In the early hours of May 14, 1970, officers from the Jackson Police Department and Mississippi Highway Patrol opened fire on a women’s dormitory at Jackson State University, a historically Black college. The barrage of over 150 bullets killed two students—Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a 21-year-old pre-law student and father, and James Earl Green, a 17-year-old high school senior—and wounded at least 12 others.

The students had been protesting racial injustice and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, similar to demonstrations occurring nationwide. Just 10 days earlier, four white students had been killed at Kent State University in Ohio, sparking national outrage. However, the Jackson State killings received far less media attention, revealing the deep racial disparities in how tragedy and activism were perceived in America.