James Meredith Biography

Civil rights activist, business executive. Born James Howard Meredith on June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. After serving in the US Air Force, he became the first African American to enroll in the University of Mississippi (1962), but only after he had weathered campus riots (which left two dead) and the resistance of state officials. Federal troops had to protect him on campus until he graduated (1963).

Meredith published his autobiographhical Three Years in Mississippi (1966) and not long after was shot and wounded while on the March Against Fear in Mississippi. He recovered and completed the march, but soon after dropped out of the civil rights movement. He worked as a stockbroker, in real estate, and as an investor (1967) while attending Columbia University Law School (1968).

In 1968 Meredith became president of Meredith Enterprises, lectured on racial problems, and was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives (1972). Always a somewhat diffident loner, he seemed reluctant to assume the roles that were thrust upon him.