1962 NEGRO ENROLLMENT “ENDS SEGREGATION IN MISSISSIPPI” (James Meredith)

This is the famous and historic headline from the October 2, 1962 edition of The New York Times reporting THE END OF SEGREGATION IN MISSISSIPPI when James Meredith integrated the all-white University of Alabama.  White segregationists from around the state joined students and locals in a violent, 15-hour riot on the campus on September 30, in which two people were killed execution style, hundreds were wounded, and six federal marshals were shot. The headline reads “3,000 TROOPS PUT DOWN MISSISSIPPI RIOTS AND ARREST 112 AS NEGRO BEGINS CLASSES”.  A photo of The New York Times coverage of this event is included in Taylor Branch’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece Parting the Waters.  Other articles include “Soldiers Beaten; Homes Damaged”, “Campus a Bivouac As Negro Enters”, and “Mobs Armed With Bottles and Bricks Terrorized Oxford From Dawn Until Noon”.