We Shall Not Be Moved

The May 4Th Coalition, the "Gym Struggle" of 1977 at Kent State University and the Battle over Ultimate Control of the Vietnam Era National Narrative

We Shall Not Be Moved narrates the story of the Kent State student-led May 4th Coalition and its efforts to maintain untouched the site of the Ohio National Guards shooting of thirteen Kent State students. The story is told in a local context of the groups development and motivations during a long-term conflict between the group, its supporters, the university administration. The story is also told in a much larger context of national polarization over the meaning of the Vietnam War and the peace movement and the preferred historical narrative about the Vietnam era. The book concludes that the May 4th Coalition lost its struggle to save the May 4th site because Americans determining the Vietnam narrative did not believe the protest of 1970 should be honored with saved land.