James Meredith was the first Black student at UM. Now he’s on a ‘last mission from God.’
At 88 years old, civil rights icon James Meredith is on what he calls his “Last Mission from God.”
On Wednesday night, that mission brought him to Gulfport, to speak about race, the church and the role of Mississippi in America’s history — and its future.
“I’m pretty much ready to believe that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is going to determine the future of Mississippi and the world,” he said in an interview with the Sun Herald. “Mississippi has thought longer and harder about the problems facing America — the Black-white race problem, the criminal problem, the public education problem. Everyone knows what’s going on now ain’t working.”
Meredith, a native of Kosciusko and an Air Force veteran, became the first Black student at the University of Mississippi when he registered for classes on Oct. 1, 1962. The day before, hundreds of white students and others determined to prevent integration had attacked federal marshals in a riot that killed two and became known as the Battle of Oxford.
His latest mission formally began on the 59th anniversary of his enrollment. Meredith, now living in Jackson, intends to visit all 82 counties in the state “to raise the moral character of Mississippi by teaching the 10 Commandments and the Golden Rule to to our young and uninstructed.”
Wednesday, he spoke to an audience of about 100 people at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Harrison County campus.
Edward Deloach, who was in the audience, was 12 years old and living in Gulfport when Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi. Deloach, who is Black, remembered trying to listen to the radio for staticky updates from Oxford about Meredith. Pastors, doctors, and other community leaders prayed for Meredith.
“I was just amazed at how he was so persistent,” Deloach said. “I thank God that he persevered.”
A Halloween visit to Gulfport City Hall
This year, Leonard Papania, Gulfport’s chief administrative officer, was sitting in his office at City Hall on Oct. 29, when his assistant told him someone wanted to speak with him.
Wearing a red zipper sweater, red tie, khaki pants and blue sneakers, Papania got up to meet the visitor. He had dressed up as Mr. Rogers for City Hall’s Halloween celebration.
“So I turn the corner and I see it’s James Meredith,” Papania said. “I knew exactly who it was. I’m immediately apologizing for my attire.”
Meredith wore a gray suit and his trademark Ole Miss baseball cap as he described his plan to spend this late chapter of his life spreading a message of right from wrong and the Ten Commandments.
Papania asked him what Gulfport could do for him. Meredith said he wanted to get the word out. Papania asked whether he would be interested in delivering a speech in Gulfport.
“He looked at me and he threw his arms up and said, ‘You’re the first person to ask this,’” Papania said.
Gulfport police discuss ‘Before the Bullet’
Gulfport officials said they saw a correlation between Meredith’s message about the importance of basic values and a new initiative of the Gulfport Police Department. Called “Before the Bullet,” the department’s program aims to identify young people who have a criminal record and could be on a path toward committing a violent crime. They seek to provide them with mentorship and career guidance.
Sgt. Jason DuCré, Gulfport police spokesman, said the program has three participants in its “beta phase.” With no dedicated funding so far, the program will rely on community support. Climb CDC, Job Corps and Camp Shelby are currently partners offering opportunities to participants.
“We’re looking for a lot of people to step up tonight,” DuCré said before the event with Meredith.
Before Meredith spoke, Gulfport police chief Chris Ryle formally announced the program.
‘The center of the universe’
In 1966, Meredith embarked on a solitary “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson, aiming to encourage Black Mississippians to register to vote. On his second day, a white supremacist shot and injured him.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael and Floyd McKissick, representing three different civil rights organizations, came to Mississippi to finish the march. By the time they arrived in Jackson, 15,000 people had joined them.
But Meredith’s legacy as an icon of the movement is complicated.
In the late 1980s, he briefly worked as an advisor to segregationist North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms. He also endorsed former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke in his campaign to become Louisiana’s governor.
On Wednesday night, Meredith spoke little about his experiences at the university or his 1966 March Against Fear. Instead, he emphasized the role of the Christian church and basic moral principles in solving what he calls “the Black-white race problem.”
Moderating the event, Rev. John Whitfield, pastor of Gulfport’s Morning Star Baptist Church, invoked the claim often attributed to King that 10:30 a.m. on Sunday is the most segregated hour in America.
“Separation is the worst thing that ever happened to humanity,” Meredith said. “The division on race, I don’t care how much money you make, even if you become president of the United States, you’re still, and I’m gonna say it, a (racial slur).”
Meredith called Mississippi’s churches “the most powerful force in the world today.”
The church, he said, “has the most power to move Mississippi from the bottom to the top.” Each church, he said, should take responsibility for every child born within a two-mile radius.
“There are opportunities of change that would have the greatest impact if they could get started at the center of the universe,” he said.
