How The "Silent Majority" Got Not So Silent

For the nineteenth installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we talk about a fateful week in the spring of 1970, when the anti-Vietnam movement was confronted by a conservative backlash. We discuss the tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio, when four students were killed by National Guard. In the wake of the tragedy, many were shocked but lots of Americans felt that anti-War protesters had gone too far. Richard Nixon would dub this coalition the “silent majortity,” and days later in New York City they would be on the streets themselves.