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Civil Rights Diary

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Civil Rights Diary
HIS/145
2/21/14
Roger Daene

Civil Rights Diary

There is so much to know about African Americans, who were in the civil rights movement, in the 1960s. These African Americans risk so much just do what they believed in. James Meredith was one of those people who stood his ground and made a difference in the world. It was an opportunity that not so many people have taken because of the fear of what could have happened. The civil rights movement changed American lives today, so that we as African Americans had the chance to experience what these powerful men did not.
I remember when James Meredith enrolled to our school at the University of Mississippi. I was amazed he went to those lengths to get into this school with all whites. He did not care about what he was getting himself into by going to an all-white school. I can only imagine what he went through when trying to get accepted and I am here to tell you all about it because I do not know if I would’ve been strong enough to go through the discrimination, court cases, and worse. I can say that I commend him for becoming the first black student to attend University of Mississippi.
I remember hearing about a black student applying to attend our school, then finding out that he was denied admission. This only made him want to come more, so he took it court. James legal defense fund of the NAACP headed an eighteen month court battle which he won, but it opposed twice by Governor Ross Barnett. The governor incited a quote from Mississippians that a white student would never have to sit next to a black student in Mississippi classrooms (McGee, M, 2010). Things got bad when every attempt for him to get accepted things started to take a turn for the worse. On September 30, 1962, on the campus there were whites armed with rocks, guns, rifles, and pipes. So many people got hurt that night. This is when the president took action and decided that they needed military help because there were so many people who were involved, and did not want James attending the school. The Supreme Court (Brown v. the Board of Education Case) approved his request to attend the school. They did not care what could happen to him when he did start going. That night two reporters were killed, 79 marshals were wounded, and hundreds of people were injured (McGee, M, 2010).
In the political aspect, James took full advantage of the internal and external political resources available to African Americans in the early 1960s. He heard about what was going on in Little Rock school when he was overseas. After Kennedy Inauguration, he applied to the University. He was familiar with the case of Brown v. the Board of Education in which the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional (Donovan, K., 2002). He applied at the right time because the president was supporting civil rights. It was a long process that he had to adore. He applied so many times and each time he was denied due to them making new policies for his admission.
James Meredith went through so much to attend the University of Mississippi an all-white college. He was threatened and denied access to the school until the Supreme Court got involved. He had so many people on his side such as the civil rights movement, the president, and Dr. King. I believe he changed the way the school system work because he took a stand to show that he qualified to attend that school like anyone else. He made so many people believers, and because of his efforts, he made so many people look up to him. Being a student at the University of Mississippi, I did not like all that went on just because of race and people wanting to keep segregation alive on the campus. It was a relief when James Meredith took a stand for what he believed in.
References

McGee, M. (2010). Book Proposal: James Meredith: Warrior and the America that created him. Retrieved from http://www.meredithetc.biz/downloads/
Donovan, K. (2002). James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Retrieved from http://chrestomathy.cofc.edu/

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