| Summary: | Two young African Americans, Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green, were killed and twelve others wounded when white police opened fire on students in front of a dormitory at Jackson State College in May 1970. The victims and survivors struggled unsuccessfully to find justice, or a place in the nation's public memory. Despite multiple investigations, two grand juries, and a civil suit, no officers were charged, no restitution was paid, and no apologies were offered. Overshadowed by the shooting of white students at Kent State University ten days earlier, the violence was routinely misunderstood as similar in cause, a story that evaded the essential role of race in causing it. This book provides crucial context for situating the ongoing crisis of state violence against people of color in its long history
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