ipl-logo

James Meredith's Decision To Enroll At The University Of Mississippi

1169 Words5 Pages

James Meredith was the first African American to be accepted to the University of Mississippi. He sparked a violent revolt on October 1, 1962, when he made the attempt to integrate the University of Mississippi and attracted protesters against his enrollment (Sansing 273). However, James Meredith, a Civil Rights Activist who had first faced discrimination on a train, continued to motivate himself to enroll at the University of Mississippi, despite the racial tension (Kirkpatrick 92). Before Meredith made the decision to challenge against racial segregation, he was raised on a farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to Moses and Roxie Meredith in 1933. Meredith was raised with twelve other siblings in the household and was educated to segregate himself …show more content…

Educational opportunities in Florida were more superior to public schools in Kosciusko, and this made it difficult for Meredith to adapt coming from rural Mississippi (“Meredith, James H” 2). In 1951, he graduated from Gibbs High and joined the Air Force due to money shortage for college. James Meredith was able to attend college courses through the Air Force that allowed him to further his education. He also attended courses at the University of Kansas, Washburn University, and enrolled in the Far Eastern Division of the University of Maryland while stationed in Japan. When Meredith returned home to Mississippi, he enrolled at Jackson State University, an all-black college (2). James Meredith first faced racial discrimination on “The City of New Orleans” …show more content…

The Supreme Court ended ruling in Meredith’s favor and ordered his right to be enrolled at the University of Mississippi. Enrolling him drew conflict between the state and its government. On September 20th, three days after Meredith filed a lawsuit, Governor Ross Barnett refused the court order. He did this by threatening to close down Ole Miss, if necessary, to prevent James from admission (Sansing 272). When Meredith arrived at Ole Miss on September 25, 1962, to register as the first African American to admit to the University of Mississippi, Governor Ross Barnett had blocked his entrance. Ten days later on September 30, the stakes were high for African Americans and white supremacy, and a plan was suggested that Meredith was to privately sneak onto campus and into his dormitory (Kirkpatrick 93). He was escorted by federal marshals directed by President Kennedy and into his dorm in Baxter Hall. With the number of federal marshals escorting Meredith onto campus, it brought attention to students and a riot shortly formed. By 8:00 that night, violence from the riot increased and national guardsmen appeared on the campus. Cars were set to fire on the streets and abundant amounts of tear gas were fired into the air from the national guardsmen (Sansing 273). Persisting on for fourteen hours, any access into the building was blocked from preventing rioters to continue. The violent riot resulted

Show More
Related
616 Words | 3 Pages

During the time of Meredith’s childhood and early adulthood, Mississippi whites were determined to keep Black Mississippians inferior to them. As it says on page 29 “Colored children received

Read More
353 Words | 2 Pages

The story I read was The Outside Shot by well known author Walter Dean Myers.  It takes place at a modern day Montclare college in Indiana.   The setting is critical to the story due to the fact that Lonnie may be shaving points because of Fat man.  

Read More
334 Words | 2 Pages

According to the passages, I’ll Know Victory or Defeat and Letter from James Meredith, Meredith had many good experiences and some not so well. He completed high school, had a good life in the military, and even became staff sergeant in the Air Force. All of these this affected his life in a positive way, and the world that he lived in. In the passage, Letter from James Meredith, it states “I walked to school, over four miles each way, everyday for eleven years.

Read More
450 Words | 2 Pages

He had four siblings Matthew, Willa Mae, Edgar, and Frank Robinson. He was the youngest of them all. He was raised by his single mother. He went to Muir High school and attended University of California, Los Angeles. At UCLA he was the first student to win varsity letters in four sports; basketball, football, baseball, and track.

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

James Meredith attempted attempted to integrate Ole Miss in 1962 and ignited riots. On September 30, 1962, riots erupted on the campus of the University of Mississippi. The decision to integrate Ole Miss was James Meredith's alone. Why James Meredith fought to integrate the University of Mississipi. How much should the traditional-state based system be disrupted to aid blacks?

Read More
539 Words | 3 Pages

Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist from Decatur, Mississippi. He had a wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams, and three children. They were all devastated on June 12, 1963; the day he was assassinated. He was killed by a white supremacist named Byron DeLa Beckwith. Though his assassin was eventually convicted Medgar Evers assassination wasn’t justified because his death didn’t have much importance during his time, he was killed while trying to integrate schools, and his death didn’t stop the integration of all white school.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

Medgar Evers The murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers sparked a lot of outrage in the United States and impacted the Civil Rights Movement in some of its accomplishments. Evers was a well educated man and at the time of his murder in 1963, he was a civil rights activist in the NAACP. The Civil Rights Movement was about African Americans fighting for the same rights as Whites. Although most of his activism took place in Mississippi, Evers’ activism and his death impacted racial injustices that African Americans experienced throughout the United States.

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

When he was only 11 years His family moved to Tennessee. After they moved, James was unable to attend school due to an illness he had possibly caught on the move to Tennessee. His family hired tutors that would come to James and teach him. As Polk grew older he overcame the illness and enrolled at the University of North Carolina. He graduated in 1818 and returned to Tennessee

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

The year of 1965 the black community let out a collective victory cry. They had finally gotten the rights they fought hard for. They could at last vote, go to school and college, and got the working condition they deserve. They couldn 't have done it without Martin Luther King Jr., but there were a slew of cases that were tried and further assisted in opening the black community 's opportunity pool. They were well known cases, like the Plessy vs. Ferguson, Brown vs. Board of Education, and the Regents of the University vs. Bakke, all very influential cases in the fight for rights.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

Young father taught and later served as president at Lincoln Institute. Young attended Lincoln Institution from 1933 to 1937. Young was relatively isolated from external racism. He was surrounded by black people who held positions of authority and were treated with respect. After graduating from Lincoln Institute, Young enrolled at Kentucky State Industrial College in Frankfort in September of 1937.

Read More
551 Words | 3 Pages

Alinne Ata Lee 204 George Washington Carver George Washington Carver once said “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” George Washington Carver was an important African American botanist and inventor. He developed approximately 300 peanut products. He was also the first African American student to be accepted to Iowa state. His important agriculture discoveries and inventions help the poor southern farmers vary their crops and helped their diets.

Read More
563 Words | 3 Pages

The 15th Amendment (Amendment XV), which gave African-American men the right to vote, was inserted into the U.S. Constitution on March 30, 1870. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment says, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although the amendment was passed in the late 1870s, many racist practices were used to oppose African-Americans from voting, especially in the Southern States like Georgia and Alabama. After many years of racism, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to overthrow legal barricades at the state and local levels that deny African-Americans their right to vote. In the

Read More
1179 Words | 5 Pages

George Washington Carver was an amazing man who deeply affected the world with his brilliance! He conducted biological experiments and got his Bachelors and Masters degrees in college. He also ran the agricultural department at African American Tuskegee Institute. He achieved world fame and was known well for his intelligence. During his life he invented hundreds of new uses for peanuts.

Read More
209 Words | 1 Pages

Mississippi was made strategically important by its proximity to the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River was important to both the Union and the Confederacy. It was valued by the Union because complete control of it would grant the Union a valuable shipping route, making it much easier to supply their troops (especially as much of the agricultural production for the Union was in the Mississippi watershed). It was important for the Confederacy to keep at least partial control of the river, because losing it completely to the Union troops would result in the Confederacy splitting in two. By 1863, the Union had control of the entire Mississippi River, with the exception of the riverside fort of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Read More
1281 Words | 6 Pages

Sadly, as a result of forced integration, Wheatley went from being a top school to one of the bottom schools in the district in a period of less than 10 years. There was some re-zoning in Houston, specifically in the fifth ward that placed white students in the zone of Wheatley High School territory which led to many white students leaving who were not in favor of the integration. Popular opinion was that the integration efforts were moving too slowly, and there were several board members and protestors in favor is speeding up the efforts. One of those leaders was the first African American School Board Member, Hattie Mae White who spoke fervently in favor of desegregation despite strong opposition and some threats. Fortunately, Houston desegregation

Read More

More about James Meredith's Decision To Enroll At The University Of Mississippi

Related Topics

Open Document