It was over 30 years ago when Mississippi civil rights pioneer James Meredith first stopped by the Northside Sun to say hello.
There was no Internet, no social media. Newspapers were in their heyday. The integration of Ole Miss was only 30 years past.
I wrote a column about Mr. Meredith, his ideas and his plans, all of which he stayed true to. He struck me as a gadfly, an iconoclast, a character, charming and impossible to categorize. He was younger than I am now.
Over the years, he would touch base from time to time, always so nice and complimentary, telling me I helped produce the best newspaper in the country.
I did a search on newspapers.com and found a column I wrote in 2013 when Meredith was 80 years old. He had just written his book “Mission From God.”
I wrote: “Meredith is a classic Mississippian: traditional, patriotic, religious, conservative, funny, smart, unique and very comfortable in his own skin. He is also a huge Ole Miss football fan.”
How interesting that God chose this unique and charming man for a special role. It took 20,000 U. S. troops on the Ole Miss campus to enroll Meredith. That night, he slept like a baby for 10 hours.
He later wrote, “I felt like I had accomplished my objective. I was on campus and nothing would make me leave. I had great confidence in the marshals and the soldiers to fight off any attempts on my life and to guarantee my rights as an American citizen. I made my bed, lay down, closed my eyes and went to sleep.”
There is great wisdom in Meredith’s attitude and approach to life. The Bible tells us God knitted us in our mother’s womb and knows everything that is to happen to us before we are born. God also promises to take care of us and to provide for us if we have faith and trust him. This is the way to live a happy life and fulfill your destiny. This is how Meredith has lived his life.
James has been a fixture around Jackson, holding court at various public venues around town. He is warm and friendly and never shy about talking and engaging. It’s fun to see a piece of Mississippi history out and about, never pretentious, always thinking, always trying to change the world for the better.
Mississippi life is full of irony so it should not be surprising that Meredith is quite proud of his great grandfather Josiah Abigail Patterson Campbell.
Josiah Campbell lived in Madison County and was, among other things, chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives. He was a president pro tempore of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States and was one of the original signers of the Confederate Constitution.
Campbell attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Mississippi 40th infantry regiment, where he was slightly wounded at the Second Battle of Corinth. Campbell was one of the drafters of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution, which enforced legal white supremacy.
You just can’t make this stuff up. The great grandson of one of the founders of the Confederacy spearheaded the integration of Ole Miss. Only in Mississippi.
And let’s not forget the March Against Fear in 1966 from Memphis to Jackson through the Delta, 270 miles in 21 days. On the second day of the walk, Meredith was shot, wounded and hospitalized. Martin Luther King joined and 15,000 marchers entered Jackson on June 26, 1966.
Now at age 90, Meredith is embarking on his latest march, a march through all 82 counties in Mississippi. It is a march for racial reconciliation and against crime in Mississippi.
“America is good,” Meredith told me. “That’s why I am hopeful the racial issue can be resolved. This is going to be 1,000 times bigger than the march in 1966. I am going to open Mississippi up so it can solve the problems of the world.”
A Google News search shows several recent headlines: The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal writes “James Meredith visits Ripley during statewide tour.” Mississippi Public Broadcasting writes, “Civil rights veteran James Meredith planning a 200 mile walk against crime.”
The Hindu religion labels certain people “gurus,” a spiritual teacher who is the living embodiment of a spiritual truth. James Meredith has definitely been a Mississippi guru.
To judge someone by the color of their skin violates all the fundamental tenets of Christianity. There’s still far too much of it in Mississippi today. We have come so far, but there is still so much work to do. We still see so many things in black and white.
I walked James to his car with its banged up front bumper. He looked at me and laughed, the trademark twinkle in his eye. “I keep it like that so I don’t have to worry about banging up the bumper.”
Spry, he easily got in the car without my aid, heading to the first county of his march. I wondered if this was the last of his impromptu visits. Neither one of us is young.
As he drove away, his words rang in my ears: “Only God could do this. But he did it without me knowing it, much less anybody else knowing it.”
