Mississippi Phenomenon”
Reinterpreting the 1970 Jackson State Shootings in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11218405 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patrick Chura (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 68-90 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Peace & Change (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-0508 • E-ISSN: 1468-0130 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/pech.12323 |
| OpenAlex | W2897899930 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
The Kent State and Jackson State shootings of May 1970 were not directly related, yet the two atrocities have become “indelibly linked” in popular memory. This article draws from recent oral histories and ethnographic observations of commemorative events to shift the analytical frame toward attention to essential differences in the shooting contexts, arguing that Jackson State was not “the South's Kent State” but a “Mississippi phenomenon” best understood as a portent of ideologies at the core of the current Black Lives Matter movement. The long overdue attention now being given antiblack police brutality offers a vocabulary for reinterpreting Jackson State, enabling new conclusions. First, Kent State did not cause Jackson state, but the killings in Ohio did prompt a false equating of events in Kent and Jackson as similar antiwar protests. Second, this process of collective remembering, furthered by some discourses emanating from Kent State University, obfuscates intrinsic truths about race in America. Finally, conversation surrounding Black Lives Matter offers the chance to reassess the tragedies and remember them in ways that bring clarity to political and cultural structures of the present day
CLARITY · Criminology · Epistemology · Ideology · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · American Political and Social Dynamics · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |