Derby, Baker and Slaughter-Harvey want social justice in JSU’s Gibbs-Green tragedy

Gibbs and Green

By Janice K. Neal-Vincent, PH.D

Contributing Writer,

Gibbs and Green

On Friday, May 14, the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University hosted via its Facebook page a virtual gallery talk of the May 1970 Gibbs-Green Tragedy. Featured was a collection of 60 photographs by Doris Derby, Ph.D., that have never been revealed within an exhibition. Following police shootings on May 14, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a 21-year-old junior political science major and James Earl Green, a 17-year-old Jim Hill High School senior who was walking home from work, were murdered. During the pandemonium twelve students were shot while flying debris, glass and brick injured dozens others. 

Because of the eruption campus was closed and commencement ceremonies for the class of 1970 were cancelled.

The center’s archivist, Angela Stewart, opened the conversation with the historical context of the tragedy. “The Class of 1970 has the opportunity this year to walk across the stage, to honor and cherish the painful memories of the JSU tragedy on May 14, 1970,” she added. 

Following Stewart’s introductions, conversationalists were introduced. Moderator John Spann guided with ease his conversation with Derby, attorney Constance Slaughter-Harvey, who sued the city and state as representative of the families in their civil lawsuit, and James Lap Baker (Miss. Health Planning administrator) who witnessed firsthand the Gibbs-Green tragedy.

Stewart
Spann Photos by Janice Neal Vincent
Slaughter-Harvey
Baker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derby soothed Spann’s curiosity regarding her motivation to take shots of the tragedy. Note what she said: “I learned African-American history in Harlem, New York, and I knew from my parents and siblings that we had to document what was happening in Mississippi. A lot of people didn’t see the trials and tribulations, nor did they know of the positive achievements.”

Baker said Jackson State was their home and outside people were not going to dictate to them.

“We were going through a lot with white motorists. This had been going on for years. They were dealing with a different group of students. We were intelligent, and we were not going to allow anyone to just do anything that they wanted to do [on] our campus. I believe that it was a planned massacre,” said Baker.

Slaughter-Harvey assessed the conversation and quipped, “This forum is painful to me. It makes me sad and it makes me mad. Back then [51 years ago] we didn’t have many marching with us. But with Black Lives Matter, we have many.”

Derby inserted that Gibbs’ family was out of town and that his funeral was in another area. Yet, out-of-state and in-state notables and residents attended the funeral and gravesite of Green. Many marched from the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street to his final resting place across from Jim Hill High School.

When Spann asked the panel if they attended Green’s funeral, there were different reactions.

“I know that most people were concerned about the parents of James Earl Green. Students at Jim Hill were at the forefront. A few adults were mostly in the background. I did not personally attend because I’m not into that,” Slaughter-Harvey stated.

“I had a scholarship to attend a university out of Mississippi. My mother begged me, ‘Please come home. [So I went home]. I’ve never been in a military war, and I’ve seen that on television. 

“That’s what the May 15, 1970 tragedy was like,” added Baker.

Derby reflected: “There were so many people on the side of the street as well as in the street. It was a very long walk from the Masonic Temple to the burial site. Local people were there looking. All of that is being recorded in children’s minds, and white people don’t seem to understand that we know that. At the same time there are people working to make change, and we have to continue doing that.”

When Spann asked Baker how he would feel to walk across the stage, he said: “I’m happy to receive that diploma, but I’m just hoping that I don’t break down. When I walk, I can hear those students hollering. It was all about racism. That was not like what happened at Kent State.”

Harvey added, “What happened at JSU in 1970 must not happen this year or next year. Black folks, we need to come together to act and not react…We can make a change.”

The exhibition is at Johnson Hall at JSU and is free and open to the public. It is financially assisted by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the Mississippi Humanities Council.

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