Civil rights icon James Meredith is honored in his Mississippi hometown

Source: ABC News/AP

December 23, 2024, 11:51 AM


KOSCIUSKO, Miss. -- A new historical marker has been unveiled in the hometown of James Meredith, honoring the Black man who fought white supremacy by integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962.

Meredith, 91, wore a red Ole Miss baseball hat as he watched Friday's ceremony from the front seat of a pickup truck owned by Kosciusko, a town of 6,800 that is also the birthplace of media mogul Oprah Winfrey. About 85 people attended, and many snapped selfies with Meredith and his wife, Judy Alsobrooks Meredith.

“Most important day of my life,” Meredith said in a brief interview. “Over half the people here are my relatives," he said. "And for relatives to stand out in the cold like they did — that’s something special.”

Meredith, who resists being called a civil rights leader, now lives in Mississippi's capital city of Jackson. He was born in Kosciusko and grew up on a nearby farm. He graduated from high school in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1951, and served for nine years in the Air Force before returning to Mississippi. He attended Jackson State College — the historically Black school that is now Jackson State University — for two years before suing to gain admission as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi.

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