James Meredith
James Meredith, born on June 25, 1933, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, is a prominent figure in the American civil rights movement, best known for his role in integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962. He came from a modest background, with a father who worked as a tenant farmer and later managed to purchase a small farm. After serving in the Air Force, where his experiences abroad shaped his resolve against racial discrimination, Meredith sought to enroll at Ole Miss, the state's flagship university, as a means to challenge systemic racism.
His admission was met with violent opposition, leading to significant civil unrest, but ultimately resulted in federal intervention to uphold his right to attend. Meredith's successful integration served as a powerful symbol of perseverance and encouraged subsequent efforts for racial equality in education. In 1966, he initiated the March Against Fear, aimed at increasing African American voter registration in Mississippi, which further highlighted the ongoing struggles for civil rights.
Throughout his life, he engaged in various ventures, including politics and historical writing, while remaining a vocal advocate against racism, particularly in the wake of events like the death of George Floyd. Meredith's legacy is marked by both his significant contributions to civil rights and the continued challenges faced in achieving racial equality in America.
James Meredith
Activist
- Born: June 25, 1933
- Birthplace: Kosciusko, Mississippi
Meredith is most famous for forcing the University of Mississippi to integrate in 1962. He also led a March Against Fear in 1966 to encourage African American voter registration, which he eventually completed despite being wounded by an assailant.
Early Life
James Howard Meredith was born on June 25, 1933, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He claimed to be descended from a king of the slave-trading Dahomey tribe, a Choctaw chief, and a late nineteenth-century White-supremacist judge; this lineage has not been documented. Meredith’s father came from a tenant farming family and was taught to read and write at home. He worked both as a laborer and tenant farmer until he saved enough money to buy a modest farm, making the family fairly prosperous relative to their poor community.
Meredith received regular education at the Attala Training School for eleven years. His parents raised him to be staunchly religious and place dignity above death, even amid the White-supremacist culture of Mississippi. He lived with an uncle in St. Petersburg, Florida, for a year while he finished high school. Unable to afford college, Meredith enlisted in the Air Force in July, 1951, becoming a clerk-typist praised by superiors for his ability and conduct. During his service, he took college courses through the University of Kansas and sent money to his family. Meredith reenlisted in October 1955 and was assigned to Bunker Hill Air Force Base in Indiana, where he met and married Mary June Wiggins. Later, he was transferred to Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo, Japan, where he received a Good Conduct Medal a year later. He continued college work through the University of Maryland, earning excellent grades.
Meredith’s military career awakened his determination to challenge racial discrimination. He was encouraged by the way that the Japanese treated him merely as a foreigner, like any other American, without regard for race. He was aware of the civil rights struggle back home, and a White colonel from Mississippi indicated support for the movement and tacitly urged him to act.
After his discharge from the Air Force, Meredith came home determined to fight racism and replace it with a culture of equality. His first step was to enroll at the University of Mississippi (commonly known as Ole Miss), considered the best university in the state. He took courses at Jackson State College as a junior while applying to Ole Miss, and contacted Thurgood Marshall of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund and Medgar Evers for assistance in the legal struggle he anticipated.
Life’s Work
Meredith knew Ole Miss would reject his application after school officials learned that he was African American; the only way he could succeed was to make the issue a test of federal and state power. He filed suit June 1 in federal court. After a lengthy trial, Judge Sidney Mize denied his request on February 3, 1962, agreeing with the university that it was pure coincidence that no African American had ever been admitted. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision, and Governor Ross Barnett refused to obey, leading to a serious court battle that finally ended when the courts ordered Meredith’s admission and found Barnett in contempt.
When Barnett continued to try to prevent Meredith’s enrollment, President John F. Kennedy on September 30 ordered military force—regular troops, state police, and federalized elements of the Mississippi National Guard—to enforce the court order. Riots broke out and continued through the next morning as Meredith went to register at the university. A mob of several thousand barely was held at bay with tear gas and bayonets before military police finally dispersed it. There were more than two hundred reported injuries, mostly marshals and guardsmen, and two bystanders were killed by unknown assailants. Meredith remained under protection during his year at Ole Miss and reported in his memoir that he mostly received grudging acceptance from his peers—although he also suffered so much petty harassment that he publicly considered not returning for his second semester. His grades were good, despite the many distractions he faced, including extensive media attention.
After graduating from Ole Miss, Meredith studied at the University of Ibadan inNigeria for a year, then earned a law degree from Columbia University. He started a March Against Fear on June 5, 1966, to encourage African American voter registration in Mississippi, marching south from Memphis. He was shot with a shotgun on the first day but recovered to rejoin the march at its end.
Meredith’s later years inevitably were less eventful. He ran for elective office several times as a Republican (despite his expressed admiration for Kennedy) but never won. Later he served on the staff of conservative senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina for two years. He engaged in many business ventures, including tree farming, investment banking, and various retail businesses. He had a daughter and three sons with his first wife. After her death, he married Judy Alsobrooks. One of his proudest moments was seeing his son Joseph receive a doctorate in business management from Ole Miss in 2002. In 2006, Meredith was honored with a statue on the University of Mississippi campus, though he considered it an attempt to disguise the school's and state's continuing racism; the statue was part of a federal case beginning in 2014 when it was defaced by a group of students, leading to protest. He accepted the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Medal for Education Impact in 2012. Following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, while in police custody in 2020, Meredith was one of many who spoke out against White supremacy as nationwide protests took place.
One interesting later venture was Meredith’s work as a Mississippi historian, writing several self-published volumes on such topics as Attala County (both ancient and modern history), the Choctaw tribe, and racism.
Significance
Meredith’s integration of Ole Miss showed others that integration—although difficult—was possible in the Deep South. His actions also forced White Mississippians to confront an issue most preferred to ignore. Although thousands were ready to riot to prevent integration, others—including thousands of White Mississippi National Guardsmen—were there to support it. The savage mob violence of the segregationists also disgusted many former supporters. By 1970, there were nearly two hundred African American students at Ole Miss.
Equally important was the reaction to Meredith’s 1966 March Against Fear. Its basic goal (to encourage African American voter registration) was certainly a success, in that large numbers did register that year in Mississippi and elsewhere in the South. However, it also is noteworthy that while he was shot during the march, his assailant used birdshot, indicating a desire to scare away Meredith rather than murder him, as had happened in 1964 to Evers and several other civil rights workers.
Bibliography
Doyle, William. An American Insurrection. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Print.
Eagles, Charles W. The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2009. Print.
Goudsouzian, Aram. Down to the Crossdoads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March against Fear. New York: Farrar, 2014. Print.
Hendrickson, Paul. Sons of Mississippi. New York: Knopf, 2003. Print.
Jonsson, Patrik. "Before Ole Miss Noose Stunt, James Meredith Wanted Own Statue Destroyed." Christian Science Monitor. Christian Science Monitor, 28 Mar. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Lambert, Frank. The Battle of Ole Miss. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
Meredith, James. Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1966. Print.
Schneyer, Joshua. "Judy and Jay's Long Walk." Reuters, 17 July 2020, www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-coronavirus-merediths-race/. Accessed 20 July 2021.
Stanton, Mary. The Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2003. Print.