James Meredith (1933- )

February 12, 2007 
/ Contributed By: Wilson Edward Reed

||James Meredith|Luke Moore with Bobby Kennedy 1962 (public domain)

James Meredith between U.S. Marshal James McShane (left) and Justice Department's John Doar

Photo by Marion Trikosko

James Meredith is best known as the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi (Old Miss). He was born on June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, served in the Air Force between 1951 and 1960 and then attended Jackson State University for two years. In 1961 Meredith decided to enroll at the University of Mississippi but was initially denied admission by university officials. He filed a lawsuit charging racial discrimination. After lower courts ruled against him, Meredith’s appeal was upheld by the U.S. Fifth Judicial Circuit Court which, citing the state’s maintenance of a policy of racial segregation, ordered his admission. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy dispatched U.S. Marshals to protect Meredith when state and university officials continued to oppose the court order. His arrival on campus with the Marshals sparked a riot which claimed two lives. Despite the initial opposition Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1964. His experiences at Old Miss were described in his 1966 book entitled Three Years in Mississippi.

In 1966 Meredith also began a one man protest against racial violence in Mississippi which he called a “Walk Against Fear.” The march originated in Memphis, Tennessee and was scheduled to end in Jackson, the state capital. However Meredith was shot by an unknown assailant shortly after he crossed into Mississippi. Other civil rights organizations, most notably the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, led by Stokely Carmichael, continued the march to Jackson. Meredith recovered from his wounds and rejoined the marchers the day before they reached the state capital.

James Meredith continued his education at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (1964-65) and at Columbia University (1966-68) where he received an LL.B degree. By the early 1970s Meredith had become an outspoken black conservative. He joined the Republican Party and ran unsuccessfully several times for a congressional seat in Mississippi. Meredith opposed economic sanctions against South Africa and declaring the birthday of Martin Luther King a national holiday. In 1989 he became a member of the staff of North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms. In 1995 Meredith published Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books.

About the Author

Author Profile

Wilson Edward Reed was born and raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi on a family farm; was educated in segregated school systems in a close knit rural community. He moved to Seattle to be near family and friends, and graduated from the University of Washington with a BA and a MA in Political Science. Also, he earned a Masters degree in Criminal Justice from the State University of New York-Albany (The Nelson Rockefeller School of Public Affairs and Policy). In 1995 he earned a Ph.D. in Political Science at Northern Arizona University.

Dr. Reed has taught at colleges and universities in the northwest, northeast, and southwest regions of the U.S. His book The Politics of Community Policing: The Case of Seattle, published in 1999, is considered the leading review of the subject in law enforcement. He has used his book for the course “Policing Seattle” which he helped to develop. Dr. Reed recently published an article about women and Black police officers in the Seattle Police department and completed a chapter on Bill Cosby and poor African Americans in the Criminal Justice System for an upcoming anthology. He frequently lectures in the Seattle area on policing youth, diversity issues, poverty in America, and domestic violence and presently teaches in the Global African Studies Program at Seattle University. Dr. Reed is also a Criminal Justice Consultant for the Washington Department of Social Health Services.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Reed, W. (2007, February 12). James Meredith (1933- ). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/meredith-james-1933/

Source of the Author's Information:

James Meredith, Three Years in Mississippi (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966); http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/meredith_james/.

Further Reading