Rick “Tiger” Dowdell

At about 10:30 on a hot summer night on this date in 1970, former KU freshman Rick “Tiger” Dowdell, 19, a local African-American youth, was shot and killed while fleeing police in downtown Lawrence.

The incident marked the beginning of five days of violence that represented a flashpoint in the long simmering confrontation between student antiwar activists and civil rights advocates on the one hand, and law enforcement authorities on the other. Before it was over, a white KU freshman named Harry Nicholas “Nick” Rice would also be killed, two policemen and numerous others would be injured, and the situation in Lawrence and on the KU campus would be approaching that of a battle zone.