Archives and Special Collections Exhibits
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Creation Date
2-24-2022
Description
James Meredith challenged the segregated system of higher education in Mississippi and became the first African American to register for classes at the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1962. In 1966, he entered the public consciousness again by initiating a voter registration march across Mississippi. When he was shot on the second day, national civil rights leaders pressed forward and eventually 15,000 marchers entered the state capital along with the recuperating Meredith.
Throughout his life, Meredith has demonstrated an inclination to control his own narrative. The Saturday Evening Post printed a first-person cover story “My Ordeal in Oxford” not even two weeks after the 1962 integration riot. A more expansive description of events appeared in his book Three Years in Mississippi (1966). On display from the James Meredith Collection is a page of a handwritten draft for this volume as well as typed pages from the late 1980s in which he outlines plans for both a fictional novel based upon his life as well as a screenplay for a movie. In the 1990s, he self-published a number of smaller autobiographical pieces through his business Meredith Publishing, and in 2012 Meredith worked with author William Doyle on his latest effort, A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America.
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