October 1, 1962: James Meredith & JFK Integrate "Ole Miss"

October 1, 1962: James Meredith registers as a full-time student at the University of Mississippi. This is a very big deal, since he is the 1st black student at "Ole Miss."

Governor Ross Barnett had ordered the Mississippi National Guard to prevent this, and pro-segregation demonstrators were ready to beat or even kill Meredith if he tried.

Two days earlier, Ole Miss played the University of Kentucky at Memorial Stadium in Jackson, and won 14-0. Confederate flags were everywhere in the stands. At halftime, a gigantic Confederate flag was unveiled on the field. Fans chanted, "We want Ross!" Barnett went down to the field, took a microphone, and said, "I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs! I love and respect our heritage!" And he got a standing ovation.

President John F. Kennedy, on the insistence of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, federalized the Guard, and ordered them instead to protect Meredith and allow him to enroll. The racists rioted, and threw things at the Guardsmen, who fired back. Two men were killed. But the law prohibiting racial discrimination in enrollment at State-sponsored schools was upheld. On October 1, Meredith walked into the Lyceum, and became a student at the University of Mississippi.

Meredith, whose college credits from the all-black Jackson State University in Mississippi were carried over, received his degree from Ole Miss 10 months later.

The following Spring, the basketball team at Mississippi State University, who had won the Southeastern Conference Championship, was placed in the NCAA Tournament, to play Loyola University of Chicago, an integrated team. Barnett called the State Police, and told them to set up roadblocks to prevent the MSU Bulldogs from leaving the State to play that integrated team.

It didn't work: They snuck out of the State. And got to McGaw Hall, on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, outside Chicago. And played Loyola. And lost the game. But they won a moral victory. Loyola became the 1st team with more black than white starters to win the National Championship.

At the time, State law prohibited Mississippi's Governors from succeeding themselves, so Barnett had to sit out the 1963 election. He ran again in 1967, and finished a distant 4th in the Democratic Primary, the 1st gubernatorial election in the State following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He never won another office, and died in 1987 -- absolutely unrepentant, unlike such other civil rights opponents as George Wallace of Alabama, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Albert Gore Sr. of Tennessee.

Today, Meredith is 89, and has spent most of the 60 years since as a Republican. Ole Miss has honored him with a statue, and, like its rival Mississippi State, goes out of its way to recognize its role in civil rights, first as an opponent, then as a supporter.

Ole Miss still calls its teams the Rebels, but Confederate paraphernalia is no longer allowed on campus, and the "Colonel Reb" mascot has been retired.

This was also the day that Johnny Carson debuted as host of The Tonight Show. I have a separate entry for that.

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October 1, 1962 was a Monday. Actor Esai Morales was born.

It was the day of Game 1 of the National League Playoff, 11 years after the Giants and Dodgers did it in New York. Now, they do it in California, and Billy Pierce pitches a 3-hit shutout. He hardly needs to, as 2 homers by Willie Mays, and 1 each by Orlando Cepeda and Jim Davenport, give the San Francisco Giants an 8-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Candlestick Park.

June 7, 1966: The Shooting of James Meredith

June 7, 1966: Civil rights activist James Meredith is shot during his March Against Fear. It is part of the backlash against the successes of the Civil Rights Movement.

One of those successes had been the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962, by Meredith, with the assistance of President John F. Kennedy federalizing the Mississippi National Guard, making Meredith a civil rights icon and a national figure. He graduated, and went to New York to attend Columbia University School of Law.

On June 6, 1966, in the wake of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Meredith planned a March Against Fear, from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, to encourage voter registration. He said he did not want major civil rights organizations involved. He believed he would not be killed, saying, "I had always felt that I could stop a mob with the uplift of a hand, Because of my divine responsibility to advance human civilization, I could not die."

Unlike his predecessor, Ross Barnett, who did everything he could to prevent Meredith from enrolling at "Ole Miss," the current Governor of Mississippi, Paul Johnson, allowed the March, and offered State Police protection.

It didn't work. On the 2nd day, 28 miles into his walk down U.S. Route 51, outside Hernando, Mississippi, Meredith was shot by Aubrey James Norvell, a 40-year-old unemployed member of the Ku Klux Klan. (Apparently, the Klan wasn't willing to find him a job.) Meredith was hit by over 60 shotgun pellets, all over his body. He yelled, "Oh, my God, is anybody going to help me?" They did. He was quickly taken to a hospital, and survived, as his wounds turned out to be superficial.

Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, Whitney Young of the Urban League, Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality, all having some measure of differences with each other, united, and went to see Meredith in the hospital. They asked him for permission to carry on the march in his name. He assented, and 20 marchers set out to finish his 220-mile journey.

Just a day out of Jackson, the demonstrators were joined by Marlon Brando, Sammy Davis, Jr., the comedian Dick Gregory, and a recovered Meredith. On June 25, he led the column into the State Capitol.

The demonstrators registered over 4,000 black Mississippians in 18 days. Nevertheless, a 15,000-strong crowd that gathered for a rally in Jackson oh June 26 epitomized the now-overt conflict in the movement. The King faction shouted, "Freedom now!" The faction led by Carmichael and McKissick shouted "Black power!"

The FBI quickly caught Norvell, who pleaded guilty to battery and assault with intent to kill, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He served only a year and a half. He died in 2016. True to his belief, Meredith did not die, and, as of June 7, 2022, is still alive, at the age of 89.

King was assassinated in 1968, only 39 years old. Young drowned in 1971, just 49. Wilkins died in 1981, at 80. McKissick died of cancer in 1991, at 69. Carmichael, having adopted the name Kwame Ture and moved to Africa, also died of cancer, in 1998, at 57. Meredith outlived them all.

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June 7, 1966 was a Tuesday. This was also the day the New York Mets selected Steve Chilcott with the 1st pick in the baseball amateur draft, with the Kansas City Athletics picking Reggie Jackson 2nd. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Fritz Peterson went the distance for the win. Bobby Richardson and Joe Pepitone hit home runs. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Roger Maris went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 11-6 at Shea Stadium. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. He did not hit a home run for the Braves, but Joe Torre did. Dick Stuart, the power-hitting but horrible-fielding 1st baseman known as "Dr. Strangeglove," homered for the Mets.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Jim Bunning went the distance, allowing 1 run on 3 hits, no walks and 14 strikeouts. He beat Milt Pappas, whom the Reds had traded Frank Robinson to get. The only Reds run came on a home run by Leo Cárdenas. Pete Rose went 0-for-3.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Senators scored 2 runs in the top of the 12th inning, but in the bottom half, the O's scored 3, winning on an RBI single by Frank Robinson, who went 4-for-6. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Don Cardwell outpitches Bob Gibson. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 2-for-5. Lou Brock went 1-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Mickey Lolich outpitched Bob Sadowski. The only Sox run came on a home run by Tony Conigliario. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk. Al Kaline went 0-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins relieves Bob Hendley in the 5th inning, but gives up back-to-back home runs to Jim Lefebvre and Al Ferrara leading off the top of the 10th. It was Ferrara's 2nd homer of the game. Phil Regan is the winning pitcher, in relief of rookie Don Sutton. Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-9 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie Mays doubled, then left the game with an injury. His pinch-runner was Jesús Alou, who went to right field and went 3-for-4 with an RBI, as Ollie Brown moved from right to center.

* And the California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).