The tensions surrounding integration in the 1960s were palpable. When James Meredith became the first black man admitted to the University of Mississippi, with the help of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, the public reaction was passionate and divisive. 

Audio at (00:56)

School officials made efforts to obstruct Meredith’s admission to the university. Even the Mississippi governor, staunch segregationist Ross Barnett, attempted to put him in jail on trumped up charges of “moral turpitude” (for accidentally writing “1960” instead of “1961” while registering to vote). Meanwhile, Barnett was stoking racially charged frenzy among the Ole Miss students and Texas governor candidate Edwin Walker decided to join in on the anti-integration rhetoric.

Audio at (00:24)

Who was Edwin Walker?

Edwin Walker was a major general for the US Army during WWII and the Korean War. After being assigned to Arkansas to protect the “Little Rock Nine” in 1957 and quell the tensions surrounding integration, Walker believed it went against his conscience and resigned in 1961 to pursue his conservative political aspirations.

Despite losing his bid for governor against John Connally, the admission of James Meredith seemed like a good opportunity for Walker to voice his segregationist views and boost his political clout.

Ole Miss Riots

In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy and his brother Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy negotiated with a reluctant Governor Barnett to allow James Meredith to attend the University of Mississippi (under threat of being jailed for contempt) and ordered U.S. marshals to Oxford to escort Meredith safely.

The clash of angry segregationists (including members of the Ku Klux Klan) and integrationist counter-protestors led to violent riots that led to the death of two people and multiple injuries.

Amidst the chaos, Edwin Walker was arrested on grounds of inciting a rebellion or insurrection. Robert F. Kennedy ordered to have Walker committed to a mental institution where he was held for five days.

1963: AssassiNation

On April 10, 1963, Walker was in his home office when suddenly a bullet shot through his window, fragments striking his arm. Police investigators claimed it was a close call by someone who had demonstrated intent to kill.

Two months later on June 12th, Medgar Evers was murdered at his own home in Mississippi by KKK member Byron De La Beckwith.

Then in November, the nation changed forever.

While investigating the president’s assassination, the Warren Commission confirmed that Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter that attempted to kill Edwin Walker in April, based on testimony by Oswald’s wife Marina.

Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly went out a bought a rifle after hearing Edwin Walker give an anticommunist speech during his “Operation Midnight Ride” tour with Christian evangelist Billy James Hargis.

Audio at (00:31)

Associated Press v. Walker

In 1964, Walker filed a two-million-dollar libel lawsuit against the Associated Press for reporting that he led the riots at Ole Miss. 

The court eventually granted Edwin Walker $800,000 in damages.

Interview with Walker after the ruling. Audio begins at (02:05)

Aftermath

James Meredith endured harassment and racist threats but managed to graduate from the University of Mississippi in 1963 with a degree in political science. In June 1966, he began a one-man “March Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to stand against racism in the South. On his second day of marching, he was shot by a white man in Hernando, Mississippi. Meredith survived his injuries and continued marching, inspiring thousands of Black Americans to register to vote and fight for social change.

James Meredith is still alive today.

Edwin Walker’s political career went nowhere and he died in 1993.

Both men are mentioned in the protest song “The Ballad of Oxford” by Phil Ochs.

Check out UNT Special Collections’ incredible KXAS/NBC 5 News Collection to learn more history!