James Meredith’s preparation for becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi began more than a decade earlier in the Air Force, the civil rights pioneer said Sunday at a Greenwood church.
In 1951, he said he became the first black assigned to a B-29 outfit. On his first day, Meredith was given a top-floor room and a white roommate at a barracks at Topeka Air Force Base in Kansas.
“When I got back from work that evening, not only had my roommate moved, every white troop on that second floor (moved). I had the whole floor to myself,” he said. “And they thought I was going to feel bad because some of the whites got up and walked out of class when I walked in (at Ole Miss).”
Things did get a little rougher than that in Oxford in 1962, though. President John Kennedy called in federal troops and the Mississippi National Guard to keep order when Meredith integrated the university, and two people were killed during riots.
Meredith, 77, talked some about those old days and some about various other topics during a rambling speech at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
It ventured into the bizarre at times. For example, he claimed he is a prophet who has direct two-way communication with God and sees into the future.
He clad himself in all white, from suit to beard. Everything he wore was white, except his black shoes.
It had taken more than an hour to get to Meredith’s speech, with multiple and lengthy introductions. William Ware, a retired Mississippi Valley State University professor, Bill Clay of the Greenwood Mentoring Group, Freddy Baine of The Bridge and attorney Hiram Eastland Jr. all spoke. Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams presented Meredith with a resolution from the city.
There were performances by the Providence Praise Team, Perfected Prayz Ministries and Connected Branches, a youth organization from Indianola that performs spoken-word recitations about black history.
For years when he attended such events, Meredith said he soaked up all the credit. He said that was his motivation for entering Ole Miss.
“That was the most driving force: I wanted to be important,” he said. “I spent at least 15 years of my life trying to figure out when I can do that would bring immortality, where my name would last forever.”
But then, Meredith said, God told him to quit trying to do His job and for Meredith just to do his little bit.
The event was intended as an education summit, and Meredith did talk about education in Mississippi.
He said for 40 years the state has been living a lie that its schools are integrated. He said the white powers that be destroyed black educational institutions to prevent integration.
But the “us versus them” mentality between blacks and whites is now no longer the problem, Meredith said. Rather the “us” is now the United States and the “them” is India, China and Latin America.
The No. 1 problem with education today is a lack of moral courage, Meredith said. He said older people are scared to correct young people. Instead of blaming youth, it’s old folks who are not doing their jobs, he said.
“I think God’s plan and his will for Mississippi is that we as member of God’s family start to do our little bit,” he said.
