Editing James Meredith (section)

==Political viewpoint==
A highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind."<ref name="Byrd"/><ref>{{cite web | title = A Shooting – And the Civil Rights Movement Changes Course | work = American Heritage | url = http://americanheritage.com/articles/web/20060606-james-meredith-education-ole-miss-columbia-segregation-martin-luther-king-black-power-march_print.shtml |date=June 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109174610/http://americanheritage.com/articles/web/20060606-james-meredith-education-ole-miss-columbia-segregation-martin-luther-king-black-power-march.shtml |archive-date=January 9, 2009 |author=Christine Gibson}}</ref>

Meredith was a supporter of the unsuccessful 1967 gubernatorial bid of ex-[[Mississippi]] Governor (and avowed [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregationist]]) [[Ross Barnett]], who had been responsible for Meredith's not being allowed at the University of Mississippi, as well as the [[1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election|1991 gubernatorial]] campaign of [[Louisiana House of Representatives|Louisiana State Representative]] and ex-[[Ku Klux Klan|Klansman]] [[David Duke]].<ref>{{cite web | title = James Meredith, still a loner, still on a mission, 50 years later | work = Facing South | url = http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/10/james-meredith-still-a-loner-still-on-a-mission-50-years-later.html | date = October 1, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814173615/https://www.facingsouth.org/2012/10/james-meredith-still-a-loner-still-on-a-mission-50-years-later.html |archive-date=August 14, 2017 | author=Joe Atkins}}</ref> On these endorsements, Meredith wrote “I prefer bigotry to be out in the open where I can confront it."<ref name=":4" /> 

In a 2002 interview with [[CNN]], Meredith said of his efforts to integrate Ole Miss, "I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen."<ref>{{cite news | title = Mississippi and Meredith remember | work = CNN | url = http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/South/09/30/meredith/index.html | access-date = October 2, 2007 | date=September 29, 2002}}</ref>