CLEVELAND, Ohio Freshman Laura Davis doesnt remember if she had class the morning of Monday, May 4. If she did, she didnt go. She had plans to attend a noon rally. Photography student John Filo headed out to see what he could capture, though he was kicking himself for missing the action on campus over the weekend. Roseann Chic Canfora was worried about her brother. And, like everyone else, Gerald Casale could not have imagined how that day would end.

All were students at Kent State University that fateful day, when two thousand people exercised their First Amendment right to speak against a war many Americans thought was justified. Four were killed when the National Guard fired: Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer. Nine were injured.

They were shot as they rallied for what they believed in, exercising their rights as Americans. The shots shocked the world.

It still holds that power to show that people will sacrifice for these freedoms, said Idris Kabir Syed, a Kent State University associate professor who teaches a May 4 class. That saying that freedom aint free is very symbolic and very important here at Kent State.

May 4 brought the Vietnam War, and casualties, to a Midwest college town, forcing America to begin to reckon with its role in the war.

There was this profound change in how America thought about the war that came about because of the shootings on May 4. I mean, it really was the day the war came home, said Davis, the founding director of the May 4 Visitors Center on the Kent campus.

After the shooting, students sat on the grassy hill, as a professor screamed through a microphone to stop, lest they be slaughtered.

Kent State and schools across the country were closed. Many people blamed students for the senseless deaths. Protestors received bomb threats and hate mail. It took years for the shooting to receive the recognition it deserved. You could park your car over the spot students died until 1999.

Its painful. Do you know how hard it is for Middle America to accept the fact that American soldiers would turn their guns on American people without some provocation or reason, good reason to do so? said Canfora, a Kent sophomore at the time, whose brother Alan was shot in the wrist.

Everyone on campus that day carries May 4 with them, recalling the events in vivid details.

These are their stories.

And everything was just frozen in this chaos in horror and screaming: Gerald Casale remembers May 4, 1970

I just curled over and I just started shrieking: Theyre shooting their guns: Laura Davis remembers May 4, 1970

My immediate response was I dont know how I missed getting shot: John Filo remembers May 4, 1970

It was then that we realized it was live ammunition: Roseann Chic Canfora remembers May 4, 1970

I have great pride in the revolt: Kent State University shooting victim Alan Canfora recounts events leading to May 4, 1970

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Kent State University survivors tell their stories 50 years later - cleveland.com