B O O K
R E V I E W
By R.J. Morgan
G
rowing up in a solidly Mississippi State household, the 1962 riot at Ole Miss was not something that came up regularly in conversation. The fact that I was born in 1983 and raised in a society that had largely moved past the issue of integration probably also had a lot to do with it. Either way, when the first fragments of knowledge about the riot began to trickle into my path during high school, it seemed a strange thing. Sure, racism in the South was an uncomfortable truth, but a riot? Over attending school? It seemed farfetched. I could have imagined a classmate or two rioting over having to attend school themselves, but not over keeping someone else out. But the events of September 1962 happened all the same. After months of wrangling between the state of Mississippi (led by segregationist demagogue Ross Barnett) and the federal government (led by the intrepid Kennedy brothers), it was agreed that James Meredith, a young black male from Kosciusko, Mississippi, would be allowed to enroll at the University of Mississippi. On the Sunday before Meredith was to be enrolled (third attempt) at the university, federal marshals commandeered the Lyceum, the main administration building on campus. Students showed up to protest the intrusion, and eventually a rag-tag army of grown segregationists, who saw this as the next defining battle in a long and bloody race war, joined them from across the South. As day turned to night, the crowd became a violent mob. And the rest, unfortunately, became history. Among the students that day was Ed Meek and his camera. Meek was a graduate student working in the university’s office of public relations. His youth and familiarity with the campus (and the rioters) allowed him unfettered access to a chaotic scene that would claim two lives (one a visiting journalist), injure hundreds and permanently damage the reputation of the school and state.
Ed Meek
MEEK SCHOOL 15
