-
James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933)
-
After attending local segregated schools and graduating from high school, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.
-
He attended Jackson State University for two years, then applied to the University of Mississippi which, under the state's legally imposed racial segregation, had traditionally accepted only white students. In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the US Supreme Court ruled that publicly supported schools had to be desegregated.
-
On March 14, 1956, two and a half months after they met, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins Meredith, later a High School English teacher, who died of heart failure in December 1979.They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith, and one daughter, Jessica Meredith Knight.
-
On May 31, 1961, Meredith with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected Meredith only because of the color of his skin, as he had a highly successful record
-
In 1962, he was the first African-American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi
-
On September 13, 1962, the District Court entered its injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith
-
Meredith, James (1966). Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. This book is readily available in the used book market and libraries
-
In 1982 Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana. They had two children: Kemp Naylor and Jessica Howard Meredith.
-
Meredith, James (1995). Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Jackson, MS: Meredith Publishing
