James Meredith and the University of Mississippi’s Integration

“Ladies and gentlemen, my friends and fellow Mississippians: I speak to you as your Governor in a solemn hour in the history of our great state and in our nation 's history. I speak to you now in the moment of our greatest crisis since the War Between the States.” (Doc. 2) Governor Barnett compares the war between states to the acceptance of James Meredith into the University of Mississippi. He believes an African American being accepted into a white University is as big of a crisis as a War. “They will never submit to the moral degradation, to the shame and the ruin which have faced all others who have lacked the courage to defend their beliefs.

W.R. Allen. Albany: SUNY Press. 75-91 U.S. Department of Education. “White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Brief History.” 2003. <http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/whhbcu/edlite-index.html> Wenglinsky, H.H.

2 May 2012. Cokley, Kevin. "The Impact of College Racial Composition on African American Students' Academic Self-Concept: A Replication and Extension." Journal of Negro Education 71.4 (2002): 288-96. JSTOR.

Slowly Turning Back the Hands of Time “We conclude unanimously that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” (qtd. in Irons 163). Many African-Americans waited to hear this quote from Chief Justice Earl Warren after many years of fighting for better educational opportunities by means of school desegregation. African-Americans went through much anguish before the Brown v. Board of Education trial even took place, especially in the Deep South.

Local governments implemented mechanisms of discrimination to combat citizenship and equality such as Jim Crow laws and the KKK (Bowles, 2011) in place in the south to ensure the white citizen superiority, these inherent beliefs continued for generations. African Americans, believed to be second class citizens were denied their unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (Dixon, 2000) Penniless, African Americans left their plantations with nothing more than the shirts on their backs. As African Americans, the lack of voter’s rights lent to an unequal balance in politics to which ensured improper representation in their communities.” Separate but Equal laws” implemented by congress excluded the Negro from gaining a proper education, proper medical treatment and quality services provided in their communities that their white counterparts enjoyed. Though free, African Americans continued struggle for independence raises the question did the emancipation proclamation really free the slaves?

New York Times 13 Sept. 1962: 2. Diamonstein, Barbaralee. ?Historic Return to College.? Saturday Review 28 May 1966: 31-32. Integration and the University of Mississippi.

The first high school for black American students opened its doors in 1870, when Congress defeate... ... middle of paper ... ...ry kept black Americans in a state of oppression. Still, education was cherished as the way to get ahead. Today, a black is president of the United States and there are black politicians elected to the Congress and the Senate. Several Fortune 500 companies are headed by blacks. Admission to any college or university is open to black high school scholars.

Being of like minds,the powers of Mississippi knew they could count on one another for support from the local to the national levels. The federal government had the manpower, communications network, and finances to break apart Mississippi’s white racist unity. If racial equality were to succeed in the South, it would have to come by way of the powerful federal government. In 1964 The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized a 600 volunteer campaign to go into Mississippi and register black voters. It would be highly dangerous for there was little to no protection offered by local and county officials against KKK violence.

When talking on the problem of education for blacks, Dubois stated “Education is that whole system of human training within and without the schoolhouse walls, which molds and develops men”. That being said, if blacks follow Bookers path and decide not to use education to their advantage, they won’t develop into the ment they need to be. If whites are the only ones able to obtain an education, they will remain the men in charge of the nation. With racism being a constant issue within the

America also elected the first black president of the United States, Barrack Obama. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech fulfilled his vision of human equality. His focus on the ordinary man to achieve extraordinary things is much like the stamp of his own character as a gift to the masses he would never personally know. References King, M.L. Jr. (1963, August 28).