Thursday, December 5

The Beginning of Change: The First African American Accepted to the University of Mississippi

Durante el motín, dos hombres murieron antes de que más de 3.000 soldados federales sofocaran la violencia.
During the riot, two men died before more than 3.000 Federal soldiers will quell the violence.

Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / Getty Images

James H. Meredith, former US Air Force soldier In the US, he applied and was accepted to the University of Mississippi at 1962, but his admission was revoked when the registrar learned of his background, James was African American.

A federal court ordered the university to “Ole Miss” to admit it, but when he tried to register on 20 September 1962, found that the entrance to the office was blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett.

The 28 September, the governor was found guilty of civil contempt and ordered to cease his interference with desegregation at the university or face arrest and a fine of $10,000 per day.

Two days later, US Marshals escorted Meredith to the Ole Miss campus. Rejected by violence, he returned the next day and started classes.

Meredith, who was a transfer student from Jackson State College for African Americans, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science from 1963.

In 1966, Meredith returned to public attention when she began a solitary march through civil rights in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South.

1962: James H Meredith, the first African-American student to attend the University of Mississippi; he was protected by federal troops until he graduated. He was later shot while he was participating in a civil rights march, but he survived and began working as a stockbroker. (Keystone/Getty Images)

During this March Against Fear, Meredith intended to walk from Memphis, Tennessee , to Jackson, Mississippi. However, on June 6, just two days after the march, was sent to a hospital by a sniper’s bullet.

Other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, arrived to continue the march in their Name.

James Meredith then recovered and rejoined the march he had started, and the 20 June protesters successfully reached Jackson, Mississippi. About 4.000 African Americans registered to vote during the march.

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