What Happened
On this day in 1962, James Meredith became the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. His arrival set off riots that left two people dead and hundreds injured. The federal government sent U.S. Marshals, military police, and the National Guard so he could register. Meredith had applied to Ole Miss in January 1961, was rejected, and spent more than a year in federal court before the Supreme Court ordered the university to admit him.
Why It Still Matters
James Meredith didn't just want a degree. He wanted to prove a point — that the law of the land applied to everybody, not just the people who had always been comfortable with it. He knew what he was walking into. He walked in anyway. That kind of courage doesn't ask for applause. It just moves.
He didn't just walk onto a campus. He walked into history — and the federal government had to send an army to make sure he could.
Around the Kitchen Table
Who in your family was the first to walk through a door that had been closed? Maybe it was the first to go to college, the first to move into a neighborhood, the first to take a job somebody said wasn't for people like us. Those stories deserve to be told out loud.
Today on Grown Folks Bizness
History and Kinfolk Corner go hand in hand today. The doors our elders forced open are the ones we walk through without thinking twice. Take a moment today to call somebody who broke a barrier for you — and tell them you know what they did.
Sources
University of Memphis · WDAM · National Archives
Got a story about a door somebody in your family opened? Share it with T. Blackmann at the link below. Share it with T. Blackmann →