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The Kent States you don't know about
Breeanna Hare-Profile-Image
(CNN)On May 4, 1970, 13 seconds of gunfire seemed to bring America to a halt.
On the Midwestern campus of Kent State University, four students had been killed and nine others were injured when Ohio National Guard members opened fire on demonstrators protesting the Guard's presence and the expansion of the Vietnam War.
The event so shocked the nation that more than 500 colleges were shut down as students responded to the killings with outraged protest. Life magazine and Newsweek dedicated cover stories to the incident, with Newsweek and The New York Times famously showcasing the now-iconic photograph of a young woman screaming as she knelt over the body of a Kent State student.
It's a question that likely weighed heavily on the minds of another group of parents farther South -- ones who'd also lost their children on college campuses in an eerily similar way.
Just 11 days after the deadly shooting in Ohio, two students were killed and 12 were wounded when police fired more than 100 rounds of bullets on protesters gathered at Mississippi's predominantly black Jackson State College.
And two years earlier, in 1968, three students were killed by authorities during protests against segregation at South Carolina State in Orangeburg, another historically black institution.
But there weren't national news magazine covers, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs or popular songs memorializing these deaths, as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's "Ohio" did for Kent
For those who lived through the time, the reason for the lack of coverage on the other campus shootings is pretty simple: "Kent State was four white students in Ohio," said Gene Young, a former Jackson State professor, when asked by NPR why the tragedies at Jackson State and South Carolina State aren't as prominent in the nation's memory.
"Jackson State and Orangeburg were black colleges in the South," Young continued. "Two black students on a black college campus in Mississippi that had the history of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner. It was just another day of business as usual, racist law enforcement officials victimizing black people in Mississippi."
In recent years, documentarians, historians and others have worked to rectify the larger public's obliviousness to what happened at Jackson State and South Carolina State, ensuring that the students who lost their lives in protest, like those at Kent State, wouldn't be forgotten.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/03/us/soundtracks-kent-state-jackson-state-orangeburg/
they are wrong about one thing. One musician, at least, addressed jackson state-kristin lems, in "I wasn't surprised"
This song is dedicated to the families of two black college students slain at Jackson State University, one week after the slaying of four white students at Kent State university in 1970. Written in 1975, the song is an early attempt to address the many double standards of racism.
Lyrics
1. When our towns were in flame and yet we got the blame
I wasn't surprised
When police stormed the streets and no one came to our needs
I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed even right in our church
And maybe I'm wise from too many cries
But I wasn't surprised.
2. When they shot Fred and Mark as they slept in the dark,
I wasn't surprised
When the commission contends it was in "self defense,"
I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed in their sleep, in the church
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries,
But I wasn't surprised.
3. In a Southern jail cell, a guard gave a girl hell, and
I wasn't surprised
She fought back and defied, became an outlaw statewide
And I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed in the prisons and church
And maybe I'm wise from too many cries
But I wasn't surprised.
4. Well right down the block, a young boy picked a lock
And I wasn't surprised
The man shot him dead, he was hungry, how he bled!
I wasn't surprised
It wasn't our last and it wasn't our first
My people are killed down the block, in the church
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn't surprised.
5. When they shot down my son, nothing wrong had he done
I wasn't surprised
He was walking to class 'cross the Jackson State grass
And I wasn't surprised
Well it wasn't our first and it wasn't our last
My family is killed even crossing the grass
And maybe I'm wise from hearing his cries
But I wasn't surprised.
6. I've seen your children fall and I grieve for you all,
But I wasn't surprised.
I have known all along that they're mean and they're strong,
So don't be surprised
Well it wasn't your last, it was only your first -
The day will come round that they'll kill you in church
And maybe I'm wise from too many lies
But I wasn't surprised.
7. I'm bitter as hell, but one thing I'll tell you -
You might be surprised.
If we stand side by side to stop this genocide
They will be surprised.
For as long as we're silent, as long as we're still
They'll gun us and shun us, you know that they will!
So raise your voices high in one unified cry
And we'll see who's surprised!
c 1975, 2000, 2014 Kleine Ding Music. words and music by Kristin Lems.
underpants
(183,043 posts)Jackson State I was aware of