James Meredith: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=MarchSeptember 20212024}}{{pp-semi-blp|small=yes}}

| access-date=March 22, 2015

}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The conviction against Meredith was trumped up: Meredith both owned land in northern Mississippi and was registered to vote in Jackson, where he lived. "Later the clerk testified that Meredith was qualified to register and vote in Jackson [where he was registered]."<ref name=Donovan>{{cite web

On September 20, the federal government obtained an injunction against enforcement of this Act and of the two state court decrees that had barred Meredith's registration.<ref name=barnett/> That day Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him.<ref name=barnett/> On September 25, Meredith attempted to register again, but Governor Barnett blocked Meredith’s entry to the College Board office.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Ole Miss - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum |url=https://microsites.jfklibrary.org/olemiss/chronology/ |access-date=June 8, 2024-06-08 |website=microsites.jfklibrary.org}}</ref> On September 28, the Court of Appeals, ''en banc'' and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be [[arrest]]ed and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2.<ref name=barnett/> On September 29, Lieutenant Governor [[Paul B. Johnson Jr.]] (elected Governor on November 5, 1963) was also found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day.<ref name=barnett/>

On September 29, Governor Barnett made a spirited speech at halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky football game, firing up the crowd<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Jerry |title=History: Meredith enters Ole Miss |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/journeytojustice/2015/09/29/james-meredith-ole-miss/73025954/ |access-date=June 3, 2024-06-03 |website=The Clarion-Ledger |language=en-US}}</ref> and encouraging people to block Meredith’s entry to the university.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Brodsky |first=Megan |date=2018-03-March 25, 2018 |title=Ole Miss Riot (1962) • |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ole-miss-riot-1962/ |access-date=June 3, 2024-06-03 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mulligan |first=Jackson |date=October 3, 2022-10-03 |title=60 Years of Integration: A Historical Reflection on James Meredith and the Integration of the University of Mississippi |url=https://thedmonline.com/60-years-of-integration-a-historical-reflection-on-james-meredith-and-the-integration-of-the-university-of-mississippi/ |access-date=June 3, 2024-06-03 |website=The Daily Mississippian |language=en-US}}</ref> He said, in part, "I love Mississippi! I love her people, our customs,” …”I... I love and I respect our heritage."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Elliott |first=Debbie |date=October 1, 2012 |title=Integrating Ole Miss: A Transformative, Deadly Riot |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/161573289/integrating-ole-miss-a-transformative-deadly-riot |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=npr.org}}</ref> The Ole Miss Band waved a large confederateConfederate flag, and the stands were full of students waving confederateConfederate flags.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prints of Ole Miss Riot , 1962. Students waving Confederate flags at the University of Mississippi |url=https://www.mediastorehouse.com/granger-art-on-demand/ole-miss-riot-1962-students-waving-confederate-13641152.html |access-date=June 3, 2024-06-03 |website=Media Storehouse Photo Prints |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|first=David G. |last=Sansing |access-date=June 2, 2024 |title=The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History |chapter=Conflict, Change, and Continuity – 1960-1968 |date=1999 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |url=https://50years.olemiss.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/139/2014/05/9781578060917_chp11.pdf |isbn=9781578060917}}</ref> President Kennedy sent federal marshals to Mississippi.<ref name=":0" />

On Sunday, September 30, 1962, Governor Barnett called the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, to try to get him to postpone Meredith’s admission to the University.<ref name=":1" /> The Attorney General refused.<ref name=":2" /> Meredith, accompanied by Mississippi Highway Patrol and 500 Federalfederal Marshalsmarshals, moved into his dorm room.<ref name=":3" /> Outside the Lyceum building, where Meredith was due to register for classes the next day, a crowd of hostile students formed near the marshals who were protecting the building.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> At seven-thirty7:30 p.m., the crowd broke into a riot.<ref name=":1" /> The crowd, which numbered three thousand3000, threw bottles and rocks, and the marshals tear-gassed them.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> More than three hundred300 people were injured in the riot, and two people were killed.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:James Meredith wounded.jpg|thumb|James Meredith wounded after being shot on June 7, 1966]]

Meredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the [[University of Ibadan]] in [[Nigeria]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/people/james-meredith-9406314|title=James Meredith Biography.com |website=biography.com |publisher=Biography|access-date=April 26, 2017}}</ref> He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at [[Columbia University]] and earned an [[LL.B]] ([[law]] degree) in 1968.<ref>{{citationCite neededweb|url=https://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/james_meredith.html|title=Columbians Ahead of Their Time: James Howard Meredith|access-date=September 202230, 2024}}</ref>

Despite a police presence,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Shooting — and the Civil Rights Movement Changes Course |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/shooting-and-civil-rights-movement-changes-course |website=www.americanheritage.com |access-date=30 September 2024}}</ref> on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined,<!-- What was Norvell's background? Where did he live? What was his profession? --> and who pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital.<ref>{{cite news | title = 6 June 1966: Black civil rights activist shot | work = BBC News – On this day | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_3009000/3009967.stm | access-date = October 2, 2007 | date=June 6, 1966}}</ref><ref>[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/mlk/king/photogalleries/66-68/02.html "James Meredith"], ''Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement'', 1966–1968, photos, ''Seattle Times'', 2008</ref> Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, but succeeded in attracting more than 10,000 marchers from local towns and across the country by the end.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-October 19, 2016 |title=James Meredith and the March Against Fear |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/sncc/march-against-fear |access-date=2024-03-March 20, 2024 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref>

Norvell pleaded guilty to battery and assault with intent to kill and was sentenced to five years in prison.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1966-11-November 22, 1966 |title=1966 11 22 Gwood Comm Tue p1, Man gets 2 years in Meredith case, Troutt |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-greenwood-commonwealth-1966-11-22-gw/38958107/ |access-date=2024-03-March 20, 2024 |work=The Greenwood Commonwealth |pages=1}}</ref>

Meredith suffered from superficial wounds to his neck, legs, head, and right side.<ref>{{cite web |title=A Shooting — and the Civil Rights Movement Changes Course |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/shooting-and-civil-rights-movement-changes-course |website=www.americanheritage.com |access-date=30 September 2024}}</ref> He recovered from his wounds, and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, when 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again.<ref>{{cite web| title = Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement| work = pbs.org| url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/56_ms.html| archive-url = https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070308224300/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/profiles/56_ms.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = March 8, 2007| access-date = October 18, 2011}}</ref>

In 2011 miniseries ''[[The Kennedys (miniseries)|The Kennedys]]'', heMeredith was portrayed by Matthew G. Brown in episode five of the series, ''Life Sentences''.

In 1982, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana.<ref>Meredith Coleman McGee, ''James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him'' (ABC-CLIO, 2013):124–125.</ref><ref>Meredith C. McGee,[www.meredithetc.biz/downloads/James%20Meredith's%20Biography.rtf "James Meredith's Biography"].</ref> She had one son, Kip Naylor, from a previous marriage. Jessica Howard Meredith was born to theirthe unioncouple.<ref>Meredith Coleman McGee, ''James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him'' (ABC-CLIO, 2013):174.</ref> The couple live in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].<ref>{{cite news | title = James Meredith, Central Figure In Ole Miss Integration, Reflects On 50th Anniversary, Resents 'Civil Rights' Moniker (photos)| work= Huffington Post | url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/james-meredith-ole-miss-integration_n_1929306.html | date=October 1, 2012}}</ref>

* {{citeCite journal |last= Bryant |first= Nick |date=Autumn 2006 |title= Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |issue= 53 |pages= 60–71 |jstor=25073538}}

* {{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=William |year=2001 |title=An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 |yearurl=2001https://archive.org/details/americaninsurrec00doyl |publisherurl-access=Doubledayregistration |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=0-385-49969-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/americaninsurrec00doyl }}

* {{Cite book |last=Eagles |first=Charles W. |year=2009 |title=The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss |url=https://archive.org/details/priceofdefiancej00eagl |url-access=registration |yearlocation=2009Chapel Hill, NC |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, NC |isbn=978-0807895597 }}

* Goudsouzian, Aram (2014). ''Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear.''. (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014). {{ISBN?}}

* Hollingsworth, Bradley S. (2020). [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1159116.pdf "About an Oath: The Mississippi National Guard at the Battle of Ole Miss"]. (US Army School for Advanced Military Studies, 2020) [https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1159116.pdf online].

* Irons, Jenny. ''Reconstituting whiteness: The Mississippi state sovereignty commission'' (Vanderbilt University Press, 2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=0I5mA3Ui6ZQC&dq=Barnett&pg=PP1 online ''Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission'']. Vanderbilt University Press.