James Meredith

James Meredith
Darrell Blakely, Darrell.Blakely@gmail.com · CC BY 3.0 · source
Name	James Meredith
Caption	James Meredith in 1966
Birth date	25 June 1933
Birth place	Kosciusko, Mississippi
Known for	Integrating the University of Mississippi
Education	University of Mississippi (B.A.), Columbia University (LL.B.)
Spouse	Mary June Wiggins (m. 1956; died 1979), Judy Alsobrooks (m. 1982)

James Meredith. James Meredith is an American civil rights movement figure, writer, and political activist. He is best known for becoming the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962, a landmark event that required the intervention of the federal government and sparked a major crisis. His courageous act was a pivotal moment in the struggle to desegregate higher education in the American South.

Early Life and Education

James Howard Meredith was born on June 25, 1933, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and raised on his family's farm. He was the seventh of thirteen children. After completing the eleventh grade at the segregated Attala County Training School, he moved north and enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1951, serving for nine years. Following his military service, Meredith attended Jackson State College (now Jackson State University) for two years. Inspired by the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, he resolved to challenge the system of racial segregation by applying to the all-white University of Mississippi, known as "Ole Miss."

Integration of the University of Mississippi

In 1961, with legal support from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and attorneys like Constance Baker Motley, Meredith applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. His application was repeatedly rejected on racial grounds. He filed a lawsuit, Meredith v. Fair, alleging denial of his Fourteenth Amendment rights. The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld a lower court's ruling that he had a right to be admitted.

His enrollment on September 30, 1962, provoked a violent riot on the Oxford campus, with segregationist mobs clashing with federal marshals and troops sent by President John F. Kennedy. The Ole Miss riot of 1962 resulted in two deaths, hundreds of injuries, and a major constitutional confrontation over states' rights. Protected by federal forces, Meredith began classes the next day. He endured intense harassment and isolation but persisted, graduating with a degree in political science on August 18, 1963. His integration of Ole Miss was a decisive victory against Jim Crow laws in education.

Civil Rights Activism and Marches

Following his graduation, Meredith remained active in the civil rights movement. In June 1966, he embarked on the "March Against Fear," a solo 220-mile walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to encourage Black voter registration and defy the pervasive climate of fear. On the second day of the march, he was shot and wounded by a white supremacist named Aubrey James Norvell near Hernando, Mississippi.

Major civil rights organizations and leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), converged to continue the march in his name. The event highlighted the growing momentum of the Black Power movement and registered thousands of new African-American voters. Meredith recovered and rejoined the march for its final day into Jackson.

Political Career and Later Work

In the later 1960s, Meredith's political views shifted. He earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1968 and became involved in Republican Party politics. He ran unsuccessfully for various offices, including a 1972 campaign for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi. He also worked as a lecturer, stockbroker, and for a time as an advisor to the conservative Senator Jesse Helms. In 1989, he joined the staff of the United States Department of Education.

Meredith has authored several books, including his 1966 account Three Years in Mississippi. He has remained a complex and sometimes controversial figure, criticizing traditional civil rights leadership while continuing to advocate for Black economic empowerment and self-sufficiency. In 2002 and again in 2012, he returned to the University of Mississippi to commemorate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of its integration.

Legacy and Impact

James Meredith's integration of the University of Mississippi stands as one of the seminal events of the civil rights era, demonstrating the federal government's necessary role in enforcing desegregation and the high personal cost of challenging institutional racism. His actions paved the way for other Black students at Ole Miss and throughout the Deep South.

The March Against Fear, though defined by the attempt on his life, became a major catalyst for voter registration and a turning point in the movement's rhetoric and strategy. Meredith's life and work have been recognized with numerous honors, and his papers are housed at the university he helped transform. His legacy is that of a determined individual whose personal courage helped dismantle the barriers of segregated education in America.