James Meredith was a black American born in the south in 1933. He served in the US Military for 9 years in the 50s before deciding to go to college to complete a degree. After attending Jackson State, and all black college, he decided he wanted to transfer to the University of Mississippi. He worked with Medgar Evans and the NAACP to take his case to the Supreme Court to allow him to attend U of MS. The Supreme Court then ordered the university to accept Meredith. On October 1st, 1962, James Meredith registered to attend at the University of MS. Federal troops were brought in to uphold the court order, but there were violent protests carried out by segregationists.
James Meredith's courage and willingness to stand up against tremendous injustice had a profound impact on helping build momentum for the larger Civil Rights movement.
As you can see from the embedded video, the riots that took place in protest of James Meredith's attending Ole Miss were EXTREMELY violent.
Resources: JFK Library (see link below) and ABC-CLIO
Contributed by: Matt Montagne
http://www.jfklibrary.org/meredith/jm.html
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