JUNE 6, 1966: JAMES MEREDITH SHOT WHILE MARCHING FROM MEMPHIS TO JACKSON, MS

On June 6, 1966, James Meredith was shot by Aubrey James Norvell at the start of his solitary march from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith pulled himself to cover near a parked car after being shot. Other marchers and newsmen took cover behind another car.

Jack R. Thornell’s post-shooting photograph of Meredith on the ground won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1967. Meredith recovered from his wound and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson. During his march, 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote.

James Meredith started a solitary March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to protest against racism. Soon after starting his march he was shot by a gunman with a shotgun, injuring him.

When they heard the news, other civil rights campaigners, including SCLC’s Martin Luther King, SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael, Cleveland Sellers and Floyd McKissick, as well as the Human Rights Medical Committee and other civil rights organizations decided to continue the march in Meredith’s name.

The NAACP was originally involved but pulled out on learning that the Deacons for Defense and Justice were going to be protecting the march. Ordinary people both black and white came from the South and all parts of the country to participate. The marchers slept on the ground outside or in large tents, and were fed mainly by local communities.

James Howard Meredith is a civil rights movement figure, a writer, and a political adviser. In 1962, he was the 1st African American student admitted to the segregated from University of Mississippi, an event that was a flashpoint in the American civil rights movement.

Motivated by President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans.

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