Pusey Condemns Jackson Killings, Notes National Need for Restraint

President Pusey issued a statement Friday in which he called the killings at Jackson State College "appalling" and called for "sanity and restraint in our tormented national life."

Two black students at the predominantly black college were shot Thursday by police who fired into a crowd huddled against the wall of a women's dormitory. Police said they had been sniped at.

Flags at Harvard will be lowered to half-staff all week in mourning for the two students.

The following is Pusey's statement:

"The shocking news from Jackson, tragedy at Kent State, is an appalling event, adding sorrow and bitterness to a situation already troubled almost beyond endurance. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families of the victims and to the students, officers and faculty of the institution where the event occurred. Such a tragic happening points again to the pressing need for sanity and restraint in our tormented national life."

Harvard's Peace Action Strike group has gathered 700 signatures for a letter to be sent to two dozen newspapers around the country protesting the relative lack of attention accorded the killing of six black people in Augusta, Georgia, last week, compared to the outrage at the killing of four white students at Kent State University in Ohio the week before. The letter was written before the Jackson State killings broke into print.

"It seems as if, nobody gives a damn if black people are killed," said Judith G. Friedlaender '71 of PAS.