Kent State Four Dead in Ohio
Kent State Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf is a graphic novel published by Abrams, Incorporated in April 2025, featuring 288 pages in English. This edition presents a detailed account of the tragic Kent State shootings that occurred on May 4, 1970, when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War, resulting in the deaths of four students and injuries to nine others. The narrative captures the profound impact of this event on American society and its lasting significance in the context of dissent and protest.
Readers will find a thorough exploration of the lives of the four victims and the events leading up to that fateful day, supported by extensive interviews and research conducted by Backderf. The graphic novel delves into the historical backdrop of the Vietnam War, the political climate of the time, and the subsequent nationwide student protests that followed the shootings. This edition not only recounts a pivotal moment in U.S. history but also reflects on the broader implications of political activism and the consequences of violence against civilians.
Official synopsis Publisher
From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the Eisner and ALA/YALSA Alex Award-winning tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form.
Named a Best Book of the Year by New York Times, Forbes, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and NPR, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent–as relevant today as it was in 1970.
On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, four students were killed and nine shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children–a shocking event burned into our national memory.
The fatal shootings triggered immediate and massive outrage on campuses around the country. More than four million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in the history of the United States at that time. It was a day that shocked the nation and helped turn the tide of public opinion against America’s war in Vietnam.
A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike.
Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart.
In this award-winning and powerful graphic novel, Derf Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy: the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19).
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