The Sixties: Early Stirrings - James Meredith: First African American at the University of Mississippi (11)

The year was 1962. James Meredith was a student at the University of Mississippi.

That his final acceptance into the university was won by such strife is a disgrace in our civil rights history. 

The early stirrings of the civil rights movement were slowly coming to a head.

That James Meredith did finally win his acceptance into U. of Miss. is something that should have happened by his birthright as a human being.

Here is what happened: Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi in 1933, James Meredith had served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1960, including a tour of duty in Japan.

From 1960 to 1962, Meredith then attended Jackson State College in Mississippi.

In 1962, Meredith wanted to study government and applied to the University of Mississippi, leaving blank the item marked "race."

Meredith was accepted. However, word got out that Meredith was "darker than expected" and the university withdrew Meredith's acceptance.

Meredith appealed, but was ignored; he was then sued; ultimately, Meredith was accepted at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). 

On the first day of class, President Kennedy ordered U.S. Federal Marshals to escort Meredith to class, in case of rioting. 

Before the National Guard arrived, two students on the Oxford Campus had been killed. 
 
In 1966, Meredith published a book, "Three Years in Mississippi."

A reviewer for Newsweek (quoted on the Ole Miss website) commented:

"Seldom is a piece of violent history so dispassionately dissected by one of its participants as it has been by James Meredith in this three-years-later study of his breakthrough at the University of Mississippi. Part report and part legal brief, part manifesto, part tract, it is a valuable and fascinating account."

After publication of the book, Meredith took further action to help ensure equal rights for African Americans.

He organized a march  "Walk Against Fear" from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi.

This march was to demonstrate against the violence that African Americans faced in their daily efforts to exercise their voting rights.

During this march, a sniper shot Meredith, which forced him to temporarily forego the march.

When Meredith was able to resume, Rev. Martin Luther King, among other civil rights leaders, joined him.

Meredith was the first African American to graduate the University of Mississippi.

In 1968, Jackson received an LL.B. degree from Columbia University.

In 1972, he ran for congressional seat; in 1989, he joined the staff of Senator Jesse Helms.

Of his publications, Jackson's most recent includes, "Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books", 1995.

Other resources, "Portrait of a Civil Rights Legend,"John Meredith (James Meredith's son).

Resources: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/meredith_james/

This series, " The Sixties" is published Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.

This series continues Thursday with "Vietcong Downs Five U.S. Helicopters (12)" and Saturday with "Protests in Birmingham, Alabama (13)".  

You can track the earlier essays in the series by going to the group, "The Sixties." They will be stored in that group. "The Sixties" group is a reading and commenting group, not a posting group.