Who was the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962?

James Meredith was the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962.

Meredith applied to the university in 1961 and was rejected twice, despite having the necessary qualifications. He sued with support from the NAACP, and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately cleared the way for his admission. Mississippi officials resisted the ruling, turning his enrollment into a major federal civil-rights confrontation.

President John F. Kennedy’s administration sent federal marshals to Oxford, Mississippi, to protect Meredith. Rioting followed on the campus, and two people died, but Meredith enrolled on October 1, 1962. He graduated in 1963 with a degree in political science.

Meredith’s case is sometimes confused with the later 1966 March Against Fear, which he began in Mississippi after being shot. He survived that attack, and other civil-rights activists continued the march.