Civil unrest in Mississippi, United States
The Ole Miss riot of 1962 (September 30 – October 1, 1962), also known as the Battle of Oxford, was a race riot that occurred at the University of Mississippi—commonly called Ole Miss—in Oxford, Mississippi, as segregationist rioters sought to prevent the enrollment of African American applicant James Meredith. President John F. Kennedy eventually quelled the riot by mobilizing more than 30,000 troops, the most for a single disturbance in United States history.
In the wake of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision "Brown v. Board of Education", Meredith tried to integrate Ole Miss by applying in 1961. When he informed the university that he was African American, his admission was delayed and obstructed, first by school officials and then by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. In a bid to block his enrollment, Barnett had Meredith temporarily jailed. Multiple attempts by Meredith, accompanied by federal officials, to enroll were physically blocked. Hoping to avoid violence and ensure Meredith's enrollment, President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of unproductive telephone negotiations with Barnett.
In preparation for another registration attempt, federal law enforcement were dispatched to accompany Meredith to maintain order, but a riot erupted on campus. Partly incited by white supremacist and former General Edwin Walker, the mob assaulted reporters and federal officers, burned and looted property, and hijacked vehicles. Reporters, U.S. marshals, and the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach sheltered in the Lyceum, the university's administrative building into the late morning of October 1. One hundred and sixty marshals were injured, including 28 marshals who received gunshot wounds while defending the Lyceum from an attacking mob using smoke grenades, tear gas, and bayonets. Two civilians were killed during the riot, Paul Guihard, a French journalist, and Ray Gunter, a jukebox repairman. Unaware of the riot, President Kennedy made an Oval Office address, saluting Mississippi's help in registering Meredith. Once informed, Kennedy invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and had U.S. Army units under Brigadier General Charles Billingslea quell the riot.
The riot and the federal crackdown were a major turning point in the civil rights movement and resulted in the desegregation of Ole Miss—the first integration of any public educational facility in Mississippi. The final time troops were deployed during the civil rights movement, it is regarded as the end of the segregationist tactic of massive resistance. A statue of James Meredith now commemorates the event on campus, and the site of the riot is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Leadup.
Meredith's attempts to enroll.
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The South is armed for revolt. These white people will accept another civil war knowing they are going to lose.
 — Oxford native and Nobel laureate William Faulkner, 1956
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in "Brown v. Board of Education" that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Eight years after the "Brown" decision, every Mississippi school district remained segregated, and all attempts by African American applicants to integrate the University of Mississippi—better known as Ole Miss—had failed. In contrast, most other Southern states had already yielded and integrated their institutions of higher learning, with the University of Arkansas having done so in 1948. Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy (who promised advances in civil rights), James Meredith applied to Ole Miss. Meredith, an African American who had served in the Air Force and completed coursework at Jackson State University, selected Ole Miss as it was a symbol of "white prestige and power" attended by the children of the state's elite. Meredith did not inform the university of his race until midway through the application process. State officials then obstructed and delayed his application for 20months.
In response, Meredith sued the university in late 1961. After months of obstruction by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' Benjamin Franklin Cameron, Meredith appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On September 10, 1962, Justice Hugo Black delivered the court's decision: Meredith must be admitted for the fall semester. Mississippi's segregationist Governor Ross Barnett, himself a graduate of Ole Miss, had the Mississippi Legislature pass a law barring the university enrollment of anyone with a charge of "moral turpitude" in state or federal court. Barnett then had Meredith charged and imprisoned for accidentally writing "1960" instead of "1961" while registering to vote; the Fifth Circuit quickly ordered Meredith's release.
Under the orders of the president's brother—U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy—the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered the case on Meredith's behalf. Facing contempt charges and jail, the university's board passed a resolution naming Governor Barnett as temporary regent of the college, making him responsible for Meredith's admission. Meredith then travelled to the Ole Miss campus in Oxford to register; he was blocked by Barnett, who read and presented a proclamation on states' rights. In a second attempt, Meredith, accompanied by DOJ civil-rights division chief John Doar and Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane, tried to register at the Woolfolk State Office Building in Jackson. He was again physically blocked by Barnett, who issued the rehearsed quip: "Which one is Meredith?" Another attempt to register at Ole Miss was stopped by Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. and lines of state troopers.
Kennedy dialogue and escalating tensions.
The Kennedy brothers hoped to resolve the dispute peacefully and avoid federal troop deployment. They were wary of provoking another Little Rock Crisis (1957), in which President Dwight D. Eisenhower had deployed 1,000 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. The Kennedys' overwhelming concern was that a "mini-civil war" between federal troops and armed protesters might erupt. Following the precedent of his arbitration with Alabama Governor John Patterson during the Freedom Rides, Robert had extensive telephone conversations with Barnett in hopes of resolving the issue.
On September 27, the governor offered to enroll Meredith if federal marshals made a display of threatening him at gunpoint, thereby allowing him to maintain his reputation while resolving the issue. Kennedy rejected the suggestion. In addition to Meredith's enrollment, he insisted Barnett pledge to maintain law and order. President Kennedy had extensive discussions with his staff and with Governor Barnett about protecting Meredith. Although Barnett alternated between bluster and placation while on the phone with the Kennedys, to the public he vowed to keep the university segregated. The White House made public threats of using federal forces to enforce Meredith's enrollment; Barnett believed these were little more than bluffs.
On September 28, the Fifth Circuit found Barnett to be in contempt of court and threatened to imprison and fine him $10,000 daily ($104,237 in 2024) if Meredith were not registered by October 2. During halftime at a September 29 Ole Miss football game, Barnett made a defiant 15-word speech: "I love Mississippi! I love her people! Our customs! I love and respect our heritage!" President Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard shortly thereafter. The following day, rumors spread that Kennedy's federal agents were preparing to arrest Barnett at the Governor's Mansion in Jackson. White-supremacist Citizens' Councils organized a "wall of human flesh"—over 2,000people—to surround the mansion and protect Barnett, but the alleged federal arrest never materialized. Anticipating violence at Ole Miss, 182 journalists flocked to Oxford to witness Meredith's next enrollment attempt. Photojournalists saw the visual potential of Meredith's plight: "a solitary man against thousands". "Time" magazine wrote that the dispute was "the gravest conflict between federal and state authority since the Civil War".
Events.
Meredith arrives.
On Sunday evening, September 30, Meredith and dozens of U.S. marshals arrived on campus with plans to register the following day. Shortly before 7 p.m., he was escorted by 24 federal marshals to his guarded dormitory, Baxter Hall. Travelling on military DC-3s from Memphis, Tennessee, 538 federal law enforcement officers arrived on campus. Although often described solely as marshals, the group also contained 316 border patrolmen and 97 federal prison guards, all of whom had received special riot training. Kennedy—informed by Eisenhower's choice to send paratroopers into Little Rock—elected to send federal agents as they were less likely to upset Mississippians due to their more civilian appearance. They converted the university's administration building, the Lyceum, into their operational headquarters, and local police established barriers on campus to prevent the entry of all except for students and faculty.
In the late afternoon, Ole Miss students began gathering in front of the Lyceum. As the evening progressed, more outsiders arrived on campus and the crowd became rowdier. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had intelligence that the lieutenants of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton, as well as 19 Klansmen from Louisiana, were at the university. Democrat former Major General Edwin Walker also appeared on campus to encourage the mob. Earlier, Walker had made a radio appeal for 10,000 volunteers to "rally to the cause of freedom" at Ole Miss.
As the situation worsened, the highway patrol initially held back the crowds but were withdrawn through the influence of Barnett's ally, State Senator George Yarbrough, starting at about 7:25 p.m. Yarbrough told Chief Marshal McShane: "You have occupied this university, and now you can have it." As they abandoned the federal officers, the local and state police dismantled their barriers, allowing large numbers of agitators from other states to enter the campus. Some patrolmen even encouraged protestors to advance and attack the marshals. The Kennedys instructed the marshals not to fire under any circumstances—even if overwhelmed by the mob—except if Meredith's life was in imminent danger.
Violence on campus.
Swelling to 2,500, the mob became increasingly violent and surrounded the marshals and border patrolmen that were encircling the Lyceum. The protesters began assaulting reporters and throwing Molotov cocktails and acid bottles at the marshals. Reporters and wounded marshals—as well as U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach—sheltered in the Lyceum. At 7:50 p.m., Chief Marshal McShane ordered his federal officers to fire tear gas. Some of the fired tear gas canisters hit members of the mob: one hit a girl in the face and another knocked a remaining state patrolman unconscious. Attempts by an Ole Miss football player and an Episcopalian rector to reason with the mob and stop the violence failed. Minutes after the tear gas was fired, President Kennedy delivered an Oval Office Address to the nation on Meredith's admission and thanked Mississippi for its contributions "to the progress of our democratic development". He was unaware of the riot: his aides were unable to inform him before he went live.
At 11 p.m., Governor Barnett issued a radio address; many believed that he would try to deescalate the violence. However, Barnett only further encouraged the riot, declaring, "We will never surrender!" Rioters twice attempted to drive a stolen bulldozer into the marshals, and all streetlights were shot or smashed with rocks, limiting visibility. A car was flipped with a reporter still inside. The mob burned five cars and a mobile television unit. Laboratories were raided and looted by rioters hoping to find more materials for Molotov cocktails and acid bottles. At one point, a rioter commandeered a fire engine and attempted to run over the marshals multiple times. Disobeying the Kennedys' orders, a minimum of five marshals fired at least 14 shots at the engine, disabling it.
Under the cover of darkness, rioters fired at marshals and reporters. An Associated Press journalist was shot in the back with pellets but refused medical attention, continuing to file reports via the Lyceum's telephone. At 1 a.m., reporter Karl Fleming was almost killed by a sniper; three shots hit the Lyceum wall around his head. Marshal Graham Same of Indianapolis nearly died after a bullet hit his neck, and 26 other marshals were wounded by gunfire. Ultimately, half of the marshals were injured. A single country doctor—Dr. L. G. Hopkins—cared for the wounded in the Lyceum throughout the night. Barnett agreed to a request from President Kennedy to order the state police return to the campus, which they never did. However, Lieutenant Governor Johnson did intervene to prevent the dismissed state troopers from joining in the attack. This prevented what would likely have been a brutal massacre, and Johnson himself later stated that, had he not prevented the troopers from sieging the campus, "there wouldn't have been a marshal left standing".
Military response.
President Kennedy initially considered using a helicopter to extract Meredith from the campus. However, it was unclear whether a landing was even possible due to crowds and debris, and Kennedy was concerned that Meredith would be assassinated