September-October 1962: James Meredith at Ole Miss

On October 1, 1962, James Meredith enrolls as the first black student at the University of Mississippi.

Background: 1961

James Howard Meredith, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran and a student at Jackson State College, applies for admission to Ole Miss, hoping to complete his degree in political science.

January 21, 1961: Meredith writes the university's registrar, seeking an application for admission.

* Letter: @

January 26: Registrar Robert B. Ellis replies, enclosing an application.

* Letter: @

January 31: Meredith informs the school that he is black (top image). "I certainly hope that this matter will be handled in a manner that will be complimentary to the University and to the State of Mississippi," he writes.

* Letter: @

February 4: Ole Miss sends Meredith a telegram stating: "For your information and guidance it has been found necessary to discontinue consideration of all applications for admission or registration for the second semester which were received after January 25 1961. Your application was received subsequent to such date and thus we must advise you not to appear for registration."
* Telegram: @

May 25: After a series of letters between Meredith and the school about admission requirements, Meredith's application is denied. The letter states: "The University cannot recognize the transfer of credits from the institution which you are now attending since it is not a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Our policy permits the transfer of credits only from member institutions of regional associations. Furthermore, students may not be accepted by the University from those institutions whose programs are not recognized. As I am sure you realize, your application does not meet other requirements for admission. Your letters of recommendation are not sufficient for either a resident or a nonresident applicant. I see no need for mentioning any other deficiencies."

May 31: Meredith files suit in U.S. District Court. A long legal battle ensues as the case moves through various courts, rulings and appeals.

* Chronology through September 26, 1962: @

* Meredith v. Fair (U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, June 25, 1962): @


1962

September 10: The case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. "Justice Hugo L. Black ruled today that the University of Mississippi must admit a Negro for the first time this fall. Justice Black nullified a series of orders by Judge Ben F. Cameron of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that would have postponed the admission of James H. Meredith." (United Press International)

September 11: Meredith sends a telegram to Registrar Ellis stating, "I plan to enroll in Sept. Please advise when to report for registration."
* Telegram: @

September 13: In a speech carried over statewide television and radio, Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, left, responds to Black's order (as well as to a subsequent decision by U.S. District Judge Sidney Mize).  "I shall do everything in my power to prevent integration in our schools," he says, invoking the doctrine of interposition, in which states have authority superseding that of the federal government. "There is no case in history where the Caucasian race has survived social integration. We will not drink from the cup of genocide."
* Portion of speech: @
* Interposition declaration (begins on Page 8): @

September 15-30: A series of phone calls take place involving Barnett, President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. They are unable to reach agreement on Meredith's admittance.
* Audio and transcripts (from JFK Library): @

September 20: Meredith, having been transported to the Oxford campus, is physically prevented from enrolling by Gov. Barnett, who reads a declaration of interposition. The scene would be repeated in Jackson on September 25 and again in Oxford on September 26 (this time by Lt. Gov. Paul Johnson). A planned registration attempt on September 27 was canceled amid reports of a large, hostile crowd on campus.

* Daytona Beach Morning Journal (September 28): @

September 24: Ole Miss is featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's college football preview issue. (The team would go 10-0 and finish 3rd in the AP and UPI football polls.)

* "Ghosts of Mississippi" (ESPN.com): @

September 29: President Kennedy sends a telegram to Gov. Barnett, citing "a breakdown of law and order" and asking whether Barnett intends to comply with the legal rulings and admit Meredith.
* Telegram: @

Gov. Barnett addresses the crowd during halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky game in Jackson. He says: "I love Mississippi. I love her people. Our customs. I love and I respect our heritage."
* Footage from speech: @

Sunday night, September 30, 1962

In the early evening, Gov. Barnett says in a speech carried statewide: "My heart still says 'never,' but my calm judgment abhors the bloodshed that would follow. ... Gentlemen, you are trampling on the sovereignty of this great state and depriving it of every vestige of honor and respect as a member of the United States."
* Text: @

About two hours later, President Kennedy goes on national television to say that Meredith has been moved to the Ole Miss campus. (Meredith was by that time inside a residence hall, guarded by federal marshals.) He expresses hopes for a peaceful outcome but announces he has placed the Mississippi National Guard under federal authority. "My obligation ... is to implement the orders of the court with whatever means are necessary, and with as little force and civil disorder as the circumstances permit."

* Video, transcript of President Kennedy speech: @

* Copy of speech: @

* Executive Order 11053 ("Providing Assistance for the Removal of Unlawful Obstructions of Justice in the State of Mississippi"): @

An hour later, Barnett again speaks, via statewide radio. "I will never yield a single inch in my determination to win the fight we are engaged in. I call on Mississippians to keep the faith and courage. We will never surrender."

Even before Barnett's first statement, the situation on the ground had started to unravel. After securing Meredith in his room, federal marshals, U.S. border patrolmen and prison guards -- more than 500 in all -- had assembled in front of the Lyceum, the administration building. By 6 p.m., a hostile crowd -- some of them students, but largely people from Mississippi and beyond -- had grown into a mob estimated at 2,000. The situation worsened through the night, despite the arrival of National Guard troops. The crowd threw rocks, bricks and Molotov cocktails; the federal forces responded with tear gas (they had been ordered not to use their guns on the crowd). Cars were set ablaze; snipers fired on the marshals. The Lyceum was turned into a makeshift field hospital. Two men -- French journalist Paul Guihard and Ray Gunter from Abbeville, Mississippi -- were shot dead, Guihard intentionally and Gunter apparently by a stray bullet. At least 250 people were injured. 

Only with the arrival of U.S. Army troops did the tide turn and the violence subside. By daybreak, what had been a war zone was relatively calm.

The photos above show the marshals ringing the Lyceum (photo by Associated Press); the building shrouded in tear gas (photo by Corbis Images); and the scene inside (photo by Charles Moore).

The top image shows the campus on September 30, with the Lyceum in the middle (photo by Time-Life). The map below it is from the book "Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders," linked below. The bottom map was drawn by Ole Miss student Curtis Wilkie, whose book "Dixie" is also linked below. This map is from the Integration Images and Documents Collection of the University of Mississippi Libraries, also linked below. (Click on images to enlarge.) 

Monday morning, October 1, 1962

James Meredith completes the paperwork to become a member of the Ole Miss student body. At right is Robert B. Ellis, Ole Miss registrar. (Photos by Corbis Images)

Troops continue to pour into the area; the total number deployed would reach 31,000, divided among Oxford, Memphis and Columbus, Miss. The last troops were pulled out in July 1963, though a few federal marshals remained until Meredith graduated in August 1963.

Summaries

* "Lyceum - The Circle Historic District" (from National Park Service; the area was designated as a historic district in 2008): @

* "Integrating Ole Miss: A Civil Rights Milestone" (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum): @

* "The U.S. Marshals and the Integration of the University of Mississippi" (from www.usmarshals.gov): @ / U.S. Marshals video: @

* From National Visionary Leadership Project: @

* From Civil Rights Movement Veterans website: @

* From BBC: @

* From UPI: @

* Excerpt from "Eyes on the Prize" (PBS documentary, 1987): @; / transcript: @

Media reports

* "U.S. vs Mississippi" (newsreel): @

* "Meredith attends classes, campus still 'fairly tense' " (newsreel): @

* ABC news report after Meredith's enrollment: @

* New York Times story (October 1): @

* The Miami News (October 1): @
* The Miami News (October 2): @
* The Milwaukee Journal (October 1): @
* United Press International stories: @
* The Guardian (October 1): @
* Life magazine (October 12; editorial, page 6; story and photos, page 32): @

* Ebony magazine (December): @

Books

* "The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss" (Charles W. Eagles, 2009): @

* "The Battle of Ole Miss: Civil Rights v. States' Rights" (Frank Lambert, 2009): @

* Excerpt from "American Insurrection" (William Doyle, 2001): @ / author's essay: @
* "James Meredith and the Ole Miss Riot: A Soldier's Story" (Henry T. Gallagher, 2012): @
* "The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights" (Yasuhiro Katagiri, 2001): @
* "Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South" (Curtis Wilkie, 2002): @
* "The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1945-1992" (Paul J. Schieps, 1992): @
* Excerpt from "The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality" (Nick Bryant, 2006): @

* Excerpt from "The Expanding Vista: American Television in the Kennedy Years" (Mary Ann Watson, 1994): @

* Excerpt from "Champion of Civil Rights: Judge John Minor Wisdom" (John William Friedman, 2009): @

Other resources

* James Howard Meredith Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries: @
* "50 Years of Intergration at the University of Mississippi" (50years.olemiss.edu): @
* Integration Images and Documents, University of Mississippi Libraries: @
* Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive, University of Southern Mississippi: @

* Desegregation of the University of Mississippi documents (U.S. Department of Justice): @

* Desegration of Schools documents (Department of Justice): @

* Sovereignty Commission Online (Mississippi Department of Archives and History): @

* " 'The Fight For Men's Minds': The Aftermath of the Ole Miss Riot of 1962" (Charles W. Eagles, The Journal of Mississippi History): @

* "A report concerning the occupation of the campus of the University of Mississippi" (General Legislative Investigating Committee, State of Mississippi, May 1963): @
* James Meredith's website: @

* "The Legacy of James Meredith" (University of Mississippi Media & Documentary Projects): @

* "State of Siege: Mississippi Whites and the Civil Rights Movement" (American RadioWorks): @
* "The Battle of Ole Miss" (from ABC journalist Ed Silverman): @
* More about Paul Guihard (from Syracuse University): @
* Other papers from JFK Library: @

* Resources from Civil Rights Digital Library: @

* Photos from Library of Congress: @

* Footage from CriticalPast (much of it without sound): @  

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Wednesday, September 12, 1962: 'We choose to go to the moon'

Speaking at Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas, President Kennedy forcefully reaffirms the United States' commitment to space exploration. The most famous passage:

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon ... we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.

Photo from John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

* Transcript and video (Miller Center, University of Virginia): @

* Newsreel: @

* "50 years ago, Kennedy reached for stars in historic Rice speech" (Douglas Brinkley, Rice University, September 2012): @

* The Rice Thresher (student newspaper, September 19): @

* Speech materials from Kennedy library: @

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Undated: Thalidomide in the U.S.

Public awareness about thalidomide increases dramatically, with news reports and congressional hearings about the drug's risks: that expectant mothers taking the sedative might give birth to deformed babies. (Thalidomide sales had already been halted throughout Europe.)

July 15: The Washington Post publishes a front-page story about thalidomide, largely about the efforts of Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration, who worked to prevent her agency from approving the drug for use in the United States. Other news outlets quickly follow up on Morton Mintz's reporting.

* Text of story: @

* "Morton Mintz on the collapse of Congressional oversight" (from www.neimanwatchdog.org): @

* 2012 interview with Mintz: @

July 30: The FDA provides details on thalidomide distribution. From The New York Times: "A total of 1,229 physicians in thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia and one in Canada received test samples of thalidomide, a drug blamed for thousands of birth defects in Europe. ... It has been estimated by Government officials that hundreds or perhaps thousands of Americans were given the drug on an experimental basis. ... A drug concern may make arrangements with doctors for the experimental use of a new drug without Federal approval. The law merely requires that the company keep a record of the shipments and that they be labeled 'caution, new drug limited by Federal law to investigate use.' This was the procedure used by the W.S. Merrell Company of Cincinnati, a reputable drug concern that held exclusive United States rights to distribute thalidomide. The company notified physicians last March to cease giving the drug."

Later estimates indicate that about 2.5 million samples were given out to some 20,000 patients.

August: Dr. Helen Taussig's "The Thalidomide Syndrome" is published in Scientific American. The report provides a history of the drug, discusses its effects on fetuses, and includes Taussig's observations in West Germany, where thalidomide (brand name Contergan) had been much more widely used. She writes: "The one-third who are so deformed that they die may be the luckier ones."

* Profile of Taussig (from National Library of Medicine): @

August 1: President Kennedy opens his press conference with a statement about thalidomide and pending drug legislation. In answer to a follow-up question, Kennedy says, "Every woman in this country, I think, must be aware that it is most important that they check their medicine cabinet, that they do not take this drug, that they turn it in."

* Text: @

* Audio: @

August 7: President Kennedy awards Dr. Kelsey the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service.

* Kennedy's remarks (from www.jfklink.com): @

* 1957 executive order creating the award (from archives.gov): @

August 10: Life magazine's cover story carries this headline: "The Full Story of the Drug Thalidomide / The 5,000 Deformed Babies ... The Woman Who Saved Thousands ... The Moral Questions of Abortion and Euthenasia." The article includes the warning box at left and the story of an Arizona woman, Sherri Finkbine, who went to Sweden for an abortion rather than bear the child, which after the operation was found to be severely deformed. (Finkbine had the abortion on August 18).

* Text of Life magazine story: @

In October, Congress would pass, and Kennedy would sign, legislation that strengthened the rules for drug safety and required manufacturers to prove their drugs' effectiveness.

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* "Dark Remedy: The Impact of Thalidomide and Its Revival as a Vital Medicine" (Trent D. Stephens and Rock Brynner, 2001): @

* "Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation" (Philip J. Hilts, 2004): @

* "Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA" (Daniel P. Carpenter, 2010): @

* "Thalidomide Crisis & Drug Regulation" (exhibit at Emory Libraries, Atlanta, Georgia): @

* "Thalidomide and Political Engagement in the United States and West Germany" (from Social History of Medicine, 2002): @

* "Congressman's Report" (from Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall, August 17, 1962): @

Previous posts about thalidomide:

* William S. Merrell Co. submits drug application (September 8, 1960): @

* Letter in The Lancet raises concerns (December 16, 1961): @

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Saturday, May 19, 1962: 'Happy birthday, Mr. President'

A combination political fundraiser and birthday celebration is held in New York for President Kennedy. The highlight comes at evening's end when Marilyn Monroe, wearing a sequined, skin-tight dress, sings "Happy Birthday."

From The Associated Press:

President Kennedy packed Madison Square Garden Saturday night to knock $1 million off the Democrats' national debt and urge strong campaigning for the party in Congress this year.

The Garden was a sell-out for the huge "birthday salute" to Kennedy, and a great array of theatrical talent provided a two-and-a-half-hour long show for the celebration.

It came on the hottest May day in New York City history, when the temperature had risen to 99. Heat waves still rose in the Garden when, after a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday' by Marilyn Monroe, the president remarked:

"I can now retire from politics."

Note: The full quote was "I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way."

The bottom photo shows, from left, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Monroe, the president, and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., White House special assistant. Schlesinger, who would later write the books "A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House" and "Robert Kennedy and His Times," wrote after Monroe's death on August 5:

I will never forget meeting her at the Arthur Krim party following the JFK birthday rally at Madison Square Garden in May. I cannot recall whether I wrote anything down at the time, but the image of this exquisite, beguiling and desperate girl will always stay with me. I do not think I have seen anyone so beautiful; I was enchanted by her manner and her wit, at once so masked, so ingenuous, and so penetrating. But one felt a terrible unreality about her -- as if talking to someone under water. ... The only moment I felt I touched her when I mentioned that I was a friend of Joe Rauh. This produced a warm and spontaneous burst of affection -- but then she receded into her own glittering mist.

The passage is from the book "Journals: 1952-2000."

* Watch Monroe's performance: @

* Monroe interview in Life magazine (August 3, 1962): @

* Excerpt from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power" (Richard Reeves, 1994): @

* Excerpt from "John F. Kennedy: A Biography" (Michael O'Brien, 2006): @

* "JFK and Marilyn Monroe: The Story Behind the Image" (ABC News, 2010): @

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Sunday, April 29, 1962: White House state dinner

Forty-nine Nobel Prize winners are guests for a state dinner at the Kennedy White House. The president's remarks include this memorable line: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." (JFK's notes on an early draft of the speech indicate that he added the Jefferson reference.)

The day before, as well as that morning, Linus Pauling -- who won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of molecular structure -- had picketed outside the White House, protesting the resumption of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Pauling attended the dinner.

This photo (from the JFK Library) shows the president talking to author Pearl Buck, while Mrs. Kennedy talks with poet Robert Frost.

* Full text of Kennedy remarks: @
* Associated Press story: @

* Time magazine article (May 11): @

* Summary and video clip of Linus Pauling: @

* Photo of Pauling protesting (April 28): @

* Note from Pauling on Jackie Kennedy's remark to him: @

* Photos from Corbis Images: @

* Materials from JFK Library: @

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Thursday, April 19, 1962: Reverse Freedom Rides

Segregationists in the South, led by the Citizens' Council of Greater New Orleans, pay for blacks to move to Northern states. The intent, said a council spokesman: "This is one way to show the colored people what the situation is in the North." The Herald Tribune News Service described it this way: "Apparently what the segregationist organization wants to do with this burgeoning send-the-Negroes north movement is not to try to depopulate New Orleans and the state of its Negro people, but to force what they feel is a showdown on the Northern integrationists, and especially the Northern 'liberals' who say they have the Negroes' interest at heart."

In the weeks that followed, the campaign would send blacks from other Southern cities to various locales, including Hyannis, Massachusetts, the summer home of President Kennedy.

The arrival in New York of the Boyd family (which had left New Orleans on April 19) was front-page news in The New York Times on April 22:

An unemployed Negro longshoreman, his wife and eight children arrived yesterday by bus from New Orleans on one-way tickets paid for by segregationists. The father found three job offers waiting. He had warm praise for the Citizens Council in New Orleans, which financed the trip to New Orleans. "They're wonderful," said Louis Boyd when he was asked about the group. It paid more than $200 for the tickets and gave him $50 to buy food on the forty-two-hour trip. ... "I am not sorry to leave the South," he said. "There is nothing there for me."

Boyd was quoted by The Associated Press as saying, "I see a lot of people working here and you don't see much of that in New Orleans."

Photo by The Associated Press. The caption reads: "Three 'Reverse Freedom Riders' left New Orleans for Concord, N.H., on one-way bus tickets bought by the New Orleans Citizens Council. They are shown with Citizens Council director George Singlemann, right, July 20, 1962 in New Orleans. The reverse Freedom Riders are, from left, Eddie Rose, Almer Payton and Willie Ramsey."

* "Reverse Freedom Rides sent African-Americans out of the South, some for good" (New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 22, 2011): @
* Excerpt from "Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice" (2006 book by Raymond Arsenault): @

* Excerpt from "Freedom's Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation and the Freedom Rides" (2009 book by Derek Catsam): @
* "The Citizens' Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction" (1994 book by Neil R. McMillen): @

-- Earlier posts

* Boynton v. Virginia (December 5, 1960): @

* Freedom Rides (May 1961): @

* Freedom Rides update (September 22, 1961): @

* Freedom Rides resources: @

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1961: Kennedy photos

This has been nagging at me for a while, so I thought I'd try to set the record straight as best I could.

The Corbis photo above (also see Getty Images photo) is from President Kennedy's first State of the Union speech on January 30, 1961. Notice the flower in the lapel of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, seated in the back right (and which is visible in this footage of the speech), and the diagonal design of Vice President Lyndon Johnson's tie. (Click here for the January 31 edition of The Milwaukee Journal, which used a similar photo in which Rayburn's flower can be seen.)

Now compare that to the Corbis photo above, from Kennedy's speech on May 25, 1961, in which he talked of landing a man on the moon by the turn of the decade. Speaker Rayburn has no flower in his lapel, and Johnson's tie is of a different design. (Click here for footage of the speech, and here for the May 26 edition of the Youngstown Vindicator, where a close-up photo of Kennedy -- and Johnson's tie -- can be seen.) Also note the difference in the positioning of the smaller microphones in front of Kennedy. 

I often see photos from the State of the Union speech used to illustrate the moon speech, typically the photo at left. This includes the JFK Library (click here), NASA (click here) and The New York Times (click here). (After communications with The Associated Press, the news agency changed its caption information.)

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