Michael Hoover wrote:
> > Published on Sunday, May 14, 2000 by the Associated Press
> >
> > 30 Years Ago Today:
> > Jackson State Deaths Recalled
> >
> > JACKSON, MS - Time has diminished much of the anger and terror of that
> > night 30 years ago. Two young people died in a barrage of police gunfire
> > after white motorists clashed with black students at Jackson State
> > University
> >
> > Today, only the bullet-scarred walls of Alexander Hall still attest to the
> > violence that forced Mississippi to look at race relations and at the way
> > its police respond.
> >
> > <p>May 14, 1970, marked the tragic climax of a week of demonstrations and
> > nightly clashes between students and motorists harassing them along Lynch
> > Street, which cut through the then-3,500-student campus.
> >
> > The student protests had started over the Jackson Police Department's
> > refusal to shut down the street.
> >
> > That night, when students refused to disperse, police gunfire set off by
> > the sound of a bottle breaking killed Phillip L. Gibbs, a 21-year-old
> > Jackson State student, and James Earl Green, a 17-year-old passer-by. Both
> > victims were black.
> >
> > Ten days earlier, four white students had been killed at Ohio's Kent State
> > University when the National Guard opened fire on anti-Vietnam protesters.
> >
> > "I can still recall the awful screaming and yelling and the gunfire," said
> > Jack Hobbs, a television reporter who filmed the shooting at Jackson State.
> > "It was deafening. I thought 'Oh my God, they're shooting these kids."
> >
> > Like their northern, white counterparts, many of the Jackson State students
> > were angry about the Vietnam War, but in a Southern city divided by a long
> > and bitter civil-rights struggle, the unrest was more about simmering
> > racial tension.
> >
> > Jackson State instructor Gene Young witnessed the shooting as a 19-year-old
> > sophomore and traveled to Kent State on May 4 for a service to remember the
> > victims of both tragedies.
> >
> > "It's therapeutic to meet with other people coming to terms with conflict,"
> > he said. "Students on other campuses suffered great losses also."
> >
> > Young said he hopes that Jackson State will do a better job of educating a
> > new generation about the shootings. Thousands turned out for ceremonies at
> > Kent State, but fewer than 50 attended a candlelit vigil at Jackson State.
> >
> > Students living in Alexander Hall today said they know little about the
> > shooting.
> >
> > A dozen students were hospitalized, but a federal investigation revealed
> > that ambulances were not called until after the officers had picked up
> > their shell casings.
> >
> > Then-university president John Peoples heard news of the shooting from
> > National Guardsmen who arrived at his on-campus house with fixed bayonets.
> >
> > James Earl Green's younger sister, Gloria Green McCray, now 46, went to
> > Kent State this year. She said vivid memories of distant gunfire, chaos and
> > waiting in vain for her brother still haunt her.
> >
> > McCray earned a degree at Jackson State last year.
> >
> > "I always felt I lost something at Jackson State which could never be
> > returned,"she said. "But I gained something which can never be taken away."