by Wornie Reed, Ph.D.
Professor; Director, Race and Social Policy Research Center – Virginia Tech
I recorded but have not yet watched the recent television series by Ken Burns, The Vietnam War, therefore I did not see the way this film equated the shootings at Jackson State University with the shootings at Kent State University. At the time Kent State was considered a national tragedy, but Jackson State was not made a national issue. And since that time, the Jackson State massacre has been noted but erroneously put under the umbrella of anti-Vietnam war protests.
An article by Patrick Chura in the current issue of The Chronicle Review reminded me of how history has treated these two events as part of the same phenomenon, and Burns’ documentary has fallen into the same trap. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on protesters at Kent State, killing four unarmed students.
At Jackson State, ten days later—after midnight–police officers fired 460 rounds into groups of students on the ground and on the upper floors of the dorm, killing two young men and wounding 12 others. The police shot through the dormitory windows with shotguns using 00 (double ought) buckshot. In complaining about the savagery of this police assault, I often found myself explaining the size of those “bullets” to people in the northeast U.S. A typical 12 gauge shotgun shell, which is 2.75 inches long, can hold only 8-9 pellets of .33 inches in diameter. This is overkill. Each of these pellets could kill a person.
The two events happened close together on the calendar, but they are unrelated. Kent State students were protesting the war in Vietnam. Jackson State students were protesting against the way they were continually treated by the police. Much of the country went into shock and dismay over the Kent State shooting. There was very little national attention to the Jackson state massacre.
I remember being asked with fervor by acquaintances in New York City to attend public events to protest the Kent State shooting. But when I asked if we would also have protests against the Jackson State shootings I did not get many takers. Consequently, I attended few of the rallies for Kent State—my little silent protest against ever-present racism.
Jackson State became just one more forgotten assault on African Americans, until it was incorrectly characterized as a misfortune from anti-war protests. As Chura correctly states, the 1970 shootings at Jackson State were about racist police brutality, not the Vietnam War.
