The Titans, Story Behind The Movies, Chapter 9

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" background="../../backgrounds/tyranny_back.gif"> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top" width="70"><img src="http://www.click2flicks.com/../buttons/space.gif" width="70" height="70"> </td> <td align="center" valign="top"><a href="../../index2.html" onmouseover="turnOn('image2')" onmouseout="turnOff('image2')"><img src="http://www.click2flicks.com/../buttons/directory_off.gif" name="image2" border="0" hspace="10" align="top" width="130" height="22"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"><img src="http://www.click2flicks.com/../backgrounds/movies_side.gif" width="17" height="442"> </td> <td> <p align="center"><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color="#006068">"REMEMBER THE TITANS"</font></b><br><br> <b><font color="#006068" size="4" face="arial, helvetica">CHAPTER 7<font face="arial, helvetica" color="#006068"> - SCHOOLS IN TURMOIL</font></font></b> <p align="center"> <center> <table width="520"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <font face="arial, helvetica" SIZE="3" color=000000>A change in presidential leadership did not end the war. "Peace with honor" seemed like an elusive concept. As Richard Nixon conducted a <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/30/3/30-0242a.gif" target="_blank"> <b> press conference</b></a> on April 30, 1970 (to explain why he had sent <a href="http://media.nara.gov/media/images/36/30/36-2999a.gif" target="_blank"> <b> B-52s</b></a> into Cambodia to bomb "Viet Cong" strongholds), a protest at Kent State University was brewing. It began the next day (May 1, 1970). Among other reasons, students were upset that innocent Cambodians were being killed. <p>By May 4<sup>th</sup> members of the Ohio National Guard, sent to the Kent State campus, were ready <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit11.jpg" target="_blank"> <b> for battle</b></a>. Armed with <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit37.gif" target="_blank"> <b> tear gas</b></a>, rifles and <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit26.gif" target="_blank"> <b> fixed bayonets</b></a>, they looked as though they were <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit30.gif" target="_blank"> <b> about to end</b></a> an armed insurrection. Examining the police photographs today, one can only wonder what both sides must have been <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit44.gif" target="_blank"> <b> thinking</b></a> when the National Guard fired into the crowd of people milling about <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit39.jpg" target="_blank"> <b> on campus</b></a>.</p> <p>Four unarmed students were <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit48.gif" target="_blank"> <b> killed</b></a> at Kent State. Not all the dead <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit47.gif" target="_blank"> <b> students</b></a> were part of the protest movement. After <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/box113/113exhibit46.gif" target="_blank"><b>the shootings</b></a>, an injunction temporarily <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/exhibit/keep/injunct.html" target="_blank"> <b> closed</b></a> the University. Students and their professors had to find <a href="http://www.library.kent.edu/exhibits/4may95/exhibit/keep/profs.html" target="_blank"> <b> other means</b></a> to finish the term.</p> <p>Meanwhile, African-American students were still trying to find other means to begin equal educational opportunities. The case filed by Dr. Swann was making its way to the United States Supreme Court.</p> <p>By April of 1971 (eleven months after the Kent State shootings), the high court delivered its judgment to the country. In <i>Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education</i>, the now famous case that permitted busing of students to achieve racial integration, the high court sent a message to the country. Public schools could no longer ignore the mandates of <i><a href="http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/petronic/pages/l-ch5.htm" target="_blank"><b>Brown v Board of Education</b></a></i>, the case that was <b><i>supposed</i></b> to have ended America’s policy of "separate but equal." All schools had to become integrated immediately. That included schools in Alexandria, Virginia - a place where football was king.</p> <font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3"> </div> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.lawbuzz.com/movies/remember_the_titans/the_titans_ch6.htm"><img src="http://www.click2flicks.com/../buttons/back.gif" alt="go back to previous page" border=0 hspace=5 width="129" height="22"></a><a href="the_titans_ch1.htm"><font size=2><b>GO TO STORY INDEX</b></font></a><font size=2><a href="http://www.lawbuzz.com/movies/remember_the_titans/the_titans_ch8.htm"><img src="http://www.click2flicks.com/../buttons/goto.gif" alt=continue to next chapter of story" border=o hspace=5 align=bottom width="144" height="22"></a></font></p> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </body>