The article reviews the experience of the Kent State massacre of anti-war college students in 1970, which has enormous relevance for today amid the massive police crackdown on campus protests against the Gaza genocide.
This article was first published by Workers World on May 7, 2020. It is being reposted now in the context of this year’s massive student uprising in solidarity with Palestine. May 4 and May 15, 2020, mark the 50th anniversaries of the murders of students at Kent State and Jackson…
Officials Apologize for Deadly Police Shooting at a Black College in 1970
Two people were killed and a dozen others were wounded when city police and state highway patrol officers opened fire at what is now Jackson State University in Mississippi.
The bullet-riddled windows of Alexander Hall at Jackson State College in Jackson, Miss., after two Black students were killed in 1970. The police opened fire on the building, claiming they had seen a sniper.Credit.Associated Press
May 17, 2021, 5:30 a.m. ET
They waited more than 50 years to put on their caps and gowns: That rite of passage had been denied to the members of the Class of 1970 at what is now Jackson State University in Mississippi, after a deadly police shooting at the historically Black college that spring brought their college years to an abrupt end.
JSU Class of 1970 Commencement Ceremony and 51st Gibbs-Green Commemoration
JSU Class of 1970 Commencement Ceremony and 51st Gibbs-Green Commemoration
At 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 15, 2021, Jackson State University will hold a special Commencement ceremony for the Class of 1970 on the Gibbs-Green Memorial Plaza.
For the first time ever, members of the Class will have the opportunity to march in their regalia and receive their diplomas, presented by President Thomas K. Hudson, J.D.
In the late hours of May 14 and into the early morning of May 15, 1970, Jackson City Police and Mississippi Highway Patrolmen marched on the Jackson State campus and fired nearly 500 rounds of ammunition in 28 seconds into Alexander Hall, a women’s dormitory. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a Junior political science major, and James Earl Green, a Senior at nearby Jim Hill High School, were killed. Twelve others were shot, and dozens were injured by flying debris, glass, and brick in the ensuing chaos. No