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Alan Canfora, BA ’72, MLS ’80

For the past 50 years, Alan Canfora has remained the primary voice of May 4, never allowing the shootings and the four killed to be forgotten. “I knew Jeffrey Miller,” he says. “He was my friend.”

Canfora is director of the Akron Law Library; he has been active in politics in his
hometown of Barberton, Ohio, serving for 27 years as chairman of the Democratic Party. He also worked for the Summit County Board of Elections and Barberton Municipal Court.
But his largest role has always been as May 4 activist.

When he was shot in the wrist that day, Canfora was an active participant in the anti-war protest. As a 21-year-old junior, he can be seen in photos waving a black flag at the rally. He chose black because just a week earlier, he had attended the funeral of a childhood friend killed in Vietnam.

When the university stopped sponsoring the May 4 commemorations in 1975, he helped form the May 4th Task Force with Robert Stamps, Dean Kahler and current students. Their goal was to raise awareness about the May 4 shootings and its aftermath, specifically the lack of accountability and justice. “It’s been a long, arduous struggle, fighting for truth and justice,” says Canfora. “We have been very effective.”

Keeping May 4 alive has been a duty and a privilege, he says. In 2007, he uncovered digital audio in the May 4 archives at Yale University, which revealed a guardsman had shouted the verbal command to “fire” on the students.

Canfora says no one today can defend the actions of the Ohio National Guard, shooting unarmed students in broad daylight.

“The National Guard intentionally perpetrated a massacre at �������� State.”

He met his wife, Anastasia, at a May 4th Task Force meeting in 2009. They married a year later and welcomed a daughter in 2015 and a son in 2020.

Canfora’s love for �������� State still runs deep. “It’s the finest university in Ohio,” he says. “�������� State had one bad day in 1970 and it has remained a specter, unfortunately.”

He says he has one regret: “I wish our protests were stronger and more effective sooner. By 1970 there already were 30,000 US soldiers killed in Vietnam, as well as over a million Asian victims.”

*Note: Alan Canfora died December 20, 2020. A tribute by Thomas M. Grace, BA '72, appeared in the spring/summer 2021 issue of �������� State Magazine.