10. Jackson, MS: Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green

[00:00:00] Warning! The following episode contains discussions about violent crimes, disturbing events, and explicit details that may be unsettling for some listeners. Please be advised that this podcast is not suitable for young children, and listener discretion is strongly advised.

[00:00:15] Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of Southern Shadows, a Mother-Son True Crime Podcast. I'm one of your hosts Janet, aka Mama. And I'm DK. And the story that I have for you today took place on the campus of Jackson State University,

[00:00:31] during a time of both resilience and unrest. Obviously, you know that me and dad, we both attended and graduated from Jackson State. That's where we met. And you've grown up around it. You've gone to like the homecomings, the tailgates, football games.

[00:00:58] You know, all of the things. But for any of our listeners who maybe aren't as familiar with HBCUs, could you kind of briefly explain what it is or what they mean? Well, HBCUs dance for historically black college or university. HBCUs were established back in

[00:01:17] the times where black and white people couldn't attend the same college. So they had to make schools for black people to attend and get their education, you know? Yeah, exactly. And, you know, just like you said, they were set up for African Americans to be able

[00:01:34] to get an education. And they've actually produced a lot of really successful people like Chadwick Boseman, Vice President Kamala Harris, Spike Lee. And there are a lot of really famous people who attended HBCUs. Waterpane. Absolutely. Jackson State. That's right.

[00:01:54] The campus of Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi became the scene of a tragic, yet pivotal moment in American history. It was during these tense days that the lives of students, faculty and the entire community were forever altered by a violent confrontation with law

[00:02:15] enforcement. This is the story of Philip Gibbs and James Earl Green.

[00:02:54] Jackson is the capital of Mississippi and was named after former President Andrew Jackson. It's home to many colleges and universities, including two HBCUs, Tougaloo College and Jackson State University. Jackson State University, originally named Natchez Seminary in 1877 and then

[00:03:13] changed to Jackson College 1899, is a public historically black research university. It is one of the largest HBCUs in the United States and the fourth largest university in Mississippi in terms of student enrollment. It's here where two young men, Philip Gibbs and

[00:03:32] James Earl Green would be caught in the crossfire of an unfortunate situation that played out in an era marked by both advancements for African Americans in America and persistent challenges for black communities in the South. Philip Lafayette Gibbs was born on September

[00:03:51] 1, 1948 in Ripley, Mississippi. When he was younger, he moved to Belwatt, Wisconsin with his mother while his father worked in Iowa. His parents died in the 1960s and he and his siblings moved

[00:04:05] back to Ripley to live with family. Philip excelled in high school and graduated at the top of his class. After high school, he attended Jackson State with dreams of becoming a doctor but

[00:04:17] later shifted his focus to law school. He was a member of the Civil Rights Council and was active in his church. Philip had also recently married his high school sweetheart and they had an 11-month-old

[00:04:30] son. James Earl Green was born on December 19, 1952 and was one of eight children in his family. His father died when he was young and his mother had recently remarried. He was the star

[00:04:45] of the track team and was really well liked by his peers. At the time of this incident, he was a 17-year-old senior at Jim Hill High School and was just passing through Jackson State

[00:04:57] on his way home from working at the Raga Bag grocery store. I'm especially excited about today's episode because I had the honor and privilege of sitting down and speaking with a survivor of today's tragic incident that took place on May 14th into the 15th, 1970,

[00:05:16] on Jackson State's campus, Miss Galea Porter. My name is Galea Porter. I'm a native of a little country town in South Mississippi called Monticello, Mississippi. I earned two degrees from Jackson State University. At that time, they were known as Jackson State College. I continued my studies at

[00:05:39] Southern University and the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I've been a school principal. I've worked in the district as a curriculum coordinator. I also supervised a feeder pattern called the Lanier School Pattern for the district. Under my leadership,

[00:06:05] my school became, I say my the school, became a level five school. Now I'm working here for Porter's Insurance and my late husband founded Porter's Insurance. I was enrolled at Jackson State when this tragedy occurred as a rising junior at Ellis and I lived in

[00:06:33] an Alexander Hall, a women's dormitory. I want to set the stage for what was happening during this time, not just in the South but also across the nation. This was an era of war, specifically the Vietnam War. Across the country there were several incidents occurring on

[00:06:53] other college campuses involving student protests against the Vietnam War. At Kent State University in Ohio, for example, several students were staging a protest on May 4th, 1970. Why were they protesting against the Vietnam War? Well at the time, college students in particular were

[00:07:13] protesting the war for several reasons like the fact that there was a draft in place and many of them were of the draft age. The draft is where they pick random kids to go to war, right? Yeah,

[00:07:25] I mean I guess you could say that just not really random though. You have to be 18 years old, you had to be a male and at that time you just had to sign up for any branch of the military.

[00:07:36] They were upset because at this time there was sort of this awakening if you will where you know we had just come out of like all of the protests and marches that Dr. King and other

[00:07:46] members of the Civil Rights Movement were leading and so it was just a time where people understood like if we want to stand up against the government protesting is a great way to do that if you

[00:07:58] will. So they were upset, they didn't want to go to war, they also didn't believe in the war because a lot of them were children of World War II veterans and all of the people who came

[00:08:08] back suffered from postpartum depression well not all excuse me but a lot of people who survived the war came back with postpartum depression or just you know issues in general and these were

[00:08:18] the children of those survivors if you will and so they they were just against war and so they felt like the government shouldn't tell me that I have to join something that I don't believe in. Yeah. In Kent, Ohio what started as peaceful protest suddenly turned into violent

[00:08:36] confrontations between protesters and the local police. It's still unclear why or how but there were bonfires built in the middle of the streets, cars were stopped and police were hit with bottles, store windows and businesses were also being broken into. It got so bad that the businesses

[00:08:57] were receiving threats and so the mayor of Kent called the governor of Ohio to request assistance from the National Guard. Somehow the campus was the hub of activity and it's reported that nearly 1000 Ohio National Guardsmen had surrounded Kent State. According to an article

[00:09:16] by Jeremy Lewis and Thomas Hensley for Kent State University, the then governor James Rose flew to Kent himself. During a press conference he called out the campus protesters as quote the worst type of people in America and stated that quote every force of law would be used to

[00:09:36] deal with them. On May 4th 1970 after university officials announced that a rally would be prohibited nearly 3000 people began crowding the commons area around 11 a.m. and all reports say that the rally itself was peaceful. At around noon the demonstrators were ordered to leave by the

[00:09:57] local police while the 1000 heavily armed National Guardsmen were in formation as though it were a quote military war zone. As they began marching through the crowd of protesters some of them began throwing rocks at the guardsmen but still no shots were fired. It's unclear why or what

[00:10:19] triggered it but all of a sudden they began shooting and between 61 and 67 shots were fired in a 13 second period. That was all it took to kill four and wound nine Kent State students sparking a national student strike across other college campuses and universities forcing them

[00:10:40] to close. So why am I telling you this? Well on May 14th into the 15th 1970 a little more than a week after the tragedy at Kent State another campus shooting involving National Guardsmen state troopers and local police would take place at Jackson State College.

[00:11:16] The two incidents are often mistakenly linked together but Ms. Porter dispelled that myth. I would say more isolated situations. We had our own concerns and issues on campus. I think Kent State just progressed faster than we did with their issues but certainly the two universities

[00:11:43] had concerns that were student related. Tensions on Jackson State's campus had been rising due to the racism experienced by locals often starting on Lynch Street. You had Lynch Street running down the center the heart of the campus on one side you had the dormitory on the other

[00:12:05] side you had our classrooms now just imagine you're trying to get to breakfast you know we loved it you're trying you're trying to get to breakfast so that you can get to your classes

[00:12:19] and you got to wait at a traffic light and the traffic light stays forever on red and then the motorist are trying to get downtown to their jobs that's the way they make their

[00:12:33] living so you can imagine the pressure there and of course many of us didn't want many of other people didn't really care for us being where we were so they would just yell out

[00:12:48] the inward they would just call us anything and then when the light would turn green of course you know the young ladies they're not going to run across the street they're going to

[00:13:02] take their time and walk very casually still this motorist is trying to get downtown to his job or her job so it was that kind of situation. So you have this busy street John Arlen Street

[00:13:16] that many commuters are traveling to go to and from work every day and it runs through the middle of campus now couple that with the fact that this is a historically black college smack dab in

[00:13:27] the middle of a mostly white run Jackson Mississippi in the early 70s considering Mississippi's complicated history with the treatment of African Americans it shouldn't surprise you the events that Miss Porter is explaining obviously this was a huge cause for concern

[00:13:46] not only for the administration and faculty at JSU but the students it grew even more alarming when a student was hit and the other was the issue of a student being hit yes there had been a student that was hit with the cars driving so fast on that

[00:14:10] on lynch tree just in general not a perfect fit for where we were in the city of Jackson students would eventually begin standing up for themselves getting into verbal altercations with the whites who were stopped at the red light in front of

[00:14:27] the Alexander norms even throwing rocks back at the passing cars according to an article posted by Jackson state commemorating the event on May 13th students had gathered on lynch street wanting their concerns to be heard and although law enforcement was called in the protest was peaceful

[00:14:47] students actually staged several protests on campus calling for the closing of jr lynch street among other demands in line with the growing black power movement which was opposite of the earlier nonviolent movements in the 1960s that culminated with the deaths of Dr

[00:15:04] Martin Luther King jr medgar evers and other prominent figures of the time the youth at this time no longer felt that the nonviolent approach would suit their needs they were a little more

[00:15:18] prone to standing up for themselves no one is going to just sit by and let you throw rocks at the and you not pick up something and throw it back they were very much in touch with what was

[00:15:29] going on in the country what was going on locally statewide and they wanted to make some changes they wanted to see changes they wanted better for themselves as everybody does absolutely um

[00:15:46] so i'm sure that we had some that participated in that kind of behavior the following day may 14th students and others in the neighborhood gathered according to that same article rioting began about 9 30 p.m sparked by a culmination of tensions between the white motorists police

[00:16:11] and students but miss porter saw things differently as i understand it i can speak from what i remember remember personally corner boys they were a group of young black men that were not students on campus

[00:16:27] they had their way of entertaining the campus students and themselves so yes i was in the dorm getting ready for bed and had rolled my hair with these large soup cans i had a lot of hair back

[00:16:43] then anyway i was getting ready for bed and my roommate ran into the room and said the corner boys are down the street burning uh burning something we need to go out and see what's

[00:16:58] going on of course i said okay so we went downstairs on the hill of alexander hall and um we could see the the i thought it was a truck but it could have been a dumpster was burning

[00:17:17] and we just all stayed out on campus just laughing and talking about what was going on as young people would probably do today dr robert luckett director for the margaret walker alexander center and professor of history at jsu told w w n o 88.9 quote it's a pretty effective

[00:17:37] means of closing the street through campus the fire department showed up put the fire out and that was the end of it but not according to miss porter firefighters did eventually extinguish

[00:17:49] the dump truck but instead of leaving law enforcement turned to march to the center of campus stopping right in front of the alexander dorms at that point we uh saw officers at that time i think they were

[00:18:08] told to us that they were police officers and the national guard okay marching toward alexander hall so you could see that you could hear the sound of them making that uh march and um you know we

[00:18:28] young ladies basically on the hill there were a few guys out there wondered what in the world was going to happen surely they're gonna go on down to where the dumpster or whatever

[00:18:39] the truck was burning and not stop in front of you know our dorm that didn't happen when they finally turned around uh from their marching they were dressed in riot gear so they they came

[00:18:53] with hatred in their hearts they knew what they were getting ready to do it was almost midnight when jackson city police mississippi highway patrol officers and members of the national guard arrived in full riot gear it seemed as if they were there to confront the students rather than

[00:19:13] to help put out the fire they even brought the thompson tank which was a fully armed personnel carrier purchased by alan thompson the segregationist mayor of jackson ahead of what he termed the quote invasion of civil rights activists during freedom summer in 1964 to be clear jackson police

[00:19:37] and state highway patrol were on the scene to respond to a quote riot assuming that the dump truck was set on fire for that very reason according to the nation dot com the highway patrolman carried state issued shotguns and double-ought buck shots personal weapons and even

[00:19:58] two nine millimeter submachine guns at first the students were confused but that soon grew to anger and several were yelling at the officers they stopped they turned and something uh sounded uh i thought they said get up go in the building and of course you know we

[00:20:26] knew we weren't doing anything we just continued to sit on the hill then all hell broke loose reports of a glass bottle being thrown at the officers or hearing glass breaking are conflicting and the next

[00:20:43] thing that i can remember is after that echoing of their marching it was just and then you could see them raise their hands with their weapons and they just started firing and for 28 seconds

[00:21:19] they shot nearly 400 rounds of bullets and buck shots in every direction the gunfire started at 12 0 5 a.m on may 15th my homeboy that's what i called him still calling that i was standing near

[00:21:37] me he grabbed me and he reached for my roommate gloria but she was so hysterical and afraid and just crying and screaming that she jerked away from him but he pushed me through the glass

[00:21:53] of alexander hall and laid on top of me i believe that i would not be here today if he had not done that the aftermath saw shattered windows injured and trampled students and the tragic

[00:22:09] deaths of gibbs and green uh you could hear the sounds of bullets whispering you know passing through my face i could i could see that well at least hear that i could feel stinging my skin

[00:22:26] was being cut like fire ant cutting through my skin the bullets were breaking the glass the walls it was just echoing just hitting everything and um hitting my skin also the debris was

[00:22:45] and um so they finally stopped shooting i finally got up and um i could see blood in the uh alexander hall area where we were all uh laying down and trying to get up and compose ourselves

[00:23:05] people were crying screaming i'm sure i was too i started looking for my friend i couldn't find her at first and then i went into the hallway of alexander hall and she was on the

[00:23:18] floor screaming and hollering and crying she'd been hit when first responders were on scene trying to administer a to the injured students it would soon be discovered that philip lafayette gives the 21 year old junior pre-law major with a family was fatally shot near the dorms while

[00:23:38] james earle green a 17 year old high school senior was killed across the street what do you mean across the street was he not on campus well again he was walking home from work and the reports say

[00:23:53] that he was actually standing behind the police officers so that means someone turned around and just shot him exactly 12 other students were also injured including miss porter and her roommate gloria the next day dr people's president of jsu at the time ended the semester asking

[00:24:13] students to leave campus the class of 1970 never held a graduation ceremony that year following the incident several students at jim hill high school brinkley and leneer high school these were all black high schools at the time staged walkouts in solidarity for their fallen classmate

[00:24:35] due to that the schools shut down until after the funerals for both gibbs and green were held students at mill saps college a predominantly white private college and tougaloo a private hbcu did the same thing although parents came and took her home effectively shielding her from much of

[00:24:58] the fallout that was happening in jackson miss porter's brother who was part of the men's baseball team at jsu was currently away for a game and felt some of the repercussions from that night

[00:25:09] i know my brother played baseball and um they were out of town they were in louis hanna playing a game thank god and he'd know let me tell you about that okay they were winning the game and this was that a predominantly white institution and um they were

[00:25:32] getting ready to to go up and bat the ball the uh crowd the fans of that school said they're killing and they used the n word in jackson and if you all win this game we're gonna kill you in here

[00:25:50] neat let's just say it shook them it did take a toll on the game but they won the game so although there had been several protests in the previous days i want to be very clear that on the night

[00:26:05] of may 14th into may 15th 1970 students were not protesting we weren't doing anything but sitting on the hill all of the excitement was down the street and um but they chose to turn and shoot

[00:26:22] at us and the the the the echoes of of the boots marching will just stay ringing when i talk about and uh the whizzing of you know i said bullets going you know hitting the the concrete the glass

[00:26:45] and uh students the incident received scrutiny with no arrest made and the president's commission of campus unrest concluded that the police action was a quote unreasonable unjustifiable over reaction but can you clarify you all were not rioting oh no there were no riots currently happening

[00:27:07] the day before my hands and and pretty much dressed for bed and i still had my hot pants on so they're just real short shorts and when he threw me down or pushed me through uh on the uh

[00:27:24] floor of of the dorm that's where a lot of the pellets and glass hit my skin so the first reports about a glass bottle being broken or thrown is like conflicting why what was the

[00:27:40] police's official report on why they start shooting that's a really complicated question you have to remember that the city of jackson was run at the time by pretty much all white officials but

[00:27:54] there are reports of a quote sniper being seen on the fifth floor so if you think about a sniper and you know where it is where should you be aiming your guns oh at the sniper yeah the bullet

[00:28:11] started from the ground and went all the way up so basically the ground floor all the way up first second third fourth fifth had bullet holes so if you knew the sniper was in the fifth floor on the

[00:28:24] fifth floor why are there gunshots everywhere else yeah right i'll let you all decide needless to say lynch street no longer runs through campus instead the gibbs green pedestrian walkway now stands in the area serving as a memorial and a reminder of the tragic events that unfolded on

[00:28:49] that day students can safely walk from one end of campus to the other without fear of being run over or hit by passing motorists burr case a long time reporter for w lbt was featured on a documentary

[00:29:04] that was put out by jackson state about this incident and he said quote the media coverage of this was very poor and although cbs and nbc were there to cover the incident the following day it got quote

[00:29:18] nowhere near the coverage of kent state when he was asked do you think this was purely a racist conflict he responds quote you got to ask that question you got to wonder about that kent state

[00:29:31] got all the attention it did and it was a predominantly white school and here jackson state didn't get nearly as much attention and it's a predominantly black school and that's the tragic story of philip gibbs and james earle green if you'd like to know more about today's story

[00:29:51] all of the source material can be found at southern shadows podcast dot com i know you usually do it but i'm gonna let miss porter leave us with some final thoughts about the importance of historically

[00:30:03] black institutions of higher learning we must continue to be educated we need to educate our children even while they're in the womb we need to read to our children we need to talk to our

[00:30:19] children we need to take them and let them see history go to museums take them wherever you can stay at you know and and teach them what you can but definitely use our institutions of higher

[00:30:36] education would this happen again could this happen again and i reflected on that for a long long time and i said to myself yes it can happen again unless we are better prepared to deal with who we are what we are and why we are