Civil Rights Icon James Meredith Rejects Ole Miss Commemoration

First black student to integrate southern college says he doesn’t get what people are celebrating

As the University of Mississippi celebrates the 50-year anniversary of racially integrating its campuses, the African American central to that historic moment says he will not participate. James Meredith, now 79 and living in Jackson, Miss., won’t be present when students at Ole Miss retrace his first day on campus on Monday. He doesn’t see the point, he says. "Did you find anything 50 years ago that I should be celebrating?" Meredith told The Associated Press. “I ain't never heard of the French celebrating Waterloo … [or] the Germans celebrating the invasion of Normandy, or ... the bombing and destruction of Berlin … [or] of the Spanish celebrating the destruction of the Armada." Meredith’s Oct. 1, 1962 enrollment prompted a state-federal standoff, deadly mob violence and the end to the university’s official policy of racial segregation. Today, blacks make up 37 percent Mississippi’s population. Ole Miss has a black enrollment of 16.6 percent and the current student body president, Kim Dandridge, is black. (The Associated Press)

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