KENT, Ohio (AP) - A visitor center depicting the 1970 Kent State University shootings that killed four students and describing the social and cultural backdrop of the time will open this weekend on the northeast Ohio campus.
Kent State was the scene of deadly gunfire on May 4, 1970, when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War, an encounter that helped galvanize opposition to the war.
The site of the shootings, which also left nine students wounded and occurred near the university's Taylor Hall, already features a memorial, a walking tour and markers where the four died.
The new 1,900-square-foot May 4 Visitors Center officially opens Saturday on the ground floor of the former student newspaper office in Taylor Hall. It was funded by $1.1 million in donations from veterans groups, the public, the university and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Visitors will be able to "better understand the events of that day set against the political and cultural changes of the times," university President Lester Lefton said in a statement.