A Lunch Conversation
via Wikipedia: Mississippi State University.
In July 1965, Richard Holmes became the first African-American student to enroll at Mississippi State University.
via Wikipedia: Univerisity of Southern Mississippi.
In 1956, Clyde Kennard, who was African-American, made his first of three attempts to enter The University of Southern Mississippi, then known as Mississippi Southern College. His efforts were rebuffed. On September 6, 1965, Raylawni Young Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong became the first African-American students to attend the University of Southern Mississippi.
via Wikipedia: University of Mississippi.
The University of Mississippi was also the site of rioting during desegregation, when James Meredith of Kosciusko, Mississippi, attempted to enroll in the school to become the university’s first black student. Thousands of students and citizens from the surrounding area, a number of whom were armed, swarmed the campus on September 30, 1962 in a riotous effort to prevent Meredith’s enrollment. Meredith, thanks to the protection afforded by federal marshals, was able to enroll and attend his first class on October 2.
Those are the facts, now the why. While walking at lunch today we got to talking about Obama as the first black President and reports of students getting a bit unruly in Oxford when the race was called. We all hear about James Meredith and the riots that occurred when he tried to attend Ole Miss every time Ole Miss is mentioned in the national media. The two are forever intertwined. It’s still bad press for the school over 40 years later. My question at lunch is whether Ole Miss was the first of the ‘big 3′ to integrate. And, as you can see above the answer is yes. Southern Mississippi and Mississippi State didn’t integrate until 1965, both avoiding the bad press by not being first. Let’s get some good press for being the first and not all the bad press for the riots. How about it?
November 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Might be some but I didn’t see any ‘bad’ press about State (or Southern though lets admit it neither of us pay attention to Southern) involving Obama becoming president.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:55 am
The Press will only tell you what they want you to hear. It’s a mixture of what sells and what they gain and/or are interested in. There are a million stories just like the one you cite hear where the press has manipulated “facts” and used perception mixed with greed in order to “make” news. As you stated above the facts don’t support the label that Ole Miss is now stuck with, but nonetheless the press made it happen. The only reason the new Ole Miss-Obama story is in play is because the media was on location in greater than normal numbers looking for this story at OM before it even happened. Why were they on location in greater than normal numbers? Simply because of the Meredith issue. Making news is what the media is all about.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
The biggest reason there were riots when Ole Miss integrated was the governor made an ass out of himself nationally by refusing to obey a Federal Court order and openly challenged the President by ordering the National Guard to prevent the integration. The President responded by nationalizing the Guard, which removed them from Ross Barnett’s control, and sent in the 101st Airborne
Division to enforce the court order. Barnett was stupid and did great damage to the State. In my opinion he incited the riot that occurred.
When the other schools integrated the Governor, Paul Johnson, didn’t get in the way. I was at State when it was integrated and except for the coverage by the media, the school opening and semester registration typical the others in which I was a participant.