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VOL. 9, NO. 4
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JACKSON
F ortified with three Federal
court orders and backed by
15,000 federal soldiers and 600
United States marshals, James
Howard Meredith on Oct. 1 be
came the first Negro of record to
enroll in the 144-year-old all-
white University of Mississippi at
Oxford.
The 29-year-old Air Force veteran
of Attala County, Miss., cracked the
educational segregation barrier which
Mississippi officials had maintained in
the face of the 1954 desegregation de
cision of the United States Supreme
Court.
Meredith’s enrollment followed his
arrival on the campus the previous
afternoon, Sept. 30, in company with
federal marshals. At the time, there
were no troops in Mississippi, standby
forces having been stationed at Mem
phis, Tenn., 90 miles from Oxford, “in
case.”
The “in case” developed at about 7
p.m. Sept. 30, when throngs of people,
including students, converged on the
Lyceum Building where the federal
marshals stood guard.
Rioting broke out and President
Kennedy issued an executive order at
10:02 p.m. EDT, Sept. 30 placing the
11,000 Mississippi national guardsmen
in federal service.
Two Killed, Many Hurt
ation : Two people were killed in the Sept.
. The d 30 and Oct. 1 rioting which spread into
vhites i the town of Oxford. An estimated 100
civilians and 166 marshals, additional to
ity distr many guardsmen, were injured.
'gation When Meredith was flown to Oxford
on Sept. 30 from Memphis, where he
heduled ^ad been waiting, he successfully went j
junty d
Gov. Barnett Confronts Meredith
Admittance was refused
onto the university campus after be
ing blocked twice personally by Gov.
Ross Barnett and once by Lt. Gov.
Paul B. Johnson.
The governor confronted Meredith
once on the campus and again at the
office of the college board in Jackson;
the lieutenant governor stood at the
north gate of the campus and refused
Meredith entrance when he arrived
with John Doar; U.S. assistant attorney
general, and James McShane, head of
the U.S. marshals.
The tension and subsequent rioting
had its inception in an address by Gov.
Barnett on Sept. 13. The governor is
sued a proclamation interposing the
sovereignty of Mississippi against rec
ognition of federal authority in the field
of education. He said he stood on the
10th amendment to the U.S. Constitu
tion on the grounds that “the powers
not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively or to the people.”
Defies Court Orders
Defying a mandate of the Fifth U.S.
Court of Appeals for Meredith’s enroll
ment without interference, and a sub
sequent similar order from the South
ern Mississippi Federal Court District
Judge, Gov. Barnett said he would re
fuse to permit Meredith’s enrollment.
The governor also defied an order
from U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Hugo L. Black which nullified four
“stay” orders issued by Court of Ap
peals Judge Ben Cameron of Meridian,
Miss., because Cameron was not on the
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WASHINGTON
he violent reaction in Mis
sissippi to the enrollment of
the first Negro student at the state
university was unanticipated in
Washington.
Up to the moment when rioting
erupted on the campus in Oxford, of
ficials here from the President down
hoped and expected to avoid a massive
showdown between the federal govern
ment and the state.
In the wake of the events of the
night of Sept. 30, however, officials here
were inclined to be guarded—even
pessimistic—in their estimates of future
developments in Mississippi, and in
, other states of hard-core resistance
“ desegregation, Alabama and South
Carolina.
Justice Department officials said they
ex pected that the Negro student, James
H. Meredith, would require a constant
guard to protect him for the year and
a half he intends to study at the Uni
versity of Mississippi. They made it
clear that there is no intention to with
draw Meredith from the school. They
indicated he will be guarded by mili
tary police, rather than U.S. marshals,
if that is necessary to ensure his
safety.
Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy
told reporters Oct. 4 that there are
“still some problems” in the Mississippi
crisis, but “they are not insoluble.”
Aides of the attorney general said
privately that the use of federal force in
Mississippi was abhorrent to him. They
said the administration would continue
to make every effort to secure volun
tary compliance to court-ordered de
segregation. But where persuasion does
not work, it was stressed, the admin
istration will not shrink from using all
Two Other Universities
Had Desegregation Riots
^/"iolence similar to that at the
University of Mississippi has
° CCUrT ed on two other Southern
JJbiversity campuses when the
Negro students enrolled
“’fough court orders.
‘ °bs caused the withdrawal of a Ne-
° woman from the University of
girl ™ a Negro boy and
w. bum the University of Georgia in
In neither of these cases did the
^Urbances result in deaths or the
RuidH federal troops. A federal court
(he returned the Negro students to
u Georgia institution, but in Ala-
na ’ a federal judge approved the
expulsion of the Negro, Autherine
Lucy, for accusing the school trustees
of conspiring with the mob.
Technically, the Alabama school still
could be considered desegregated, since
U.S. District Judge H. Hobart Grooms
left standing his order opening the uni
versity to all qualified Negroes. The
school has not admitted any others, al
though several applied at the Mont
gomery extension center in 1960.
Alabama and South Carolina are the
only ones of the 17 Southern and bor
der states that have no Negroes attend-
(See OTHER, Page 14)
legal means at its disposal to see to it
that court orders are enforced.
In a television interview on Oct. 1,
Attorney General Kennedy said, “I
think last night was the worst night I
ever spent” With the possible excep
tion of the ill-fated Cuban invasion of
last year, the same comment could un
doubtedly apply to his brother, the
President of the United States.
Here is the course of Washington de
velopments in the Mississippi crisis:
On Sept. 9, Supreme Court Justice
Hugo L. Black nullified a series of or
ders by Judge Ben F. Cameron of the
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that
would have postponed the enrollment
of Meredith. Black ruled that the Cir
cuit Court, which heard Meredith’s ap-
(See WASHINGTON’S, Page 11)
Sideline Casualty
—Alley, Memphis Commercial Appeal
panel which made the decision in the
Meredith case.
Gov. Barnett called on “every public
official, including myself, to be pre
pared to make the choice whether he
will submit or whether he is willing
to go to jail, if necessary, to keep faith
with the people who have placed their
welfare in his hands.”
The governor also asserted that “if
there be any official who is not pre
pared to suffer imprisonment for this
righteous cause, I ask him to submit
his resignation and it will be accepted
without prejudice. A man who is pre
pared to stand firm will be appointed
in his place.”
U.S. Gets Injunction
After Gov. Barnett, surrounded by
highway patrolmen, had refused to
permit Meredith and a federal Justice
Department attorney to enter the Uni
versity of Mississippi campus at Ox
ford, federal officials secured an in
junction against his interference with
enforcement of its enrollment mandate.
Also named in the injunction were the
13-member Board of Trustees of State
Institutions of Higher Learning and
officials of the university.
The trustees went into special session
to consider their course. They drafted
a letter to Meredith for his appearance
in its offices in the Woolfolk-State
office building in Jackson, for enroll
ment.
In the meantime, under pressure
from a special legislative session then
meeting, the board appointed Gov.
Barnett “special registrar” in the
Meredith matter.
That resulted in a contempt citation
against the Governor and the trustees
by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Efforts to serve the summons on
Barnett were unsuccessful.
In This Issue
State Reports
Alabama 13
Arkansas 8
Delaware 7
District of Columbia 1
Florida 16
Georgia 9
Kentucky 19
Louisiana 6
Maryland 3
Mississippi 1
Missouri 5
North Carolina 18
Oklahoma 17
South Carolina 17
Tennessee . 4
Texas 2
Virginia 2
West Virginia 20
Special Articles
Colleges 1
New Desegregation 1
Southern Governors 14
Texts
Gov. Barnett’s Proclamation 10
Barnett’s Broadcast 11
Attorney General’s Speech 11
President’s Broadcast 12
White House Proclamation 12
Going to Class
Meredith is surrounded by U.S.
marshals and troops.
However, the trustees, in order to
purge themselves of the contempt
charge, rescinded their action in ap
pointing the Governor special registrar
and summoned university registrar
Robert Ellis to Jackson to register
Meredith in its offices.
However, in a move to prevent Ellis
from registering Meredith, a joint leg
islative committee to investigate state
offices, summoned the registrar before
it in a back office in the college board
Gov. Barnett, surrounded by high
way patrolmen, walked from the State
Capitol across the street to the state
office building, to await Meredith’s ar
rival.
When Meredith, accompanied by
Doar and Marshal McShane, reached
the college board office door, Barnett
stood in it and refused to allow Mere
dith or those accompanying him to
enter.
After an exchange of words as to the
mission, Meredith’s party left the
building.
Trustees’ Resolution
Here is the order of the trustees nam
ing Gov. Barnett special registrar in
the Meredith case which resulted in
the Court of Appeals issuing contempt
citations against the 13 members:
“M. M. Roberts (Hattiesburg) moved
that the board invest Hon. Ross R.
Barnett, the Governor of the state of
Mississippi, with the full power, au
thority, right and discretion of this
board to act upon all matters pertaining
to or concerned with the registration
or non-registration, admission or non
admission and-or attendance or non-
attendance of James H. Meredith at the
University of Mississippi. That a certi
fied copy of this resolution together
with copies of the conflicting injunc
tions of Hon. S. C. Mize (federal
district judge) dated Sept. 13, 1962,
(See COURT, Page 10)
New Desegregation Brings
Boycotts and Transfers
S everal public school systems
in the Southern and border
states extended desegregation
during the first month of the new
school term. Resistance to the ad
mission of Negro students result
ed in student boycotts and trans
fers, or loss of football opponents,
in four states.
A transfer provision featured in
many school desegregation plans
throughout the South was rejected by
the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Ap
peals in ruling on a Charlottesville,
Va., pupil assignment case. The plan
had permitted students to transfer
from a school where their race was a
minority to one where their race was a
majority.
The enrollment of James Meredith
at the University of Mississippi left
South Carolina as the only remaining
state that has never had Negroes at
tending its public white schools. The
University of Alabama remains under
a permanent injunction to admit Ne
groes, and one attended briefly in 1956,
but state officials have vowed to keep
all schools in the state segregated.
Both South Carolina and Alabama
received warnings from Negro leaders
(See SEVERAL, Page 19)