Civil Rights Era · HBCU · State Violence · 1970

Jackson State: The Killing Nobody Remembers

On May 4, 1970, four white students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State University in Ohio. The nation mourned. Neil Young wrote a song. Congress held hearings. Eleven days later, on May 14–15, Mississippi Highway Patrol and Jackson city police opened fire on students at Jackson State College, a historically Black university. Two people were killed: Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a student, and James Earl Green, a 17-year-old high school student walking home. Twelve were wounded. There was no Neil Young song.

DateMay 14–15, 1970
LocationJackson State College, Jackson, Mississippi
KilledPhillip Gibbs, James Earl Green
StatusLive
The argument

Kent State and Jackson State happened eleven days apart, in the same political context — Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, a nationwide wave of student protests, and the deployment of armed state forces to suppress them. Four students died at Kent State and two at Jackson State. The difference in response was not a function of the facts. It was a function of race. Kent State became a defining cultural moment — photographs, songs, congressional investigations, a presidential commission report. Jackson State was a footnote, barely covered by national media at the time and barely remembered today. The disparity is not incidental. It is a data point about whose deaths America has decided to count as national tragedies and whose it hasn't.

Era 1
Jackson State College, May 1970
1
May 14, 1970 — The Night of the Shooting

Students at Jackson State Are Protesting the Cambodia Invasion and the Kent State Killings. Police Respond to Reports of Disorder on Lynch Street, the Campus's Main Street. At 12:05 A.M., Officers Open Fire on a Women's Dormitory. 460 Rounds Are Fired in 28 Seconds.

Jackson State College was a historically Black university in Jackson, Mississippi — established in 1877, one of the oldest HBCUs in the country. In May 1970, students were protesting both the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and the killings at Kent State ten days earlier. There had been unrest on Lynch Street, the main road running through campus, over several nights preceding the shooting.

On the night of May 14–15, Mississippi Highway Patrol officers and Jackson city police responded to reports of disorder. At approximately 12:05 a.m. on May 15, without any clear command to fire and without issuing a dispersal order, the officers opened fire on Alexander Hall, a women's dormitory where students had gathered. According to the President's Commission on Campus Unrest (the Scranton Commission), approximately 460 rounds were fired in approximately 28 seconds. The dormitory's front was riddled with bullet holes.

460Rounds fired at Alexander Hall dormitory — in 28 seconds
2People killed: Phillip Gibbs, 21, and James Earl Green, 17
12Students wounded in the shooting
2
May 1970 — Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green

Phillip Gibbs Was a 21-Year-Old Pre-Law Student and Father. James Earl Green Was a 17-Year-Old High School Student Walking Home From Work Through Campus When He Was Shot. Neither Was Armed. Neither Was Rioting.

Phillip Lafayette Gibbs was 21 years old, a junior studying pre-law at Jackson State. He was married and had a young child. He was standing near Alexander Hall when he was shot. James Earl Green was 17 years old — a student at Jim Hill High School, not a Jackson State student at all. He was walking home from his job at a grocery store and passed through the campus when the shooting began. He was shot and killed. He had no involvement in any protest or disturbance.

"The indiscriminate firing of shotguns and automatic weapons into the darkness of Alexander Hall was an unreasonable, unjustified overreaction. Even if we were to assume that the officers were under significant emotional pressure, such action cannot be justified."

— President's Commission on Campus Unrest (Scranton Commission), 1970, on the Jackson State killings

The Scranton Commission — the same commission that investigated Kent State — issued nearly identical language about both shootings, calling both "unreasonable and unjustified." But the response to its Jackson State findings was silence. No federal charges were filed against any officer. A Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone. The officers involved remained on the force.

Era 2
Two Killings, Two Responses
3
1970 — The Disparity

Kent State and Jackson State: Same Year, Same Context, Same Commission Report, Completely Different National Response. The Disparity Is Not Explained by the Facts. It Is Explained by Race.

Kent State — May 4, 1970
4 killed, 9 wounded
  • National student strike — 4 million students, 900 campuses
  • Neil Young — "Ohio" (top 10 hit, still widely known)
  • Iconic photograph (John Filo, Pulitzer Prize)
  • Congressional hearings
  • President's Commission (Scranton) report — major national coverage
  • Annual memorial, national recognition, museum on site
Jackson State — May 14–15, 1970
2 killed, 12 wounded
  • Little national press coverage at time of shooting
  • No major musical tribute
  • No widely known photograph in public memory
  • No federal criminal prosecution
  • Scranton Commission: same finding — "unjustified overreaction" — largely ignored
  • Remains largely absent from American history curricula

The Scranton Commission explicitly noted the disparity in national response in its own report. It called the lack of national attention to Jackson State "an example of the way in which racial injustice distorts our national life." That finding — from a presidential commission established by Richard Nixon — was itself largely ignored.

4
1970 – Present — Memory and Accountability

No Officer Was Ever Prosecuted. Jackson State University Now Bears a Memorial. A 50th Anniversary Commemoration Was Held in 2020. The Names Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green Remain Far Less Known Than the Four Names From Kent State.

Jackson State University (as it was renamed in 1979) erected a memorial to Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green on campus. The site of Alexander Hall is now the Gibbs-Green Memorial Plaza. A 50th anniversary commemoration was held in 2020, attended by surviving students and family members. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves did not attend or issue a statement acknowledging the killings.

Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder — the four Kent State victims — are widely known by name to anyone with a basic American history education. Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green are not. The disparity in cultural memory is not a function of time passing or details fading. Kent State receives sustained, organized commemoration. Jackson State receives sporadic attention, mostly from scholars of Black history or HBCU communities. The difference is the argument.

The chain of causation

Nixon expands Vietnam War into Cambodia — May 1970
May 1970
→
Kent State — 4 white students killed — national mourning
May 4, 1970
→
Jackson State — police fire 460 rounds at dormitory — 2 killed
May 14–15, 1970
→
Scranton Commission: both shootings "unjustified" — Jackson findings ignored
1970
→
No prosecution — no national memorial — names largely unknown
1970–Present

Phillip Gibbs. James Earl Green. Say their names.

The same commission that investigated Kent State investigated Jackson State and reached the same conclusion. The national response was not the same. That disparity is not a historical accident — it is a measurement of whose lives America has decided count as national tragedies. Gibbs and Green deserve to be as known as the four from Kent State. They aren't.

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