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The accession consists of the records of David E. Engdahl, attorney on the legal team for plaintiffs in the civil suits that arose from the shooting incidents at Kent State University, May 4, 1970. The bulk of the records pertain to Krause et al. v. Rhodes et al. and related cases, which were in litigation from 1970 to 1981. The case was tried twice, first in 1975 and finally in 1978. A settlement was reached in 1979, but there were subsequent appeals related to the payment of attorney's fees and the protective order issued in 1976. These appeals were tried in 1981. In addition to motions, orders, and correspondence with the court, the records include correspondence among counsel, news clippings, notes, and background materials. Engdahl collected and attempted to publish poems commemorating the deaths at Kent State, which are included in the accession.

Sanford Rosen, one of the lawyers for the families of Kent State shooting victims, petitioned under the Freedom of Information Act to have materials released pertaining to the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division's investigation of the Kent State killings. The materials released comprise this accession and are arranged in the order in which they were received.

This accession consists of material on the Doonesbury comic strip about the events at Kent State University and the controversy that accompanied the publication of the strip. Materials include a scanned image of the comic by Garry Trudeau attached to a draft of a page from Kent State: A Ten Year Ministry, a scanned image of the November 6, 1972 article on the controversy from the Akron Beacon Journal, and a printout of the online copy of an article written by Paul Keane titled "Forum: One man's role in '72 Doonesbury flap," published in the New Haven Register. Materials are dated to 1972 and 2016.