Audience

Because both The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery and The May Fourth Memorial address divisive issues, their cultural meaning depends in part upon the range of audience interpretations. While both monuments have significance on a local level, their meanings resonate nationally.

The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery

To fully appreciate the cultural meaning of The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery, one must first look at those who formed, and continue to form, the memorial's audience. The memorial's services were, and still are, held annually on the Sunday closest to Jefferson Davis Day (June 3). Initially, veterans of both the Union and the Confederate armies, curious locals, politicians with a political stake in sectional unity, and families of or organizations representing the veterans of both sides comprised the bulk of the audience. For the first two years, audiences were at best modest, with only 50 in attendance at the 1896 service. But by 1897, an estimated 1,000-1,500 attended the service where an ex-Union soldier and an ex-Confederate soldier were the keynote speakers. In 1898, with the presence of the Glee Club of Louisville, Ky, attendance again rose substantially to 4,000-5,000. Nineteen hundred marked the first year of attendance by the Governor of Ohio, then the Honorable George K. Nash, further solidifying official support of the commemoration services.

The memorial's audiences were predominantly those interested in sectional unity, forgiveness, and healing the trauma of the Civil War. Union and Confederate soldiers came together and often times left the service considering themselves if not friends, at least, fellow Americans. Those family members who were grieving those lost at Camp Chase were able to see their sons, fathers, brothers, or husbands receive a proper burial and recognition for their bravery. Those who chose not to attend were often Union veterans who believed their own memories were dishonored, and the local black population who saw within the services no mention of their freedom. As the veterans themselves reached the ends of their lives, audience support again grew tepid, and the site became known as "Ohio's forgotten cemetery." But recent efforts by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Hilltop Historical Society have attempted to change that fact. Historians, scholars, curious locals, and those with ties to the Old South can once again visit the cemetery and pay tribute to those buried within.
SC, May 1998

The Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery

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The May Fourth Memorial

While the Kent State killings are almost universally remembered as a horrific tragedy for both the local and national population, even today there is little consensus within the memorial's audience as to where the responsibility for these killings falls. Although the images of the gas-masked soldiers firing upon the seemingly helpless protestors are ingrained upon our cultural memory, it must also be said that the students were not without blame, throwing rocks at soldiers and burning down the ROTC building on campus. As a result, many Americans still think of the May 4th events as an example of chaos and disruption created by "long haired radicals". While time has no doubt filtered away some of this bitterness, there inevitably remains a considerable amount of disagreement concerning this event. Therefore, the memorial must speak to an audience whose opinions remain polarized.

Standing less than two hundred feet from the site of the shootings, the memorial, it may seem, speaks primarily to the local population of students and townspeople. However, because the Kent State incident also impacted the nation as a whole, The May Fourth Memorial seeks to depoliticize the process of commemoration in order to speak to the monument's diverse national audience. Rather than attempting to change or reverse individual views, the memorial aims to promote understanding of the differing perspectives surrounding the tragedy.

It must also be noted that the memorial's meaning or importance does not resonate throughout the entire American population. Younger students claim an inability to identify with the memory of May 4, 1970. The lack of vivid memories of the Kent State shootings has created a climate of indifference. Although the Kent State incident has undeniably become a part of their school's cultural identity, a significant portion of the current student population connects the memory of May 4, 1970 to their parents' generation. Instead they are more likely to identify themselves with memories of the Challenger Explosion and O.J. Simpson's acquittal. As a result, The May Fourth Memorial's cultural meaning does not necessarily reach out to all Americans, nor does it evoke a universal reaction or memory from its audience.
WV, May 1998

The May Fourth Memorial

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