Editing James Meredith (section)

==University of Mississippi==
[[File:James_Meredith.jpg|thumb|upright|Meredith in 1962]]

=== Challenge to the University ===
In 1961, inspired the day before by U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], Meredith started to apply to the [[University of Mississippi]], intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university.<ref name=Donovan/> It still admitted only [[White American|white]] students under the state's culture of racial segregation, although the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, as they are supported by all the taxpayers.

Meredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. He said,

<blockquote>Nobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility...<ref name="Schlesinger317">Schlesinger 2002, p. 317.</ref> I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi.</blockquote>

He was twice denied admission.<ref>{{cite web | title = James Meredith | work = Spartacus Educational | url = http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmeredith.htm | access-date = October 2, 2007 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071002172400/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmeredith.htm | archive-date = October 2, 2007 }}</ref> During this time, he was advised by [[Medgar Evers]], who was head of the state chapter of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] ([[NAACP]]).

On May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the [[NAACP]] [[Legal Defense and Educational Fund]], filed suit in the [[United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi|U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi]], alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The case went through many hearings, after which the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school. The state appealed to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], which supported the ruling of the appeals court.<ref name="Time">{{cite magazine | title = The States: Though the Heavens Fall | magazine = Time | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829233-5,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071014014142/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829233-5,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 14, 2007 | access-date = October 3, 2007 | date=October 12, 1962}}</ref>

On September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith.<ref name="barnett">''[[United States v. Barnett]]'', {{ussc|376|681|1964}}</ref> The Democratic Governor of Mississippi, [[Ross Barnett]], declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor".  The state legislature quickly created a plan. They passed a law that denied admission to any person "who has a crime of moral turpitude against him" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The same day it became law, Meredith was accused and convicted of "false voter registration," [[Trial in absentia|in absentia]], in Jackson County.<ref name=msbusiness>{{cite web
 | url=http://msbusiness.com/2015/12/analysis-book-shows-angles-of-miss-civil-rights-resistance/
 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151215064443/http://msbusiness.com/2015/12/analysis-book-shows-angles-of-miss-civil-rights-resistance/
 | url-status=dead
 | archive-date=December 15, 2015
 | title=Opinion – Columns Analysis: Book shows angles of Miss. civil rights resistance
 | author=Emily Wagster Pettus
 | date=December 13, 2015
| access-date=March 22, 2015
}}</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
 | url=http://chrestomathy.cofc.edu/documents/vol1/donovan.pdf
 | title=James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss
 | author=Kelley Anne Donovan
 | work=Chrestomathy: Annual Review of Undergraduate Research at the College of Charleston
 |number = Volume 1
|pages = 24–3
 | date=2002
 | access-date=March 22, 2015 }}
</ref>
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 |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/>

Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1.{{sfn | Branch | 1988 | pp=650–669}}<ref>Schlesinger 2002, p. 318.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Days of Confrontation: Telephone Conversations|url=http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/olemiss/confrontation/telephone.html|publisher=John F. Kennedy Presidential Library}}</ref> Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face.

Barnett committed to maintain civil order. Robert Kennedy ordered 127 [[United States Marshals Service|U.S. Marshals]] as well as 316 deputized [[United States Border Patrol|U.S. Border Patrol]] and 97 [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2012/093012.htm|title=U.S. Marshals Mark 50th Anniversary of the Integration of 'Ole Miss'|access-date=April 23, 2020|archive-date=May 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523031013/https://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2012/093012.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to "cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith", citing his authority under {{USC|10|332}}, {{USCSec|10|333}}, and {{USCSec|10|334}} to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.<ref>{{USStat|76|1506}}</ref>{{sfn | Branch | 1988 | p=659}}<ref name=barnett/>

===Rioting at the University===
[[File:US Marshals at Ole Miss October 1962 cph.3c35522.jpg|thumb|U.S. Army trucks loaded with steel-helmeted federal agents roll across the University of Mississippi campus on October 3, 1962.]]
{{main|Ole Miss riot of 1962}}
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 |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=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 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mulligan |first=Jackson |date=October 3, 2022 |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 |website=The Daily Mississippian |language=en-US}}</ref> He said, in part, "I love Mississippi! I love her people, our customs ... 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 Confederate flag, and the stands were full of students waving Confederate 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 |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 federal marshals, 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 7:30 p.m., the crowd broke into a riot.<ref name=":1" /> The crowd, which numbered 3000, threw bottles and rocks, and the marshals tear-gassed them.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> More than 300 people were injured, and two people were killed.<ref name=":0" />

=== Enrollment ===
The day after the riots, on October 1, 1962, after federal and state forces took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.<ref>{{cite news | title = 1962: Mississippi race riots over first black student | work = BBC News – On this day | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/1/newsid_2538000/2538169.stm | access-date = October 2, 2007 | date=October 1, 1962}}</ref> Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of [[civil rights]] in the United States.

Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/aug-18-1963-james-meredith-graduates-from-mississippi/?_r=0|title = Aug. 18, 1963 &#124; James Meredith Graduates from Mississippi|date = August 18, 2011}}</ref> but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table.<ref>''The band played Dixie: Race and the liberal conscience at Ole Miss'', Nadine Cohodas, (1997), New York, Free Press</ref> He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science.<ref name="LMAWCR2010">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of African American History, Volume 1|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|page=890|author=Leslie M. Alexander|author2=Walter C. Rucker}}</ref>