A single photograph from the day, in 1970, that four students there were killed by the Ohio National Guard is so powerful that, whenever I hear any mention of Kent State-its basketball team or its engineering program-the picture flashes in my mind. I'm sure I'm not alone. Kent State was reduced to a single photo because the press was far more centralized at the time, and had the power and the influence to edit, curate, and promote a particular version of an event.
I was standing onstage at the University of Puget Sound, preparing to give a talk about anti-Chinese violence in the American West, when a man I'd never met stepped up beside me. He was introduced as a member of the Tacoma City Council. Without preamble, he turned to the audience-and then to me. "I tell my kids reconciliation begins with an apology," he said. "On behalf of the city of Tacoma, I am sorry."