Tragedy and Triumph: The Lives of the Gibbs-Green Survivors
Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta in Greenwood, Leroy Kenter, Jr., thought that Mississippi Valley State was too close to home when he decided to enroll at Jackson State College.
His mother, Zelma Kenter, had been a custodian and a cotton picker, and his father, Leroy Kenter, Sr., was a custodian at a local high school after leaving the cotton fields. After a stint as a water boy, delivering water to sharecroppers at the height of the Mississippi summer up and down the long rows of cotton, Leroy, or “Spooney” as his friends called him, got tired of the fields and wanted a different life.
Right out of high school, Spooney went to Chicago to work for the summer, and, with money for clothes, he returned to Mississippi to attend Jackson State. When he arrived at Jackson State, he was a sociology major and became known as a sharp dresser who had a thing for fashion and was quite popular on campus.
On the night of May 14, 1970, Spooney was standing near Phillip Gibbs when city police and highway patrolmen opened fire on Alexander Hall. He began to run but was hit in the leg and was flipped over into some bushes. In that moment, an “angel came, told me, ‘Keep your head down.’” If it had not been for that voice, Spooney believes he too would have been killed alongside Phillip and James Green.
Spooney was just 20 years old when he was shot that night, and he almost lost his leg, which the doctors considered amputating. The tragedy made it difficult for him to function and messed with his mind, so he left Jackson State and returned home to Greenwood, where he took up photography as a hobby.
Eventually, Spooney moved to Kansas City, Kansas, after a short visit in Chicago.
In Kansas City, Spooney soon found himself working at Ricky’s Pit BBQ, where he learned the art of barbecue over the course of 20 years. He started on the “block” making sandwiches, but, when the cook quit one day, Spooney took over.
When Ricky’s burned down, he returned home to Greenwood and finished his degree at Mississippi Valley State University, where he graduated Cum Laude in sociology. He worked for Valley for eight years as a dorm director, and, at the same time, he founded his own restaurant, Spooney’s Bar B Que, which he operated in downtown Greenwood until he moved it to a small stand at his home in the historically Black Baptist Town neighborhood. Travel+ Leisure magazine featured Spooney’s in one article.
Leroy “Spooney” Kenter married Johnny Belinda, another Jackson State student, and had three children: Marcia Dawn, Yazonta Emond, and Johnako. He has one granddaughter, Alexis.
More than anything, Kenter wants the Gibbs-Green tragedy to be made known so that the legacy of the survivors of that night will not be forgotten. “Don’t let it die.”