James Meredith Case Study

Throughout this essay, I will be examining the effects of one of the most controversial university enrollments. James Meredith paved the way for African American acceptance into a historically all White University. No matter how much adversity Meredith would encounter, he would not give up or give in to institutional racism. The want to keep Ole Miss segregated by those there did not hinder his success. In an attempt to end racial segregation, the Supreme Court ordered the admittance of James Meredith to the campus. This action was a clear defiance of racial segregation. This resulted in an abundant amount of not only riots but also casualties. Meredith paved the way for other African-Americans

The victory that led to school desegregation in 1954 came with its gimmicks. Although everyone saw the best in the enforcement of the law, only some saw its flaws. Just because blacks were

Since the publication of Charles Payne’s book I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Mississippi Freedom Struggle other scholars have joined him to counter an influential scholarship that has treated the movement largely from a political history perspective, often one that failed to transcend national boundaries to investigate its transnational dimensions, both in terms of its interconnectedness with other anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles, but also with regard to how the civil rights movement resonated with people in other Western

Crowe explains injustice in 1955 through the editorial by twisting the grieving mother's words and making Mississippi the victim instead of her. “Her determination to see that ‘Mississippi is going to pay for this, charging the state with the guilt of those who took the law into their own hands.”(page 127) Then the editorial went on to say “The NAACP has only revealed again it's blindness and injustice charging that ‘Mississippi has decided to maintain white supremacy

C. Vann Woodward’s book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, has been hailed as a book which shaped our views of the history of the Civil Rights Movement and of the American South. Martin Luther King, Jr. described the book as “the historical Bible of the civil rights movement.” The argument presented in The Strange Career of Jim Crow is that the Jim Crow laws were relatively new introductions to the South that occurred towards the turn of the century rather than immediately after the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Woodward examines personal accounts, opinions, and editorials from the eras as well as the laws in place at the times. He examines the political history behind the emergence of

According to Rawls, citizens, or campus community members in this case, must work toward creating equality for the disadvantage. Therefore, I first argue that community members should have the liberty to not have to be constantly reminded of their social, political, and economic oppression. To this end, I hone in on self-respect as a liberty that these traditions do not allow. Then, I analyze the 2013 Diversity Matters: The University of Mississippi Diversity Plan to illustrate how administrators are envisioning the universities continued departure from the confederacy. My aim is to show how the university is working toward Rawls’ second principle of justice with the proposed plan.

"I'm a Mississippi segregationist and I am proud of it," the governor declared. James Meredith, the Air Force veteran said Ole Miss "was the Ivy League of the Southern way of the life." A crisis in Oxford occurred at a time when staunch segregationists — and oftentimes violent racists — dominated the political structure in Mississippi. It was the college town of Oxford's struggle to preserve white supremacy. Segregationist mobs stormed the campus though the federal government insisted that Mississippi honor the rights of all its citizens. Despite Mississippi's segregationist state government, James Meredith, in a calculated move he applied for admission. Ole Miss citied administrative technicalities and refused his application. This prompted

Historian Simmons recalls moments immediately after the Supreme Court’s ruling that caused an uproar among parents. These parents had concerns about interracial dating, their ability to control discipline and felt that their power had been stripped, as a school board, and turned over to the national government. These parents, assisted in the formation of White Citizens Councils that served as legitimate hate groups, as opposed to hooded vigilantes such as the Klan.

Although I wasn’t in Mississippi during the ‘Freedom Summer’, I had a solid understanding of how life was during the ‘Freedom Summer’. This was years of racism and segregation towards the blacks in the US during the Civil Rights Movement. My aspect type was racism, and I learned of its impact on life through our analysis in the class of The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, an epistolary novel about the lives of black people in rural dominated white racist Georgia during the 1920’s-50’s. Furthermore, we discussed Nelson Mandela’s Inaugural Speech in class, and how Mandela fought for Independence from the white racist government. With extra research of the Freedom Summer project launched by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

The summer of 1964 also known as the Freedom Summer was a time of social change in Mississippi. The Document Project 26 in Exploring American Histories a Survey with Sources (second addition) highlights the success and failures through primary sources. The Student of Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Understood the magnitude of such a movement and outlined the goals of the Freedom Summer in the Prospectus for Mississippi Freedom Sumer (1964). This document outlines the main missions of eliminating racial oppression by registering blacks to vote, and the organization’s complimentary mission to establish freedom schools for the black community.

In the article, “BROWN V. BOARD: Where Are We Now?” by Gary Orfield, the author has written many points in order to support his argument that society should pursue the goal of desegregation in all public schools. So in order to make the analysis of his argument, some of the factors that would need to be checked are the evidence used like facts or examples, the reasoning, and the persuasive elements used. The author characterizes his argument with the usage of colloquial language, his argument was quite easily understood, and made his point more simplistic for readers to understand as well. Orfield creates a certain effect of making readers question whether they should support desegregation in all public schools, backing up the information with his evidence. Gary Orfield’s article “BROWN V. BOARD: Where Are We Now?” demonstrates his capability of developing an argument and backing it up with either evidence, reasoning, word choice, and persuasive elements.

With the Civil Rights Movement in full force, it was time the government took serious action, or the “cancer” would spread. The ongoing racism at the time, made African Americans “feel apart from others” more than ever. Such isolation can be visible in the complete negligence of the Brown v Board of Education decision. Instead of following the Warren Court’s decision of desegregating public schools, in places like Little Rock Arkansas, schools were still segregated. The transfer from a disagreement to disension marks a time in which African Americans led several protests that sparked national outrage.

According to these articles, the mainstream Southern perspective on the “Freedom Summer” activities of pro-civil right college students is that they are criminals. They also seem to view the disappearance and eventual murder of the three civil rights workers as unimportant and the fault of the victims, and not their attackers. In the article entitled, “Mississippi’s Lawless Invaders,” the reporter writes, “Much worse, however, is the planned lawlessness for which students are training on the campus of the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. We refer to the so-called ‘student army’ that is beginning to enter Mississippi to break state laws and foment strife. This ‘army’ of young integrationists…[many of which] have never seen Mississippi...want to break its laws,” to express the popular opinion that the pro-civil rights college students are worse than other lawbreakers because they (the students) are actively choosing to break the law by favoring integration instead of segregation. The article labeled “Heart of Darkness,” the author writes about the discovery of three bodies, two of which have been identified as those of Mickey Schwerner and Andy Goodman, while the third body awaiting identification is most likely that of James Chaney; these were

So on May 31, 1961, Meredith and Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP took the case to court. Over a year later of trial after trial, on September 10, 1962, the Supreme Court orders Ole Miss to accept James Meredith. Many Mississippians did not agree with the court. One of which included the governor of Mississippi, Ross R. Barnett. On September 25, 1962, Meredith tries to enter Ole Miss, but is blocked by Barnett claiming that "[no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your Governor" (Barnett Defies 2). Barnett held his ground and wanted Mississippi to remain as it was and would not stand for integration. A comic strip depicted Barnett laying down a brick wall around a Mississippi sign while trying to keep the sign of the U.S. out and separated (Integration). It influenced many into believing that Mississippi indeed seemed to be delayed and lagging behind the U.S. when it came to allowing integration, which the cartoon tries to prove. Barnett was scantly supported by other southern governors, but even so, Barnett asked if his citizens, especially officers, would go to jail to fight for his 'righteous' cause. If any officers would not fight and allow integration, they should resign from there position and someone who could stand firm would take their

Newspapers circulated within Franklin County operated as the perfect forum for the abundance of motivations and ideas when it came to race relations leading up to the civil war. Economic, religious, and political justifications for slavery dominated much of the newspapers discussion, arriving from a wide array of viewpoints and sources. Franklin county’s newspaper before the civil war served as a forum of discussion for the quickly changing everyday life that the American people were experiencing. Greater interconnectedness, specifically through newspapers, created a space for intellectual discussion that had previously been closed off to the common people. As newspapers popularity began to grow in the early 19th century, the political system began to greatly dominate the intellectual discussion that happened around these institutions. Ripe with sensationalism, these papers became hotbeds for debates regarding black and white relations in the county, and following the onset of the civil war, the debate grew to a national scale. The paper of Franklin County called ‘Valley Spirit’ lays bare the economic and social reality experienced in the Civil War period, and showcases rhetoric that was based more off of economic uncertainty then racism.