UAHC Asks Mitchell to Investigate Deaths of Kent State University Students

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations called today upon U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell to convene a federal grand jury to investigate the unsolved deaths of four Kent State University students in May, 1970. The UAHC, which represents Reform synagogues in the United States and Canada, urged the Attorney General to begin an immediate probe on the basis of allegations by the Methodist Church that the death of the four students resulted from a “conspiracy” by the Ohio National Guard to “punish” campus agitators. I, Cyrus Gordon, of New York City, chairman of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, wrote Mitchell that while the organization had no way of substantiating the Methodist report, “we commend them for their diligent efforts to keep alive a sense of national conscience with regard to one of the blackest days in American history.”

Gordon added: “We cannot continue to sweep under the rug the unanswered questions of what and who caused the death of four young people more than a year ago.” A 226 page document of the Kent State case, investigated by the Department of Law, Justice and Community Relations of the United Methodist Board of Christian Social Concern, alleged that a group of guardsmen determined ten minutes before the Kent State incident to shoot at student demonstrators. The full report was sent to the Department of Justice over a month ago. Gordon said that the Kent State killings remains as a “blight” on our sense of American justice. He said, “America cannot afford to convey the impression that the killing of young people is somehow a less urgent claim than the killing of policemen, public officials or any other American.” The four students who were killed were Jewish.