Video: 'video Ole Miss Campus Riots'
(Sunday, September 30, 1962, 8:15 p.m. EDT; during the Ole Miss riot of 1962, part of the Civil rights movement) — Rioting broke out tonight at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford after James Meredith, a Black student, was escorted by 24 federal marshals to his guarded dormitory one day before his enrollment as the first African-American admitted to “Ole Miss.”
Federal and U.S. state law enforcement were dispatched to accompany Meredith during his registration to maintain civil order, but a riot erupted on campus. Partly incited by General Edwin Walker, the mob assaulted reporters and federal officers, burned and looted property, and hijacked vehicles.
Two people were killed by unknown persons. Paul Guihard, a British reporter on assignment for the Agence France-Presse, was shot in the back, and a local jukebox repairman, George Gunter, was shot in the head.
4,000 troops of the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the Mississippi National Guard were “federalized” under the command of Brigadier General Charles Billingslea of the U.S. Army to restore order, taking the side of the United States against the State of Mississippi.
Video: 'Listening In: JFK on Integration in University of Mississippi (September 30, 1962)'
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education, Meredith tried to integrate Ole Miss by applying in 1961. When he informed the university that he was African American, his admission was delayed and obstructed, first by school officials and then by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. In a bid to block his enrollment, Barnett even had Meredith temporarily jailed.
Multiple attempts by Meredith, accompanied by federal officials, to enroll were physically blocked. Hoping to avoid violence and ensure Meredith’s enrollment, President John F. Kennedy (who would address the nation on this matter tonight at 10 o’clock EDT on television and radio) and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of unproductive telephone conversations with Barnett.
The riot ended 15 hours later after more than 13,000 soldiers arrived in the early morning. Over 30,000 troops were deployed, alerted, and committed during the conflict. the largest for a single disturbance in American history.
The riot was followed by the desegregation of Ole Miss. A statue of James Meredith now commemorates the event on campus, and the site of the riot is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
