Ole Miss honors James Meredith after 60 years of integration
Mr. Jackson. – The University of Mississippi honors 89-year-old James Meredith. Sixty years after he was rioted by white protesters, he became the first black student to enroll in what was then the Deep South’s bastion of segregation.
As with other 10th anniversary celebrations, the university is hosting. Celebrations and academic eventsMeredith was honored Saturday during the Ole Miss Kentucky football game. Participated in rebel training to talk to the player.
“He came and revolutionized the way we think. Donald Cole, who retired as a
Mysterious MeredithThe Jackson resident has long resisted the label of a civil rights leader, as if civil rights were separate from other human rights. He says his effort to get into Ole Miss was his own battle to conquer white supremacy.
It’s an ironic echo of history that Meredith was honored at the All Miss Kentucky Game.
Two days before Meredith entered the Oxford campus in 1962, racist Governor Ross Burnett drove the white crowd into a frenzy at Jackson’s football stadium. Ole Miss fans supported the rebels over the Kentucky Wildcats and waved Confederate flags to defy moves toward racial integration.
“I love Mississippi,” Burnett declared. our custom! I love and respect our heritage! ”
The next night, Burnett quietly reached an agreement with Attorney General Robert Kennedy to enroll Meredith at Mississippi’s oldest public university. Meredith already had a federal court order.
When he arrived at the leafy campus guarded by more than 500 federal law enforcement officers, a white mob of students and outsiders erupted. The Attorney General’s brother, President John F. Kennedy, deployed the National Guard to quell the violence, Meredith started school on October 1st.
Between event Speaking at the university on Wednesday, Meredith told the audience: But there is more truth than that. Celebration is nice. I don’t think anyone in this house or in Mississippi thinks the problem is solved. ”
Meredith has spent the past few years on a mission from God to persuade people to keep the Ten Commandments. I’m looking at a special role to lead.
“There is nothing in Mississippi that God, Jesus Christ, and black women cannot solve,” Meredith said.
Meredith grew up in segregated Mississippi before graduating from high school in Florida. He served in the Air Force and attended Jackson State University, a historically black school in the state capital, before filing a lawsuit for admission to Ole Miss.
A resident and a French journalist were violently killed when Meredith entered school. Over 200 officers and soldiers were wounded and 200 arrested.
Federal marshals provided 24-hour protection until Meredith graduated in 1963 with a degree in political science. Meredith On Wednesday, most of his knowledge of what was happening on campus came from the Marshal.
“Most of them died scared of Mississippians with rifles and shotguns,” he said.
U.S. Marshals Director Ronald L. Davis named Meredith an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony Wednesday. Daviswho is black, said Meredith brought about far-reaching changes in American society.
“You took a road you never took, a road full of resistance, fear and threat and violence, but you got there anyway,” Davis said.
The University of Mississippi has approximately 21,850 students on all campuses for the fall 2021 semester, with black enrollment at approximately 12.7%. About 38% of Mississippi residents are black.
Ethel ScarlockMeredith wasn’t born when she was integrated into Ole Miss in 1962, or when she was shot shortly after she started college, she said in a keynote address Wednesday. march against fear 1966.
“But I’m here today, Meredith,” said Scurlock.
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