A Great American Just Fighting for American Rights

October 1, 2012, was the anniversary of the integration of University of Mississippi. I learned much about James Meredith. He applied to attend University of Mississippi when he was a 29-year-old veteran. After much correspondence with the university, a year and a half later, he was admitted (Meredith). This was eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that government supported schools could not be segregated, James was finally allowed to go to the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss had always been proud to be segregated. There had to be 30,000 troops and National Guard members to stop the riots when he tried to go to classes. Two people were killed and more than 300 hundred were injured (Elliott).

Ed Meek took some photographs of James Meredith in his classroom, which he hid for 40 years because the authorities didn’t want the classes disrupted with media. However, it seems like James’ classes were disrupted anyway. The other students left the class because they didn’t want to be with him (Glenn).

James Meredith just wanted to have the rights of any other American when he fought to go to the University of Mississippi.

Sources

Elliott, Debbie. “Integrating Ole Miss: A Transformative, Deadly Riot.” NPR. NPR, 01 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2012/10/01/161573289/integrating-ole-miss-a-transformative-deadly-riot>.

Glenn, Heidi. “History Photographed, Then Hidden.” Alabama Public Radio, 01 Oct. 2012. Web. 08 Oct. 2012. <http://apr.org/post/history-photographed-then-hidden>.

Meredith, J. H. “Letter to the Registrar at University of Mississippi.” Letter to Robert Ellis,
Registrar. 26 Mar. 1961. Archives.gov. National Archives 193221, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://research.archives.gov/description/193221>.