This bronze statue of James Meredith is part of the larger civil rights memorial at the Lyceum of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. After riots by white racists and segregationists, James Meredith was enrolled as the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.
The statue of James Meredith of made of bronze, and appears to be about life size, maybe a bit larger. His head is held high, gazing forward with a look of resoluteness on his face. He is captured in mid-step as he walks into history at the Lyceum, becoming the first African-American student to attend the University of Mississippi.
Mr. Meredith wears a business suit in the style of the early 1960s, with laced-up dress shoes, a collared dress shirt and a tie. His arms swing freely at his sides, and his hands are relaxed and open.
The plinth consists of two squares of bronze, each of which is under his striding feet. Those plinths are set in a larger circle of stone, with a plaque that reads as follows:
"James H. Meredith, a Mississippi native of Kosciusko, stepped into the pages of history on October 1, 1962 when he opened the doors to higher education at the University of Mississippi and in the South. As a major figure in the American civil rights movement, he helped lead the way to justice and equality for all citizens."
From Biography.com: (
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"James Meredith
Civil Rights Activist(1933– )
James Meredith is a civil rights activist who became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962.
Born in Mississippi in 1933, James Meredith was raised on a farm with nine siblings. He joined the military after high school and attended an all-black college before becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962. After he graduated, Meredith earned a law degree and became involved in politics. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi, and continues to be active in civil rights.
Early Life
Born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on June 25, 1933, James Howard Meredith was raised on a farm with nine brothers and sisters, largely insulated from the racism of the time. His first experience with institutionalized racism occurred while he was riding a train from Chicago with his brother. When the train arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, Meredith was ordered to give up his seat and move to the crowded black section of the train, where he had to stand for the rest of his trip home. He vowed then that he would dedicate his life to ensuring equal treatment for African Americans.
Integrating the University of Mississippi
After high school, Meredith spent nine years in the United States Air Force before enrolling in Jackson State College—an all-black school—in Mississippi. In 1961, he applied to the all-white University of Mississippi. He was initially accepted, but his admission was later withdrawn when the registrar discovered his race. Since all public educational institutions had been ordered to desegregate by this time (following 1954's Brown v. Board of Education ruling), Meredith filed a suit alleging discrimination. Although the state courts ruled against him, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor.
When Meredith arrived at the university to register for classes on September 20, 1962, he found the entrance blocked. Rioting soon erupted, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 500 U.S. Marshals to the scene. Additionally, President John F. Kennedy sent military police, troops from the Mississippi National Guard and officials from the U.S. Border Patrol to keep the peace. On October 1, 1962, James Meredith became the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
In 1963, Meredith graduated with a degree in political science. He wrote an account of his experience, titled Three Years in Mississippi, which was published in 1966. That June, he was in Memphis, Tennessee, on a solo march through the South to encourage black voters when he was shot and wounded by a white unemployed hardware clerk named Aubrey James Norvell, who was apprehended and sentenced to five years in prison. (He would ultimately serve just 18 months.) However, Meredith eventually recovered from his injuries and went on to receive a master's degree in economics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and a law degree from Columbia University in 1968.
Political Activities
Becoming active in the Republican Party, in 1967 Meredith unsuccessfully ran for Adam Clayton Powell Jr.'s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1972 he ran for a seat in the Senate, losing to Democratic incumbent James Eastland. Despite these losses, Meredith remained active in politics and from 1989 to 1991 served as a domestic adviser Jesse Helms, despite the senator's poor history regarding civil rights.
Personal Life
In 1956 Meredith married Mary June Wiggins while serving in the U.S. military. They would have three sons before Mary died in 1979. The following year, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks, with whom he has one son and a daughter. They live in Jackson, Mississippi.
In recent years, Meredith has continued to be active in civil rights and education issues, particularly through his nonprofit organization, the Meredith Institute. He has also authored several books, including the children's book Will Wadsworth's Train to Nowhere (2010) and the memoir A Mission from God (2012)."
And from History.com: (
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"THE INTEGRATION OF OLE MISS
In late September 1962, after a legal battle, an African-American man named James Meredith attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Chaos briefly broke out on the Ole Miss campus, with riots ending in two dead, hundreds wounded and many others arrested, after the Kennedy administration called out some 31,000 National Guardsmen and other federal forces to enforce order.
TESTING A HISTORIC VERDICT
The landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education declared that racial segregation in educational and other facilities violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which granted equal protection of the law to any person within its jurisdiction. This verdict effectively overturned the “separate but equal” mandate set by an earlier court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which determined that equal protection was not violated as long as reasonably equal conditions were provided to both groups. Though it applied specifically to public schools, the Brown verdict implied that other segregated facilities were also unconstitutional, dealing a heavy blow to white supremacist policies in the Jim Crow South.
In the years leading up to the incident at the University of Mississippi, African Americans had begun to be admitted in small numbers to other white colleges and universities in the South without too much incident. James Meredith was studying at the all-black Jackson State College from 1960 to 1962; during this time he applied repeatedly to Ole Miss without success. Born in Kosciusko in 1933, Meredith was a native Mississippian; he attended elementary and secondary school in the state (except for a final year of high school in Florida) and served nine years in the U.S. Air Force (1951-60). In 1961, Meredith–with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP)– filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging racial discrimination. The case was eventually settled on appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Meredith’s favor in September 1962.
CRISIS IN OXFORD
State officials, including Governor Ross Barnett, attempted to defy the Supreme Court decision, provoking a constitutional crisis between the state of Mississippi and the federal government. When Meredith arrived at the school’s Oxford, Mississippi campus under the protection of federal forces, including U.S. marshals, a mob of more than 2,000 students and others formed to block his way. Two people were killed and many others injured in the ensuing chaos, forcing Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to send federal marshals and later federalized National Guardsmen, in what essentially amounted to a military occupation of some 31,000 federal troops.
Despite the fierce resistance, Meredith registered as the first African-American student at Ole Miss on October 1, 1962. His brief tenure at the school lasted less time than the legal battle it took to get there: He graduated the following year, and later wrote a memoir about the entire experience entitled “Three Years in Mississippi” (1966).
A CONTINUING STRUGGLE
The incident at Ole Miss was not the only battle fought in the Deep South over integration of higher education. In Alabama, the notoriously segregationist Governor George Wallace vowed to “stand in the schoolhouse door” in order to block the enrollment of a black student at the University of Alabama. Though Wallace was eventually forced by the federalized National Guard to integrate the university, he became prominent symbol of the ongoing resistance to desegregation. In addition to four terms as governor of Alabama, he was a two-time candidate for the U.S. presidency.
For his part, James Meredith continued his activism as a student at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and later at Columbia University. In June 1966, he made a solitary protest march he called the “March Against Fear.” While marching his way from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Misssissippi, Meredith was shot by a sniper. Civil rights activists including Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael and Floyd McKissick continued the march in Meredith’s name until he recovered and was able to rejoin them."