When Jackson City Police and Mississippi Highway Patrolmen marched on the campus of then Jackson State College during the night and early hours of May 14 and 15, 1970, they unleashed several hundred rounds of ammunition in every direction.

This exhibition, Tragedy and Triumph: The Lives of the Gibbs-Green Survivors, honors the men and women who endured that vicious police attack in May 1970. Despite the terror that they faced 50 years ago, these people and their families have built lives of resiliency, not as victims but as survivors. Learn more about some of their stories.

While Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green lost their lives that night, a dozen others were wounded by the police gunfire, including:

Vernon Steve Weakley
Leroy Kenter, Jr.
Gloria Mayhorn
Climmie Johnson
Fonzie Coleman
Andrea Reese
Stella Spinks
Lonzie Thompson
Redd Wilson, Jr.
Tuwaine Davis
Willie Woodward

Hundreds were impacted directly and indirectly, physically and psychologically, that evening. Even if their names are not listed, this exhibition is meant to lift up all of them in recognition of the tragedy that they endured and the triumph they have forged since that fateful night.

Find out more about the Gibbs-Green tragedy and the night of May 14 and 15, 1970.

Curated by Mark Geil and Robert Luckett