Person of the Day: James Green

Courtesy JSU

Police shot and killed 17-year-old James Green at Jackson State University on May 24, 1970, during a civil rights and anti-war protest.

by Jesse Crow
April 27, 2010

It was almost midnight May 14, 1970, when James Green, 17, made his way home from his after-school job at a grocery store, cutting through the chaotic and racially charged Jackson State University campus. Throughout the day, students peacefully protested the Vietnam War, and unequal rights of blacks but after false rumors of the assassination of Mississippi Mayor Charles Evers, brother of murdered civil-rights activist Medgar Evers, members of the community joined students on Lynch Street and started rioting.

The fire department, highway patrol and National Guard were called to contain the situation, and police opened fire when a glass bottle dropped in front of Alexander Hall, which officials misheard as gunfire. Shortly after midnight on May 15, Green died from a gunshot wound.

Police also killed Phillip Gibbs, 21, a junior at Jackson State, and injured 12 others. Green, however, was not in the crowd. He stood behind the highway patrolmen on the opposite side of the road.

Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School, was two weeks away from graduation. He ran track and was one of the fastest runners at school, earning him the nickname "wing feet."

"His plan was to go to UCLA, and his goal was to make it to the Olympics," says Green's sister, Gloria McCray, 56. "That's all he talked about."

The fifth of nine children, Green was very protective of his family, and McCray remembers the only fight he ever got in was one where he defended his brother. Family and friends knew Green for his sense of humor, and McCray describes him of having "the personality of Bill Cosby" and the "ability to make a dead man laugh."

"I think if anybody would have known him, they would love him," McCray says. "(Jackson State University) is having a 40-year commemoration. To commemorate, to me, means something to celebrate, and I can't celebrate the 40 years of his death, but I can celebrate the 17 years of his life. He definitely would have been somebody to be proud of."

McCray also celebrates her brother's life through her son, also named James, who also ran track at Jim Hill High School.

On Thursday, April 29, Jackson State will host its 40th annual Green-Gibbs memorial in honor of Gibbs and Green starting at 9 a.m. Events include a commemorative forum with JSU president Ronald_Mason, a student and faculty forum at 11 a.m., a luncheon at 12:30 p.m., a discussion with shooting victims at 3:30 p.m.; and a candlelight vigil at 6:30 p.m. in the Gibbs-Green Plaza. For more information, contact Spencer McClenty at 601- 979-1457.

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