Library Guides: HST 424 / AAS 443: The Civil Rights Era: University of Mississippi & Oxford

The Civil Rights Era (1952-1970) and The University of Mississippi

James Meredith Papers
Papers of James Howard Meredith. Meredith enrolled October 1, 1962. He was the first African American to attend and graduate from the University of Mississippi.
John D. Williams Collection
Records of John Davis Williams, Chancellor of The University of Mississippi from 1946 to 1968. Williams presided over the University's rapid expansion following World War II and the integration crisis of 1962. Includes correspondence, speeches, articles, reports, and personal papers. Box 32, Folder 4 dated 1954, contains information on race relations. Other information includes the Meredith case in Box 16, Folder 8.
Integration of the University of Mississippi Digital Collection
Images in this collection originate in the Russell H. Barrett Collection, and the W. Wert Cooper Collection. Russell H. Barrett was a UM Political Science professor who published Integration at Ole Miss in 1965. William Wert Cooper, Jr. was a senior at the University of Mississippi during the integration.
Faculty Minutes and Committees Collection
Faculty Senate Minutes, Box 10, Folder 14
List of Black Student Union Demands (1970) to Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor
Chancellor L. Porter Fortune
Collection contains senate bills, personal and university related correspondence, athletics, and reports related to Porter L. Fortune as the chancellor of the University of Mississippi. These materials are dated 1935-1989. Box 21 and Box 147 contain information on the formation of the Black Student Union in response to the Black Power Movement.
Civil Rights Commemorative Collection
Collection of flyers, notes, correspondence, newspaper articles, and plans for the Civil Rights Monument on the campus of the University of Mississippi.
Valeria Ross Collection
Documents, materials, and artifacts collected by University of Mississippi Director of Leadership and Advocacy Valeria Ross. Includes materials related to issues of diversity on campus such as the Black Student Union, racial reconciliation, civil rights, black history, LGBTQ awareness, and student leadership. Boxes 1, 2, and 5 contain information on Ross's involvement in civil rights on the UM campus.

The Civil Rights Era in Oxford, Mississippi

Open Doors Oral History Collection
Also listed in the Integration of UM Digital Collection, these oral histories recorded in 2002 to document the 40th anniversary of the University of Mississippi's 1962 integration and the experiences of individuals extends beyond UM to the experience of Oxford residents.
Lucy Turnbill Collection
Correspondence with residents of Oxford surrounding the integration of the University.
Susie Marshall and Freedmen Town, Oxford, MS
Exhibit on the history of Oxford's "Freedman Town."

Readings on the Topic

Curtis Wilkie, Dixie: a personal odyssey though events that shaped the modern south. Call number F216.2. W55 2001
David Sansing, The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History (1999). Call Number: LD3413 S26 1999.
Charles W. Eagles. The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss (2009). Call Number: LD3413 E24 2009.
William Doyle. An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford (2003). Call Number: LD3413 D69 2003.
Nadine Cohodas. The Band Played Dixie: Race and the Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss (1997). Call Number: LD3413 C65 1997.

Dissertations and Thesis

Reimagining Mississippi
Stansberry, Jasmine, "Reimagining Mississippi: Black Power and the student activist plight to dismantle white supremacy" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2279.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2279

Anne Davis Percy “Rebel Land after James Meredith” (Master’s thesis, 1994). Race relations at UM after 1962. Call Number: LD3411.82 P47 1994.

UM and Oxford Newspapers

UM STUDENT NEWSPAPER: THE MISSISSIPPIAN AND THE DAILY MISSISSIPPIAN

The Prospect of Civil Rights during the 1950s:

The Supreme Court handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision on 17 May 1954. Examine reaction in the weeks that followed in the Daily Mississippian, the Oxford Eagle, and other Mississippi newspapers. Look not only for articles, but also editorials and letters to the editor.

1962 Integration Crisis:

Check out the weeks surrounding the riot on 30 September – 1 October not only in the Daily Mississippian and the Oxford Eagle but also in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, the Jackson Daily News, and other hometown papers across the state.

Black Student Protests of the 1970s:

Look at the Daily Mississippian during the following periods: 25 February – 1 May 1970.

Oxford Newspapers (Microfilm)

African American Studies at UM

History of Integration
An interpretation of the events and link to an interview with James Meredith.
Excerpt from David Sansing's history of UM
Chapter 11: Conflict, Change, and Continuity, 1960-1968 of The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History