James H. Meredith Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

After serving nine years in the U.S. Air Force, James Meredith (b. 1933) registered at the University of Mississippi in the Fall of 1961. Attempts were made to block his registration, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that admission could not be denied to any academically qualified, tax-paying state citizen. In the wake of increasingly violent protests, President John F. Kennedy ordered U.S. Marshals to escort Meredith to class. Riots broke out and two students were killed before the National Guard arrived. Meredith's entrance to "Ole Miss" was a pivotal point in the Civil Rights movement, and he followed it with his 1966 "Walk Against Fear", a march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi to urge Blacks to exercise their voting rights. Meredith was shot on the march, and when he was physically able to resume the march, he did so, joined this time by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other prominent civil rights leaders. (Meredith actually dislikes the term "civil rights," which he thinks tends to separate Americans by race.)