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#ThisMonthinHistory: Shortly after midnight on May 15, 1970, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green were murdered by police; both were students of Jackson State University (Jackson, MS). Dozens of city and state policemen unloaded hundreds of rounds of gunfire into JSU’s Alexander Hall, after claiming to have seen a sniper in a window on the building’s top floor. This was only 11 days after the National Guard fired into a crowd of unarmed anti-war protesters at Kent State University (Kent, OH), killing four students. No one was charged for the murder of Gibbs or Green. A local grand jury blamed the students, arguing that people who engage in civil disobedience must accept the risk of injury or death by law enforcement. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Rest in Power ✊🏾 (fb)