May 14, 1970

Two students were killed and twelve were wounded at Jackson State in Mississippi on May 14, 1970. It reportedly started with black students throwing rocks at white motorists who had been harassing and insulting them for some time. What is know is that someone set a dump truck on fire, and then several folks threw rocks at police who had responded to that incident. Hundreds of bullets were fired, and there is still evidence of the shooting on the campus today.

The police claimed there was a sniper in the residence hall that they were shooting at, but that was not confirmed and the students denied that there was a sniper. 

This incident happened ten days after the shooting at Kent State. It also happened a couple of years after the killing of three students, and the injuring of thirty more, at South Carolina State. This incident was the aftereffect of anti-segregation efforts. 

I remember those times, but at the time I only heard about the shooting at Kent State. That shooting closed down colleges across the country. I remember one student hanging up a sheet with THEY CANNOT KILL US ALL spray painted on it. I just learned of the shootings at South Carolina State recently. 

Even today, hard to believe that our troops fired on students who were standing up for what was right. And while I don’t agree with the tactic of throwing rocks, their cause was just and certainly did not warrant shooting people to death.