30th anniversary of Kent, Jackson State
murders
Thousands hear Mumia speak
By Martha Grevatt
Kent, Ohio
On May 4, 1970, four students were murdered by the Ohio
National Guard during a militant protest against the U.S.
invasion of Cambodia. One week later, two African American
students were also murdered by National Guard troops, this
time in Jackson, Miss. This year is the 30th anniversary of
these state-sponsored killings.
So it was especially fitting that the commemoration
featured the voice of another victim of government
repression: Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people attended the commemoration,
which brought together current Ohio students and veterans of
the movement against the Vietnam War. Witnesses to both the
Kent and Jackson State murders took part, including all nine
who were wounded May 4, 1970.
Featured speakers included Vernon Bellecourt of the
American Indian Movement and the National Coalition on Racism
in Sports and Media; Juliette Beck, an organizer of the
anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle; Julia "Butterfly" Hill,
an environmental activist who spent two years in a redwood
tree threatened by the logging industry; and Ramona Africa of
MOVE.
Ramona Africa was loudly applauded when she drew the
connections among the cases of Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier,
the MOVE 9 and that day's assault on Vieques.
The strongest applause of all was reserved for the "voice
of the voiceless." In a speech that was short yet profound,
political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal's words echoed off the
very grassy hill where the infamous murders took place.
The positive response to Abu-Jamal's words was a
tremendous victory for the death-row prisoner's supporters on
campus. When the group Anti-Racist Action proposed Abu-Jamal
as a speaker, the May 4th Task Force voted unanimously in
favor of it. When the news media got wind of it, however,
they vociferously attacked the students.
A Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial cartoon mimicked a
famous photo of a young woman weeping over the body of a
slain Kent student. The cartoon showed her weeping over the
body of police officer Daniel Faulkner.
When Abu-Jamal's statement was finally heard, all of the
cameras turned away from the crowd of thousands, focusing on
a racist counter-demonstration of three college
Republicans.
But like the Antioch graduating class of 2000 that invited
Abu-Jamal to deliver a commencement keynote, with their
courageous actions the students at Kent State University have
broken through the information blockade imposed by the
capitalist media. In the 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement
made Nelson Mandela a household name. Now the movement to
save Mumia Abu-Jamal's life is trying to do the same.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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