[Crowd Chanting] End the war!

What we were looking at was the beginning of a class struggle between the university elite and the working class.

The protest movement just got so much bigger.

I'm a marine, and you take that flag and throw it on the floor and step on it you've just made it personal.

I felt they had beatin coming.

A bunch of construction workers attacked the students.

And then one thing led to another And then it started being a riot.

My best recollection of May 8th was the usual routine coming out onto the street, but you could hear a lot of activity at 7 It was too much for 7:00 in the We were assigned to come in early to the precinct, and we were told we're going down to Wall Street.

[Crowd Chanting] Avenge Kent State!

[Reporter] Several hundred college and high school students declared a war of disruption in New York City today.

The demonstrators gather on Wall Street.

Word came, by word of mouth that theres going to be a demonstration down in lower Manhattan.

There was hundreds and hundreds of construction workers at different locations.

So everybody that you seen was in line with that.

They were energized.

The place was full.

The entire square was full.

[Protester] Were going to stop Wall Street tomorrow.

We're going to stop New York Cit And were going to bring the wh country down with us next week.

And then Nixons going to have to respond.

I don't know, maybe it's going to come down with his fists a lot of people probably think so But let's find out now.

To us, as a working stiff.

Let's put a blue collar.

You just have people go to college and beat the draft, and they had money, and they let the working class people fight the wars.

I sort of fancied myself as a documentary filmmaker.

So I had brought my super 8mm camera along, and I was going to film.

And I heard in the distance I heard chants of USA, USA.

And then these hard hat workers and they were mar- It was like a march.

It was like a parade.

They were marching on the street As they approached closer.

We saw two streets also having large groups of people walking towards us.

I saw them disparaging the flag that drew the line with me.

And then one thing push comes to shove Words started back and forth, and that's when it started getting a little rowdy.

You know what's coming.

You know there's going to be a fight.

All of a sudden, boom.

Everybody's swinging.

I was in the middle of the pack.

The adrenaline was rushing.

I was part of a mob.

We were in something big.

The Hard Hat Riot and the tumult and the division that will overtake New York City is a microcosm of the divides and the polarization that will come to define American life.

For more on the clash that revealed Americas deep divide watch Hard Hat Riot, from American Experience.