Newswise — With an African-American expected to accept the Democratic nomination for president Aug. 28, many voters are examining their attitudes toward one of the nation's most perplexing and pervasive issues " race. At the University of Mississippi, the examination has been going on since 1962.
That's when federal troops forced the enrollment of James Meredith over the defiant protests of Gov. Ross Barnett and hundreds of segregationists. Two people were killed, dozens injured. In the 46 years since, the university has not fully escaped the shadow of that event, despite its persistent and considerable efforts.
Race, politics and the national spotlight are set to converge again on the Oxford campus Sept. 26 during the first 2008 presidential debate, a verbal duel on domestic issues between frontrunners John McCain and Barack Obama. By hosting the debate, UM not only hopes to highlight renowned academic and research programs but also looks to write a new chapter in its history on racial reconciliation.
"Nobody else " no other school " has been challenged by issues related to race to the extent we have experienced at Ole Miss," said Robert Khayat, its chancellor. "And probably no university in America has made the progress on race that we have made. Most objective observers would conclude that our university is a model for the nation."
The sentiment is shared by Meredith, the man at the center of that defining moment in UM's history.
"Ole Miss is a step above every other major institution in America," Meredith said in a recent interview. "That's why Ole Miss [is best poised to deal with race]. They know more about the issue."
The university literally has been working on the issue since the morning of Oct. 2, 1962, one day after federal troops quelled the insurrection, said former U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who represented the Kennedy administration during the uprising. That morning, at the request of the dean of the UM Law School, Katzenbach met with faculty and students.
"Despite obvious and understandable hostility from some students, we had a civilized discussion about the Constitution and how our government of laws worked," said Katzenbach, upon returning campus in 2003 for the conclusion of Open Doors, UM's 40th anniversary commemoration of Meredith's enrollment. "I have always felt that, with that discussion, Ole Miss began to learn and profit from the terrible events of the night before.
"In our efforts to solve the problems of race and two centuries of discrimination against blacks, together blacks and whites have obviously made significant and remarkable progress. In higher education, Ole Miss has " to its great credit " been in the forefront."
These days, campus visitors expecting to see football fans waving Confederate flags are in for a surprise. The university officially disassociated itself from the flag in 1983, at one point confiscating flags at football games as though they were contraband. And although sports teams are still identified as the Ole Miss Rebels, the iconic Colonel Reb mascot hasn't roamed the sidelines for several years.
"In many cases, Ole Miss and Mississippi are viewed from a '60s perspective rather than a 2008 perspective," Khayat said. "When the debate takes place, people are going to see Ole Miss today, Oxford today and Mississippi today. This is a wonderful opportunity for that perception to be updated."
Reasons for his optimism abound. Students elected Nic Lott as UM's first black Associated Student Body president in 1999, followed by its second, Clarence Webster, in 2000. Since 1990, The Daily Mississippian has had five black editors, including three women. As far back as the mid-1970s, blacks have won student popularity contests, including Colonel Reb, Miss Ole Miss and Most Beautiful. This fall, FedEx executive Rose Flenorl becomes the first black president of UM's Alumni Association.
Other evidence of UM's racial progress includes:"¢ The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. Established in 1999, the pioneering Winter Institute provides mediation services to communities throughout the nation dealing with racial problems. A founding member of the regional Alliance for Truth and Racial Reconciliation, the institute has published a free handbook with extensive guidance on fostering an open and civil dialogue on race in communities."¢ Civil Rights Monument. In 2006, UM dedicated its civil rights monument between the Lyceum and the J.D. Williams Library. It features a statue of James Meredith marching toward a limestone portal engraved with the words "Courage," "Opportunity," "Knowledge" and "Perseverance.""¢ Race, Religion & Reconciliation Exchange. In July 2008, UM partnered with the University of Ulster in Ireland and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa in a unique exchange program that gathered graduate students from the three nations to examine the divisive issues of race and religion. The students have already visited the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, and Belfast, where much of Ireland's Catholic-Protestant violence occurred. This week they are in South Africa, visiting several sites, including the jail where Mandela was imprisoned."¢ Minority Enrollment. In fall 2007, ethnic minorities made up 19 percent of UM's student body, up 67 percent from 1994-95. UM also is a leader in producing black Ph.Ds. According to a 2003 analysis published by Black Issues in Higher Education, UM's number of black doctoral graduates increased 160 percent from academic year 2000-01 to 2001-02, ranking it sixth nationally. UM also tied for seventh in granting doctorates in business and 23rd in awarding doctorates in education to black students."¢ Mississippi Teacher Corps. Since its creation in 1989, MTC has placed nearly 500 educators in the state's most impoverished schools. Most of them are in the Mississippi Delta, where half of all black children are born into poverty, and generations have grown up facing economic hardships and despair. "¢ Mississippi Innocence Project. Funded in part by UM law school alumnus and novelist John Grisham, the MIP identifies and investigates cases where DNA and other new evidence can exonerate the wrongfully convicted. The project, which has successfully overturned two such convictions, seeks to reform systemic problems in the state's criminal justice system and to raise public and political awareness of the prevalence, causes and societal costs of wrongful convictions, which tend to disproportionately affect blacks.
Yet remnants of the past linger. The Winter Institute, for example, is housed in Vardaman Hall, named decades ago for a staunch segregationist. UM's civil rights monument sits on the west side of the central administration building, while a Confederate monument lies to the east.
In America, race has always been more complex than just black and white, said Charles Reagan Wilson, Kelly Gene Cook Chair of History and former director of UM's Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
"Throughout Southern history, you have a biracial culture and a biracial way of life. You have people from West Africa and Western Europe interacting on an uneven playing ground, essentially creating a blend of Western civilization and Third World life. Only recently are we really beginning to understand that story. It's fascinating."
With Obama and McCain set to square off at the Ford Center, UM again finds itself in the middle of America's ongoing dialog about race.
"On one hand, the South has been solidly Republican. On the other hand, [Mississippi] is where Barack Obama wins primaries," Wilson said. "In many ways, the South has been the most prosperous part of the country for years. At the same time, we still have rural poverty, underperforming schools and the highest infant mortality rate. The complexities of the South are still here."
UM students are stepping up to tackle these complexities head-on. In February 2008, some 80 students from all ethnic backgrounds gathered for a weekend retreat called "One Mississippi." Their goal: to bridge the unspoken gap that causes blacks and whites to socialize separately. With open hearts and minds, they came, they saw, they listened.
"Issues like racism and social segregation have not been high on my list of priorities during my time in Oxford," wrote opinion-page editor Eddie Smith in a Daily Mississippian commentary. "I came to realize that my position, while convenient, was rather narrow-minded. Something really does need to change.
"There are plenty of problems to be solved one by one. They won't happen quickly, and you may not notice the difference, but my eyes are a little more open. [This retreat] is a step in the right direction."
When international news organizations come to Oxford to cover the debate, Khayat expects the issue of race to surface. He would like people to look at the whole picture, not just a grainy black-and-white newsreel from nearly a half-century ago.
"We are taking the initiative," Khayat said. "We are saying, 'Here is the race story at Ole Miss. Here is where we were in 1962, and here's where we are today.' Yes, we have a history that includes inappropriate behavior in regards to race. But our current state of affairs is a model for the nation."
Marti Covington, a black female who completed her term as editor of the campus newspaper in May, attended the retreat. "I know there are at least 80 people on this campus who desire change," she wrote. "As members of the Ole Miss family, we have the right and the responsibility to do what we can to make this a place where we all feel connected.
"It will require communication, effort, time and patience, but the goal of an integrated, diverse Ole Miss is worth the work it takes to get there."(lee eric smith)
Note: Lee Eric Smith became the first black editor of The Daily Mississippian in 1990.
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