Editing Jackson State killings

{{Short description|Police killings of a group of students}}
{{Coord|32|17|51|N|90|12|27|W|display=title}}<!--- point on Gibbs-Green Plaza due south of the H-shaped Alexander Hall, while B. F. Roberts Hall is the first (square-ish) building just east-southeast of this point --->
{{Infobox civilian attack
|title = Jackson State killings
|image = Old-Glory-Jackson-State-May-1970.jpg
|location = [[Jackson, Mississippi]]
|date = May 15, 1970
|time = 12:05&nbsp;a.m.
|timezone = Central: UTC−6
|fatalities = 2
|injuries = 12
|victims = Phillip Lafayette Gibbs<br />James Earl Green
|perps = [[Jackson Police Department (Mississippi)|Jackson Police Department]]<br />[[Mississippi Highway Patrol]]
|weapons = 
}}

The '''Jackson State killings''' occurred on May 15, 1970, at Jackson State College (now [[Jackson State University]]) in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].  On May 14, 1970, [[Jackson Police Department (Mississippi)|city]] and state police confronted a group of students outside a campus dormitory.  Shortly after midnight, the police opened fire, killing two students and injuring twelve.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2210708 Review of ''Lynch Street: The May 1970 Slayings at Jackson State College''] (Tim Spofford), Review author: William M. Simpson, ''The Journal of Southern History'', Vol. 56, No. 1. (Feb., 1990), pp. 159–160.</ref> The event happened 11 days after the [[Kent State shootings]], in which National Guardsmen killed four students at [[Kent State University]] in Ohio during a protest against the [[Vietnam War]]. The Kent State event had first captured national attention.

== Timeline ==
On the evening of Thursday, May 14, a group of around 100 black students had gathered on Lynch Street (named after the black [[Reconstruction era]] US Representative [[John R. Lynch]]), which bisected the campus. African-American youths were reportedly pelting rocks at white motorists driving down this road—frequently the site of confrontations between white and black Jackson residents.

Tensions rose higher when a rumor spread around campus that [[Charles Evers]]—a local politician, civil rights leader and the brother of slain activist [[Medgar Evers]]—and his wife had been killed, according to ''Lynch Street: The May 1970 Slayings at Jackson State College''. The situation escalated when a non-Jackson State student set a dump truck on fire."<ref name="Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126426361|title=Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten|work=npr.org|date=3 May 2010 |access-date=15 September 2016|last1=Wyckoff |first1=Whitney Blair }}</ref>

The police responded in force. At least 75 police officers from the city of Jackson and the [[Mississippi Highway Patrol]] attempted to control the crowd while firemen extinguished the fires.<ref name="Presidents Commission on Campus Unrest">[https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED083899 The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest],  W. Scranton, Chairman, US Government Printing Office, 1970, pg. 422-424. Retrieved August 15, 2009 from ERIC.ed.gov</ref> After firefighters left the scene shortly before midnight, the police moved to disperse the crowd that had gathered in front of Alexander Hall, a women's [[dormitory]].

Advancing to within 50 to 100 feet (15 to 30 m) of the crowd, officers at roughly 12:05&nbsp;a.m opened fire on the dormitory.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/16/archives/fbi-investigating-killing-of-2-negroes-in-jackson-two-negro.html|title=F.B.I. Investigating Killing Of 2 Negroes in Jackson: Two Negro Students Are Killed In Clash With Police in Jackson|work=New York Times|date=May 16, 1970|access-date=23 August 2020}}</ref>

The exact cause of the shooting and the moments leading up to it are unclear. Authorities say they saw a [[sniper]] on one of the building's upper floors and were being shot at from all directions. Later, two city policemen and one state patrolman reported minor injuries from flying glass.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/> An FBI search for evidence of sniper fire found none.<ref>''President's Commission on Campus Unrest'', pp. 442–444</ref> Students later claimed that they had not provoked the officers. The gunfire lasted for 30 seconds, with more than 460 shots being fired by a reported 40 state highway patrolmen, who used shotguns from a distance of 30 to 50 feet.<ref name="Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten"/> Every window was shattered by gunfire on the narrow side of the building facing Lynch Street.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/>

The crowd scattered, and a number of people were trampled, or cut by falling glass. Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior, and James Earl Green, 17, a senior and miler at nearby [[Jim Hill High School]], were killed, and twelve others were wounded.<ref name="Reed, NYT, 5/16/1970"/> Gibbs was fatally shot near Alexander Hall by buckshot, and Green was killed behind the police line in front of B. F. Roberts Hall, also by shotgun.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Jackson-State-Shot-Up-Dormitory-May1970.jpg|thumb|right|220px|The May 15 Jackson State shootings led to a surge of the protest movement throughout the region.]]
President [[Richard Nixon]] established the [[President's Commission on Campus Unrest]] to investigate both the Jackson State and Kent State events. Public hearings were held in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and at Kent State. No arrests were made in connection with the deaths at Jackson State, but the Commission concluded "that the 28-second fusillade from police officers was an unreasonable, unjustified overreaction.... A broad barrage of gunfire in response to reported and unconfirmed sniper fire is never warranted."<ref>''Presidents Commission on Campus Unrest'', p. 450</ref>

The university has memorialized the occurrence by naming the area of the shootings the Gibbs-Green Plaza, after the two young men killed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jsums.edu/gibbs.htm |title=Untitled Document |access-date=2006-11-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904150110/http://www.jsums.edu/gibbs.htm |archive-date=2006-09-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.may41970.com/Jackson%20State/jackson_state_may_1970.htm Gibbs-Green Plaza], Jackson State, Retrieved August 15, 2009</ref> The plaza is a large, multi-level brick and concrete patio and mall on the eastern side of the school's campus; it borders J. R. Lynch Street and links Alexander Hall to the University Green. A large stone monument in front of Alexander Hall near the plaza also honors the two victims. Damage is still visible on the façade of Alexander Hall; it was caused by the rounds fired by the police.<ref name="Jackson State: A Tragedy Widely Forgotten" />

In December 1970, a [[federal grand jury]] was discharged after it had failed to produce an [[indictment]] or written findings in a five-month recess. It had summoned about 40 state patrolmen and 26 city police officers.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/12/archives/a-us-jury-ends-jackson-inquiry-no-law-officers-indicted-in.html "A U.S. Jury Ends Jackson Inquiry,"] ''New York Times,'' Dec. 12, 1970, p. 16.</ref>

A long-awaited formal public apology was granted <!-- by whom? -->at Jackson State University's 2021 commencement. The apology reflected 51 years of contemplation regarding the event, now historically known as "The Jackson State Killings." Gibbs and Green were awarded posthumous honorary doctorate degrees at the ceremony, which were accepted by family members on their behalf. 
   
Commencement speakers represented local and state leaders of Mississippi: Mayor [[Chokwe Antar Lumumba]] of Jackson, and State Senator [[Hillman Terome Frazier]]. The leaders said that the formal apology was to "…publicly atone for the sins of our past and proclaim a new identity of dignity, equity and justice".<ref>Emily Wagster Pettus, [https://web.archive.org/web/20210516204013/https://www.stltoday.com/news/national/sins-of-our-past-apologies-for-1970-jackson-st-shootings/article_49a0e473-1c02-5c24-833b-06f3dae1c2a8.html "‘Sins of Our Past’: Apologies for 1970 Jackson St. Shootings,"] ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch,'' May 15, 2021.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Orangeburg massacre]]
* [[List of unarmed African Americans killed by law enforcement officers in the United States]]
*[[List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States]]
*[[List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==Further reading==

* Tim Spofford, ''Lynch Street: The May 1970 Slayings at Jackson State College.'' Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1988.

== External links ==

* [http://www.may41970.com/Jackson%20State/jackson_state_may_1970.htm "Jackson State May 1970."] Text from "The May 1970 Tragedy at Jackson State University 'Lest We Forget...'," Jackson State University, ccaix.jsums.edu, May 10, 2006, with new photos by Mike, www.may41970.com
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/14/40_years_ago_police_kill_two "40 Years Ago: Police Kill Two Students at Jackson State in Mississippi,"] ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' May 14, 2010. <small>(Video.)</small>
* [https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_27-k93125qt2b "Program about the Jackson State Killings, Jackson, Mississippi,"] WYSO FM 91.3 Public Radio (Yellow Springs, Ohio), no date, via American Archive of Public Broadcasting, americanarchive.org <small>(Audio.)</small>

{{Jackson State University}}
{{School shootings in the United States}}
{{Mass shootings in the United States in the 1980s and before}}

[[Category:1970 in Mississippi]]
[[Category:1970 riots]]
[[Category:1970 mass shootings in the United States]]
[[Category:Kent State shootings]]
[[Category:Jackson State University]]
[[Category:1970 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Murder in Mississippi]]
[[Category:Protests against the Vietnam War]]
[[Category:African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States|+Jackson]]
[[Category:Police brutality in the United States]]
[[Category:Protest-related deaths in the United States]]
[[Category:University and college killings in the United States]]
[[Category:History of law enforcement in the United States]]
[[Category:University and college shootings in the United States]]
[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in Mississippi]]
[[Category:May 1970 in the United States]]
[[Category:Attacks on schools in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Anti-black racism in Mississippi]]
[[Category:Political riots in the United States]]
[[Category:Law enforcement in Mississippi]]
[[Category:20th-century political riots]]
[[Category:1970 in American politics]]
[[Category:20th century in Jackson, Mississippi]]
[[Category:History of Jackson, Mississippi]]
[[Category:Violence against protesters in the United States]]