Celebrating Open Doors
UM marks 40th anniversary of integration

The University marks the 40th anniversary of its integration this fall with speakers, exhibitions, and establishment of an oral history and memorabilia archive. Next spring, a memorial will be erected on campus to commemorate the struggle for equal access to high education in Mississippi. The yearlong observance is called “Open Doors: Building on 40 Years of Opportunity in Higher Education.”

On September 30, 1962, violence erupted on the Oxford campus as federal officials accompanied a black man, James Meredith, of Jackson, for admission as a student at the all-white university. Two men died, and dozens of citizens and military personnel were wounded during the rioting. The next morning, Meredith was officially admitted.

The October 1 observance of Meredith’s admission will begin with initiation of a long-term oral history project centering on the University’s integration. Among those to coming to the campus to be interviewed are civil rights leaders Constance Baker Motley and Myrlie Evers-Williams.

As a prominent civil rights attorney, Motley won nine of the 10 Meredith cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, including his right to be admitted to the University of Mississippi. In 1966 in New York, she became the first black woman to be seated as a federal judge. She was appointed chief justice in 1982 and senior judge four years later.

Evers-Williams is widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, gunned down outside his home in Jackson by Byron De La Beckwith in 1963. After her husband’s murder, she moved her family to California, received a college degree, and eventually became the first African American woman to be appointed to the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. Evers-Williams served as chairwoman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1995 to 1998.

The City of Oxford will also participate in October 1 activities, hosting a ceremony and a lunch on the Square in honor of members of the Mississippi National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve who came to help quell the civil disorder here in1962.

A community dinner on the grounds in the Circle on campus will be followed by a gospel music program, a symbolic walk by the public through the Lyceum, and a ceremony dedicating the memorial’s site between the Lyceum and the J. D. Williams Library. Evers-Williams will speak at the dedication.

The Open Doors observance also features historic exhibitions, a self-guided walking tour with historical markers at key campus sites, lectures by eminent speakers, and multicultural events.

Other campus activities complement the observance. In September, the 27th annual Porter L. Fortune Jr. History Symposium devotes three days to examining “Race and Sport: The Struggle for Equality On and Off the Field.”
A model of the civil rights memorial artwork will be displayed in the Student Union. The Library’s Department of Special Collections will sponsor three exhibitions during the year.

Other activities planned for 2003 are a reunion of black alumni in March, installation and dedication of the memorial in April, a reunion of U.S. marshals in May, and an international conference in September hosted by the Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

For details about Open Doors activities, visit the University Web sites www.olemiss.edu/opendoors or www.olemiss.edu/calendar. Oxford events are detailed at www.oxfordms.net.

Library Exhibitions

August-November 2002: Civil Rights, Mississippi, and the Novelists's Craft, highlighting fictional accounts set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement. For details, contact Leigh McWhite at lmcwhit@olemiss.edu or 662-915-7937.

November 2002-April 2003: Integration through the Lens, photographs on the educational experience of blacks in Mississippi before and after the University's integration. For details, contact Jennifer Aronson at jaaronson@olemiss.edu or 662-915-5851.

April-September 2003: We Cannot Walk Alone, materials from the University's Williams Library and Oxford's black community collected during the 1960s.For details, contact Jennifer Ford at jwford@olemiss.edu or 662-915-7639.