Controversy over remembering integration at Old Miss
Posted October 2nd, 2012 by James DeWolf PerryCategory: History Tags: Civil rights movement, Medgar Evers, Thurgood Marshall, University of Mississippi
Fifty years ago this week, James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi, marking the university’s integration and a civil rights milestone.
Ole Miss is doing a great deal to commemorate this anniversary, yet it has become mired in controversy about whether it is celebrating while ignoring its own past and its role in desegregation.
The doors were open for 50 years yes, but they’d been closed for a century. We don’t want to talk about that do we?
— Historian Charles Eagles, author of The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss
The integration of the University of Mississippi
The integration of Ole Miss was not an easy one. Meredith’s application for admission was repeatedly refused by the university, and he required the assistance of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers and Thurgood Marshall, and the support of the NAACP, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Meredith had a right to be admitted to the university.
