James Meredith was born in 1933. James was raised on a farm with nine siblings. He joined the military after he finished high school and went to a all black college before becoming the first black person at The University of Mississippi in 1962. After he graduated, he earned a law degree and became involved in politics. He continues to be involved in civil rights and lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
Struggle for Smarts
James Meredith was the first black man to be accepted into The University of Mississippi. This was a good thing but at the same time it wasn’t too good. Once people heard he had been accepted people got violent but this didn’t stop him. He was dedicated to learning and fighting racism. He always went to school and got good grades. In 1962 he graduated The University of Mississippi in 1962 with a degree in law. After school he promised equal rights for blacks and is still a civil rights activist in Jackson,Mississippi.
On the night of September 9, 1962 nearly 3,000 white males and females gathered at The University of Mississippi to try and stop James Meredith from going to college. John F. Kennedy had ordered that James be safe during his school day. He demanded 500 US marshals to contain the angry crowd. But the crowd was ruthless and they wouldn't stop until James was dead. 166 Marshals were injured while only 94 citizens were injured. After the crowd overwhelmed the US marshals, John F. Kennedy order about 1,000 members of the US National Guard to assist in containing the angry mob. Of those people, only 46 were injured. James was safe and continued college and got a degree in law. All the fighting was worth it because the riot of 1962 was considered the last battle of the Civil War.
The University of Mississippi was an all white college. The University was founded in 1848. It is a coeducational research university in Oxford, Mississippi. During the time James Meredith was admitted the college was funded by the publicity of the first black in a white school in the south. The University began medical education in 1903. Desegregation came to Ole Miss in the 1960s with activists from the united states air force veteran James Meredith from kosciusko,Mississippi. The University of Mississippi is also known as Ole Miss just like James Meredith.
James meredith’s first love was Mary June Wiggins. They got married on March 14, 1956 only two months after they met. For a living Mary was a high school English teacher. James and mary had three sons and named them james, John and Joseph Meredith. Sadly later Mary died of heart failure in december 1979. Three years later he remarried Judy Alsobrooks in Gary Indiana. Then they had two kids named Kemp Naylor and Jessica Meredith. The couple live in Jackson Mississippi.