View Comments
JACKSON, Miss. Days after National Guard members killed four Kent State University students who were protesting the Vietnam War, white police officers marched onto the campus of a historically Black college in Mississippi’s capital city to violently suppress protests against racism.
Officers shot indiscriminately after someone threw a bottle. The gunfire killed two people, injured 12 and shattered windows of a women’s dormitory where officers claimed falsely that they had seen a sniper.
Students who earned degrees that year received their diplomas in the mail, if at all.
Now, a lifetime later, Jackson State University is honoring the Class of 1970 in a ceremony delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Grads are invited back for a salute to their academic achievements, with organizers expecting about 70 of the 400-plus class members for Saturday s ceremony.