned in an FBI memo from November 15, 1973, which was prepared by the Cleveland Office and is referred to by Field Office file # 44-703. It reads as follows:


title: Kent State shootings

text: Upon contacting appropriate officers of the Ohio National Guard at Ravenna and Akron, Ohio, regarding ONG radio logs and the availability of service record books, the respective ONG officer advised that any inquiries concerning the Kent State University incident should be directed to the Adjutant General, ONG, Columbus, Ohio. Three persons were interviewed regarding a reported conversation by Sgt Lawrence Shafer, ONG, that Shafer had bragged about "taking a bead" on Jeffrey Miller at the time of the ONG shooting and each interviewee was unable to substantiate such a conversation.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In an interview broadcast in 1986 on the ABC News documentary series "Our World", Shafer identified the person that he fired at as student Joseph Lewis, who was shot and wounded in the attack.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Photographs of the dead and wounded at Kent State that were distributed in newspapers and periodicals worldwide amplified sentiment against the United States' invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War in general. In particular, the camera of Kent State photojournalism student John Filo captured a 14-year-old runaway, Mary Ann Vecchio, screaming over the dead body of Jeffrey Miller, who had been shot in the mouth. The photograph, which won a Pulitzer Prize, became the most enduring image of the events, and one of the more enduring images of the anti-Vietnam War movement.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The shootings led to protests on college campuses throughout the United States, and a student strike, causing more than 450 campuses across the country to close with both violent and non-violent demonstrations. A common sentiment was expressed by students at New York University with a banner hung out of a window that read, "They Can't Kill Us All." On May 8, eleven people were bayonetted at the University of New Mexico by the New Mexico National Guard in a confrontation with student protesters. Also on May 8, an antiwar protest at New York's Federal Hall National Memorial held at least partly in reaction to the Kent State killings was met with a counter-rally of pro-Nixon construction workers (organized by Peter J. Brennan, later appointed U.S. Labor Secretary by President Nixon), resulting in the Hard Hat Riot. Shortly after the shootings took place, the Urban Institute conducted a national study that concluded the Kent State shooting was the first nationwide student strike in U.S. history; over 4 million students protested and hundreds of American colleges and universities closed during the student strikes. The Kent State campus remained closed for six weeks.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C., against the war and the killing of unarmed student protesters. Ray Price, Nixon's chief speechwriter from 1969 to 1974, recalled the Washington demonstrations saying, "The city was an armed camp. The mobs were smashing windows, slashing tires, dragging parked cars into intersections, even throwing bedsprings off overpasses into the traffic down below. This was the quote, student protest. That's not student protest, that's civil war." Not only was the President taken to Camp David for two days for his own protection, but Charles Colson (Counsel to President Nixon from 1969 to 1973) stated that the military was called up to protect the Nixon Administration from the angry students; he recalled that: "The 82nd Airborne was in the basement of the executive office building, so I went down just to talk to some of the guys and walk among them, and they're lying on the floor leaning on their packs and their helmets and their cartridge belts and their rifles cocked and you're thinking, 'This can't be the United States of America. This is not the greatest free democracy in the world. This is a nation at war with itself.'"


title: Kent State shootings

text: President Nixon and his administration's public reaction to the shootings was perceived by many in the anti-war movement as callous. Then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said the President was "pretending indifference". Stanley Karnow noted in his "Vietnam: A History" that: "The [Nixon] administration initially reacted to this event with wanton insensitivity. Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, whose statements were carefully programmed, referred to the deaths as a reminder that 'when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.'" Three days before the shootings, Nixon had talked of "bums" who were anti-war protestors on United States campuses, to which the father of Allison Krause stated on national TV: "My child was not a bum."


title: Kent State shootings

text: Karnow further documented that at 4:15 a.m. on May 9, 1970, the president met about 30 student dissidents conducting a vigil at the Lincoln Memorial, whereupon Nixon, "treated them to a clumsy and condescending monologue, which he made public in an awkward attempt to display his benevolence." Nixon had been trailed by White House Deputy for Domestic Affairs Egil Krogh, who saw it differently, saying, "I thought it was a very significant and major effort to reach out." In any case, neither side could convince the other and after meeting with the students, Nixon expressed that those in the anti-war movement were the pawns of foreign communists. After the student protests, Nixon asked H. R. Haldeman to consider the Huston Plan, which would have used illegal procedures to gather information on the leaders of the anti-war movement. Only the resistance of J. Edgar Hoover stopped the plan.


title: Kent State shootings

text: A Gallup Poll taken the day after the shootings reportedly showed that 58 percent of respondents blamed the students, 11 percent blamed the National Guard and 31 percent expressed no opinion. However, there was wide discussion as to whether these were legally justified shootings of American citizens, and whether the protests or the decisions to ban them were constitutional. These debates served to further galvanize uncommitted opinion by the terms of the discourse. The term "massacre" was applied to the shootings by some individuals and media sources, as it had been used for the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which five were killed and several more wounded.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In a speech at Kent State University to mark the 49th anniversary of the shootings, guest speaker Bob Woodward revealed a 1971 recording of Richard Nixon discussing the Attica Prison riot, in which he compared the uprising to the shootings at Kent State and considered that they might have a "salutary effect" on his administration. Woodward labelled the previously-unheard remarks "chilling" and among the "most outrageous" of the President's statements.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Students from Kent State and other universities often got a hostile reaction upon returning home. Some were told that more students should have been killed to teach student protesters a lesson; some students were disowned by their families.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On May 14, ten days after the Kent State shootings, two students were killed (and 12 wounded) by police at Jackson State University, a historically black university ("HBCU"), in Jackson, Mississippi, under similar circumstancesthe Jackson State killingsbut that event did not arouse the same nationwide attention as the Kent State shootings.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On June 13, 1970, as a consequence of the killings of protesting students at Kent State and Jackson State, President Nixon established the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, known as the Scranton Commission, which he charged to study the dissent, disorder, and violence breaking out on college and university campuses across the nation.


title: Kent State shootings

text: The Commission issued its findings in a September 1970 report that concluded that the Ohio National Guard shootings on May 4, 1970, were unjustified. The report said:


title: Kent State shootings

text: Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In September 1970, twenty-four students and one faculty member, identified from photographs, were indicted on charges connected either with the May 4 demonstration or with the one at the ROTC building fire three days before; they became known as the "Kent 25". The Kent Legal Defense Fund was organized to provide legal resources to oppose the indictments. Five cases, all related to the burning of the ROTC building, went to trial: one non-student defendant was convicted on one charge, and two other non-students pleaded guilty. One other defendant was acquitted, and charges were dismissed against the last. In December 1971, all charges against the remaining twenty were dismissed for lack of evidence.


title: Kent State shootings

text: A grand jury indicted five guardsmen on felony charges Lawrence Shafer, 28, and James McGee, 28, both of Ravenna, Ohio; James Pierce, 30, of Amelia Island, Florida; William Perkins, 38 of Canton, Ohio; and Ralph Zoller, 27, of Mantua, Ohio. Barry Morris, 30, of Kent, Ohio; Leon Smith, 27, of Beach City, Ohio; and Matthew McManus, 28, of West Salem, Ohio, were indicted on misdemeanor charges. The guardsmen claimed to have fired in self-defense, testimony that was generally accepted by the criminal justice system.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On November 8, 1974, U.S. District Judge Frank J. Battisti dismissed civil rights charges against all of the accused on the basis that the prosecution's case did not warrant a trial. "It is vital that state and National Guard officials not regard this decision as authorizing or approving the use of force against demonstrators, whatever the occasion of the issue involved," Battisti said in his opinion. "Such use of force is, and was, deplorable."


title: Kent State shootings

text: Civil actions were also attempted against the guardsmen, the state of Ohio, and the president of Kent State. The federal court civil action for wrongful death and injury, brought by the victims and their families against Governor Rhodes, the President of Kent State, and the National Guardsmen, resulted in unanimous verdicts for all defendants on all claims after an eleven-week trial. The judgment on those verdicts was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on the ground that the federal trial judge had mishandled an out-of-court threat against a juror. On remand, the civil case was settled in return for payment of a total of $675,000 to all plaintiffs by the state of Ohio (explained by the State as the estimated cost of defense) and the defendants' agreement to state publicly that they regretted what had happened:


title: Kent State shootings

text: In the succeeding years, many in the anti-war movement have referred to the shootings as "murders," although no criminal convictions were obtained against any National Guardsman. In December 1970, journalist I. F. Stone wrote the following:


title: Kent State shootings

text: The Kent State incident forced the National Guard to re-examine its methods of crowd control. The only equipment the guardsmen had to disperse demonstrators that day were M1 Garand rifles loaded with .30-06 FMJ ammunition, 12 Ga. pump shotguns, bayonets, and CS gas grenades. In the years that followed, U.S. military and National Guard personnel began using less lethal means of dispersing demonstrators (such as rubber bullets), and changed its crowd control and riot tactics to attempt to avoid casualties amongst the demonstrators. Many of the crowd-control changes brought on by the Kent State events are used today by police and military forces in the United States when facing similar situations, such as the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and civil disorder during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.


title: Kent State shootings

text: One outgrowth of the events was the Center for Peaceful Change established at Kent State University in 1971 "as a living memorial to the events of May 4, 1970". Now known as The Center for Applied Conflict Management (CACM), it developed one of the earliest conflict resolution undergraduate degree programs in the United States. The Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence, an interdisciplinary program dedicated to violence prevention, was established in 1998.


title: Kent State shootings

text: According to FBI reports, one part-time student, Terry Norman, was already noted by student protesters as an informant for both campus police and the Akron FBI branch. Norman was present during the May 4 protests, taking photographs to identify student leaders, while carrying a sidearm and wearing a gas mask.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In 1970, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover responded to questions from then-Congressman John M. Ashbrook by denying that Norman had ever worked for the FBI, a statement Norman disputed. On August 13, 1973, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh sent a memo to then-governor of Ohio John J. Gilligan suggesting that Norman may have fired the first shot, based on testimony Bayh received from guardsmen who claimed that a gunshot fired from the vicinity of the protesters instigated the Guard to open fire on the students.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Three of the survivors have since diedJames Russell on June 23, 2007, Robert Stamps in June 2008, and Alan Canfora on December 20, 2020.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In 2007 Alan Canfora, one of the wounded students, located a static-filled copy of an audio tape of the shootings in a Yale library archive. The original 30-minute reel-to-reel audio tape recording was made by Terry Strubbe, a Kent State communications student who turned on his recorder and put its microphone in his dormitory window overlooking the campus. At that time, Canfora asserted that an amplified version of the tape reveals the order to shoot, "Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!". Lawrence Shafer, a guardsman who admitted he fired during the shootings and was one of those indicted in the 1974 federal criminal action with charges subsequently dismissed, told the Kent-Ravenna "Record-Courier" newspaper in May 2007: "I never heard any command to fire. That's all I can say on that." Referring to the assertion that the tape reveals the order, Shafer went on to say, "That's not to say there may not have been, but with all the racket and noise, I don't know how anyone could have heard anything that day." Shafer also said that "point" would not have been part of a proper command to open fire.


title: Kent State shootings

text: A 2010 audio analysis of the Strubbe tape by Stuart Allen and Tom Owen, who were described by the Cleveland "Plain Dealer" as "nationally respected forensic audio experts", concluded that the guardsmen were given an order to fire. It is the only known recording to capture the events leading up to the shootings. According to the "Plain Dealer" description of the enhanced recording, a male voice yells, "Guard!" Several seconds pass. Then, "All right, prepare to fire!" "Get down!," someone shouts urgently, presumably in the crowd. Finally, "Guard! ..." followed two seconds later by a long, booming volley of gunshots. The entire spoken sequence lasts 17 seconds. Further analysis of the audiotape revealed that what sounded like four pistol shots and a confrontation occurred approximately 70 seconds before the National Guard opened fire. According to "The Plain Dealer", this new analysis raised questions about the role of Terry Norman, a Kent State student who was an FBI informant and known to be carrying a pistol during the disturbance. Alan Canfora said it was premature to reach any conclusions.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice determined that there were "insurmountable legal and evidentiary barriers" to reopening the case. Also in 2012, the FBI concluded the Strubbe tape was inconclusive because what has been described as pistol shots may have been slamming doors and that voices heard were unintelligible. Despite this, organizations of survivors and current Kent State students continue to believe the Strubbe tape proves the Guardsmen were given a military order to fire and are petitioning State of Ohio and United States government officials to reopen the case using independent analysis. The organizations do not desire to prosecute or sue individual guardsmen, believing they are also victims.


title: Kent State shootings

text: One of these groups, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, was founded in 2010 by the family of Allison Krause, along with Emily Kunstler, to demand accountability by the United States government for the massacre. In 2014, KSTT announced their request for an independent review by the United Nations Human Rights Committee under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the human rights treaty ratified by the United States.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In January 1970, only months before the shootings, a work of land art, "Partially Buried Woodshed", was produced on the Kent State campus by Robert Smithson. Shortly after the events, an inscription was added that recontextualized the work in such a way that some people associate it with the event.


title: Kent State shootings

text: Each May 4 from 1971 to 1975, the Kent State University administration sponsored an official commemoration of the shootings. Upon the university's announcement in 1976 that it would no longer sponsor such commemorations, the May 4 Task Force, a group made up of students and community members, was formed for this purpose. The group has organized a commemoration on the university's campus each year since 1976; events generally include a silent march around the campus, a candlelight vigil, a ringing of the Victory Bell in memory of those killed and injured, speakers (always including eyewitnesses and family members), and music.


title: Kent State shootings

text: On May 12, 1977, a tent city was erected and maintained for a period of more than 60 days by a group of several dozen protesters on the Kent State campus. The protesters, led by the May 4 Task Force but also including community members and local clergy, were attempting to prevent the university from erecting a gymnasium annex on part of the site where the shootings had occurred seven years earlier, which they believed would obscure the historical event. Law enforcement finally brought the tent city to an end on July 12, 1977, after the forced removal and arrest of 193 people. The event gained national press coverage and the issue was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In 1978, American artist George Segal was commissioned by the Mildred Andrews Fund of Cleveland, in agreement with the University, to create a bronze sculpture in commemoration of the shootings, but before its completion, the sculpture was refused by the university administration, who deemed its subject matter (the biblical Abraham poised to sacrifice his son Isaac) too controversial. Segal's completed cast-from-life bronze sculpture, "Abraham and Isaac: In Memory of May 4, 1970, Kent State", was instead accepted in 1979 by Princeton University and currently resides there between the university chapel and library.


title: Kent State shootings

text: In 1990, twenty years after the shootings, a memorial commemorating the events of May 4 was dedicated on the campus on a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) site overlooking the University's Commons where the student protest took place. Even the construction of the monument became controversial and, in the end, only 7% of the design was constructed. The memorial does not contain the names of those killed or wounded in the shooting; under pressure, the university agreed to install a plaque near it with the names.