James Howard Meredith

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James Meredith in 2007
James Meredith in October 1962 accompanied by US marshals on his way to university

James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko , Mississippi ) is an American civil rights activist . He was the first African-American student to attend the University of Mississippi .

Until 1962

Meredith was born the son of a Choctaw and an African American . After high school he joined the United States Air Force and served there from 1951 to 1960. He then studied for two years at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi . Two applications to the University of Mississippi were rejected.

Student at the University of Mississippi

On October 1, 1962, Meredith became the first dark-skinned student at Ole Miss . His enrollment, which Governor Ross R. Barnett wanted to prevent, led to violence on the Oxford campus . Federal troops and US marshals were sent to the university by US President John F. Kennedy . Two people died in the violence, including French journalist Paul Guihard . 48 soldiers and 30 US marshals were wounded. Barnett was sentenced to a $ 10,000 fine and jail term, but both sentences were overturned by an appeals court.

Meredith graduated from the university with a degree in history on August 18, 1963 and continued his education at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria . In 1968 he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia University . He became a stock trader.

Civil rights activities

In 1966 he led the March Against Fear from Memphis (Tennessee) to Jackson (Mississippi) and was wounded on June 6 of that year by the sniper Aubrey James Norvell. Jack R. Thornell , the photographer who took Meredith after he was wounded, won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Photography . Meredith published his memoir in 1966; later he self-published other books.

In an interview with CNN , he later said:

“I was engaged in a. 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. "

“I fought in a war. I've seen myself in a war from day one. And my goal was to force the federal government, then under Kennedy, into a position from which it had to deploy the US military to enforce my rights as a citizen. "

Political activities

Meredith was active in the Republican Party . For several years he worked in the office of US Senator Jesse Helms , who had previously represented racial segregation as a position. In response to criticism from the civil rights movement of this activity, he stated that he had applied to all senators; only Helms would have accepted it.

He made several attempts to be elected to Congress for the Republican Party and supported the 1991 candidacy of former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke for governor of Louisiana . Helms dismissed him because of his ties to this well-known right-wing extremist .

family

In 2002 Meredith owned a used car dealership in Jackson. His son, Joseph Meredith, graduated from the University of Mississippi in the same year as the best in his class.

Honor

A statue in the university commemorates Meredith.

literature

  • James Meredith: Three Years in Mississippi , Indiana University Press, Bloomington (Indiana), 1966
  • James Meredith: Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books , Meredith Publishing, Jackson (Mississippi), 1995
  • William Doyle: An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi , Doubleday, 2001, ISBN 0-385-49969-8
  • Mary Stanton: Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust , University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 1-57806-505-4
  • Paul Hendrickson: Sons of Mississippi , ISBN 0-375-40461-9

Web links

Commons : James Meredith  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://spartacus-educational.com/USAmeredith.htm
  2. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/1/newsid_2538000/2538169.stm
  3. ↑ https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,829233-5,00.html
  4. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/6/newsid_3009000/3009967.stm
  5. ↑ http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/jack-r-thornell
  6. ↑ http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/South/09/30/meredith/index.html
  7. ^ Civil Rights Pioneer Is a Maverick to Movement - Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1991
personal data
SURNAME Meredith, James Howard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meredith, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Kosciusko , Mississippi