Guest Column: Remembering James Meredith 60 years after he entered Ole Miss
James Meredith relaxes on a bench on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Sept. 1, 1972. Meredith was the first Black student to intergrate the university. (AP Photo)
Aram Goudsouzian
Aram Goudsouzian is the Bizot Family Professor of History at the University of Memphis and author of numerous books on race, politics and culture. He serves on the Board of Directors at the National Civil Rights Museum.
While African Americans in Memphis lent refuge and support to Meredith — and the city’s authorities generally decried the violent resistance in Oxford — many shared the twisted resentments of their southern neighbors.
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