Kent State panelists recount Jackson State shooting

JACKSON TWP. Up until a few months ago, associate professor Robert Hamilton hadn't heard of the May 15, 1970 Jackson State College shooting.

The Kent State biology professor knew that members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students.

He didn't, however, know a shooting occurred less than two weeks later at a southern predominantly black college in Mississippi.

A panel at Kent State University at Stark discussed the Jackson State shooting, which left two dead and at least 12 wounded. Dr. Robert Hamilton IV, Dr. Leslie Heaphy, Professor Idris Syed and Dr. Chris Post spoke of the similarities and differences between the two May 1970 tragedies.

The panel discussion was the first of many events leading up the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings.

Many of the panelists posed the same question: Why do we know so little about Jackson State?

During the program, Post recounted the history at Jackson State. Like Kent State, he said, students were protesting Vietnam and the Draft. Jackson students, however, had a few more grievances, Post said, including segregation and racist policies in the South.

Jackson Police and Mississippi Highway Patrol officers open fired on Alexander Hall, a dormitory, after claiming to see a sniper on one of the upper floors of the building.

"We've always felt that it was important to keep that connection with the students at Jackson State and to remember those students equally," Syed said. "... The reality is that the reason Kent State is remembered is because it was four white students as opposed to two black students."

Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, was shot at least four times and left behind an 18-month-old son. James Earl Green, who was 17-years-old, died outside a diner across the street from campus.

Syed also spoke of the Orangeburg massacre when South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers shot at a group of protestors on the South Carolina State University campus.

The protestors were rallying against segregation at a local bowling alley. Three died and 27 students were wounded in the shooting.

This tragedy, like Jackson, is also not as widely known as the KSU deaths, Syed said.

Many of the panelists also spoke of the discrepancies in recounts of the Jackson shooting including the number of wounded and the number of bullets shot.

At the beginning of the discussion, Post said 460 rounds were shot in just over 30 seconds. More than 100 bullet holes can still be seen in Alexander Hall.

Accounts of the shooting, however, vary, showing there were somewhere between 150 and 450 rounds fired, Heaphy added. One reason for that, she said, is because much of what is known about the Jackson State shootings is recounted from someone's memory.

Syed said many students didn't go to the hospital for wounds in fear of retaliation.

"That speaks volumes in itself of some of the challenges ...," he said.

Kent State University requires all students to enroll in a First Year Experience course or FYE, which prepares freshmen for the remaining four years of their college education.

Jackson State College — today Jackson State University — has a similar class, Heaphy said. However, students learn about the history of Jackson State and what happened May 15, 1970 when two people were killed.

In her own class at Kent State, Heaphy said some students admit to knowing very little about the killings that occurred on campus nearly five decades ago.

May 4 is commemorated each year with a ceremony organized by the May 4 Task Force. This year, however, the university is taking a larger role in remembering that day.

The next event will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at Kent State University at Stark's Main Hall Auditorium.

The presentation, hosted by Heaphy, an associate professor of history, will detail the events leading up to and surrounding May 4.