James Meredith

James Meredith was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi on June 25, 1933. Meredith was best known as the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi, also called Ole Miss. Meredith served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1960. He attended Jackson State College for two years and then integrated the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1962. The integration sparked riots on the campus that left two dead. The riots started when the white mob found out Meredith was in the building. Governor Ross Barnett tried to keep the entrance at Ole Miss closed to stop Meredith from going in.  In 1966, Meredith remembered the experiecnce in, Three Years in Mississippi, the first book he ever wrote. After he wrote his book he began and organized the "Walk Against Fear," a march from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. He marched through the Delta. On that same day, Meredith was shot while marching. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders joined him in the march.

    In 1989, James Meredith received a LL.B. from Columbia University. James Meredith ran for Congress in 1972 and published his historical work on Mississippi. A volume of eleven books was published in 1995. On March 21, 1997, James Meredith gave his papers to Ole Miss and they held it in the Special Collection branch of the J.D. Williams Library.

Something other people can learn from James Meredith is to have courage and faith in yourself, like he did.

by Zalhedrin Stansberry