Commemorative landscapes and how they help produce a sense of empathy and place and foster a connection to help us learn from our past was a theme explored Friday, May 3, by Kent State University Professor Chris Post, Ph.D.
Post, a professor of geography at Kent State’s Stark Campus since 2008, was this year’s featured speaker at the Jerry M. Lewis May 4 Lecture Series and Luncheon, held in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.
The speaker series opened the university’s 54th Commemoration of the May 4, 1970, shootings when the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent Campus students protesting the escalation of the war in Vietnam, killing four and wounding nine others.
The lecture series was created in 2022 to honor the legacy of Kent State Professor Emeritus of Sociology Jerry M. Lewis, Ph.D. Lewis taught at Kent State from 1966 until 2013, becoming professor emeritus in 1996. Serving as a faculty marshal in 1970, Lewis witnessed the May 4, shootings firsthand and has since devoted time to researching, memorializing and lecturing on the events of the day, which changed the course of American history.
Lewis was not present at Friday’s luncheon but was watching from home via livestream and spoke in a pre-recorded video to welcome attendees, a message that was met with a standing ovation.
Post acknowledged Lewis, a mentor and friend, for the impact he has had on so many in the university community. He called Lewis, “a constant supporter of my work and a source of inspiration.”
Post’s lecture, entitled, “Developing and Interpreting the Wounded Student Markers at Kent State,” offered insight on the development of the May 4 commemorative landscape in the Kent Campus and how the Wounded Student Markers, installed in 2021, fit into that larger narrative.
“My motivation rests in the fact that landscapes matter as the materialization of everything we do and they in turn influence us and our actions,” Post said.
He referenced geographer Richard Schein, who noted how landscape evolves over time, reflecting societal changes. “For memorials, this includes questions such as: Who is remembered, who remains forgotten, and how is this past told?”
Post discussed the often bumpy history and evolution of May 4 commemorative markers on the Kent Campus, up to the Wounded Student Markers installation in 2021.
“Here at Kent State, two of the ideas that come up the most in this regard is how our commemorative landscape materializes the discourses surrounding the First Amendment right to free speech and the minimum voting age in the U.S.,” Post said. “Our memorial spaces have actively been influenced by and – we hope – in return have mediated these dialogues for the past 54 years.”
Post talked of the years of work by wounded student Alan Canfora, who died in December 2020, who devoted his life to ensuring the events of May 4 were not forgotten, and who for years championed the Wounded Student Marker project.
He also noted May 4 50th Commemoration project manager Rod Flauhaus, who proposed the markers project as part of the half-century anniversary in 2020. Flauhaus worked with Canfora and Lewis to precisely confirm the locations of each wounded student, and later with former University Architect Michael Bruder and Donald Bohning and Associates, who produced a map of the locations.
The research to confirm the precise locations of the victims determined that several of the distances previously confirmed by the FBI were inaccurate.
Through his research, Post also recorded the perspectives of wounded students on their markers. “May 4 has given us the opportunity to also mark the experiences of living survivors and invite them to be part of that process,” he said.
“Two of the survivors referred to their distance as being so far away as to be harmless to the Guard, yet they still paid a price for their speaking out on May 4,” Post said.
Post credited the wounded surviving students, faculty, administrators and students who have “carried the responsibility of ensuring May 4’s relevance and its presentation to a larger audience.”
“It took time and perseverance. It, in some cases, required changes in administrations. But the materialized discourse of free speech and the accomplishment of lowering the voting age to 18 can never be severed from May 4 and our commemorations of it. From our local survivors to visitors, people come here to witness and connect to this place and our commemorative landscape makes that possible,” he said.
Post is the program coordinator for two Kent State Stark programs, geography and environmental studies. He has published extensively on his areas of research and teaching, such as the cultural landscape; May 4, 1970; historical geography; commemoration and heritage; and North America and company towns. In 2021, he was appointed as May 4 researcher in residence, a pilot program supported by Kent State’s Office of the President and University Libraries.
The lecture series was created to advance the scholarship of May 4, 1970, and the Vietnam War era, and was made possible through a donation from 1974 Kent State alumnus Michael Solomon.
Activities for the 54th Commemoration continue through Saturday, May 4.