Marker and Memorial
Roseann “Chic” Canfora, BS ’76, MA ’87, PhD ’01, May 4 witness and professional-in-residence in the School of Media and Journalism, places a black flag on the marker showing where her late brother, Alan Canfora, BA ’72, MLS ’80, was standing when he was shot on May 4, 1970. One of nine students wounded that day, he had waved a black flag in protest of the Vietnam War—a moment captured in a now-iconic photo by John Filo, BS ’72.
Planning for the markers, which were installed in 2021 and formally dedicated during the 52nd commemoration, began two years before the 50th anniversary of the shootings, with the idea of having them in place for that commemoration. (Markers commemorating the four students who were killed on May 4, 1970, were installed in the Prentice Hall parking lot where they died and were dedicated on Sept. 9, 1999.)
“My brother and Rod Flauhaus, BS ’86, and some of the other wounded students had advocated to also mark where the wounded students fell so that people throughout history would see how far those bullets had to travel to reach their targets,” says Canfora, who also chairs the May 4 Presidential Advisory Committee to oversee the university’s May 4 commemoration plans. Her brother, Alan, died Dec. 20, 2020.