A Tale of Two Merediths
This is a story of two families named Meredith. The story arc for one family peaked on a long night in September of 1962. For the other family, it might have peaked on December 4, 2006. What they share in common is the United States Supreme Court.
Crystal Meredith and her kindergarten aged son Joshua moved to Louisville Kentucky in 2002 sometime after the normal enrollment period for new students in February and March. In August, when Crystal attempted to enroll Joshua in her neighborhood school, her request was denied. That school operates on a "year-round" plan and was already seven weeks into its school year. Joshua was assigned to one of the other schools in the "cluster" of available schools based on Crystal's residence. She requested a transfer to a different school, which was closer to her house, but not part of her assigned cluster. Her request was denied. According to the letter she received from the school district it was because "The office of student services has disapproved your transfer request" because it would "have an adverse effect on desegregation compliance." Following years of court-ordered desegregation, the school system had devised a voluntary plan to maintain the racial balance achieved once the court order was lifted. This appears to be the point where Crystal decided to take her case to court.
Joshua went to his assigned school, apparently without incident. He finished his kindergarten year and went on to first grade. Again, during the time for enrollment and school transfers his mother did not request a transfer. In fact, she did nothing. So Joshua was assigned to the same school he went to for kindergarten for first grade. Crystal, meanwhile, decided to pursue her lawsuit claiming that Joshua had been discriminated against based on his race, because he could not attend the school of her choice. It did not seem to matter to her that her “choice” school was out of her designated cluster area, where she had as many as ten schools from which to choose. Court after court ruled against her until her appeal reached the Supreme Court. On December 4, the Court heard oral arguments in the case of Meredith v. Jefferson County Schools.
In 1961, James Meredith was attending college at Jackson State University in Mississippi. He was a bit older than most students, having enlisted in the Air Force right out of high school. Following the landmark decision of Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the country was moving “with all deliberate speed” towards desegregation and elimination of all Jim Crow laws. Meredith wanted to attend the University of Mississippi, still segregated at that time. He wrote to Thurgood Marshall, head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to ask for help in enrolling in the University. He told Marshall that he was willing to do whatever it took to get into the school.
After applying twice and being rejected both times, Meredith filed suit against the University. A district court sided with the University; the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Meredith. The case would go to the Supreme Court; it sided with Meredith. By now it was 1962.
As time for enrollment drew closer, tension mounted. In September, the Kennedy administration sent Nicholas Katzenbach to Mississippi to try to negotiate a scenario for Meredith to enroll. The University balked. But the administration decided that Meredith would be spirited onto campus on September 30 under the guard of federal marshals. And he would enroll the following day.
Throughout the day and into the evening of the 30th, the white students of the University gathered to protest Meredith’s pending enrollment. By 7p.m. or so the crowd was unruly to say the least. The federal marshal in charge of the operation had enlarged the number of his men in the operation from a few teams to 127. He also deputized 300 members of the U.S. Border Patrol. His small army had few weapons: those with sidearms had been ordered not to shoot. The remainder of the force had teargas and makeshift helmets to protect themselves and Meredith.
The chants and taunts of the students gave way to rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails and football sized chunks of concrete with handles attached to make it easier for them to be lobbed at the marshals. The crowd had been fired up thanks to a televised speech by then Governor Ross Barnett, who vowed that no Mississippi schools would be integrated as long as he was governor. Barnett had lined up Mississippi state troopers along side the protesters to stare down the federal agents and supposedly “keep order,” but in reality, they did nothing to stop the growing violence.
Rocks were flying, bricks thrown and fires were set. By this time, most of the students fled for their safety as other protesters – some from as far away as California. Two young men who were watching the scene got caught in the middle as the mob turned and surged. One was shot in the head and killed as he and his friend had tried to flee.
The marshals and Katzenbach had been on the phone to the White House and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The marshals were outmanned and outnumbered and quickly running out of teargas, the only weapon between them and violent crowd and state troopers. President Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard and they moved in. He also called in US Army troops from Fort Bragg, NC, who arrived in the wee hours of October 1.
The army troops, equipped with M-1 rifles, bayonets attached, were given the order to “load, lock and fire when fired up.” People who were there say that the sound of those weapons racking into firing position, in unison, that loud, unmistakable “click clack”, that stopped the protesters in their tracks.
Later that morning, James Meredith was escorted to the Lyceum building, where he, the first black student admitted to the University of Mississippi was enrolled. The federal marshals who were with him that morning, stayed with him until he graduated in 1963. He did not go anywhere, on campus or off, without the marshals protecting him.
Crystal Meredith didn’t get her choice of school for her son Joshua. But Joshua went to kindergarten at an integrated school, where as far as we know, he learned his numbers, played with his classmates, made new friends, drew pictures for his mommy’s refrigerator door, and was promoted to the first grade. Joshua went to the first grade at the same school where he went to kindergarten.
Crystal thought her son was discriminated against because he is white. James Meredith was discriminated against because he was black in Mississippi in 1962. Based on what was included the in merits brief of her case, the most grievous injury Crystal and Joshua suffered was that she had to drive him 20 minutes to school each day (because she didn’t want him to ride the school bus.) It pales in comparison to what James Meredith endured to open the doors of a school so that thousands and thousands of black students could follow in his footsteps.
Two families named Meredith went to the Supreme Court, 45 years apart. When the Justices gather to deliberate this case, I hope they remember the courage of James and federal marshals who guarded him day after day. I hope they remember the defiance of a governor who tried to subvert the Constitution and the rule of law. I hope they remember the conviction of a President, his Attorney General and his legal team who insured the Court’s will – and that of the People – was enforced. I hope they remember those soldiers and guardsmen called on to do the unthinkable: aim their weapons at their fellow citizens to protect the lives and safety of fellow citizens. I hope they remember the two people who were killed and the more than 150 who were injured including 69 US Marshals. I hope they remember. And I hope they can see the damage they will do to the memory, the hard work and the sacrifice of those who brought this country out of the darkness of Jim Crow into the light. Joshua and Crystal Meredith don’t know discrimination. James Meredith does.
