Prof: Context key to 50-year integration events

By Emily Wagster Pettus

Associated Press

Published: Thursday, Sept. 27 2012 3:15 a.m. MDT

View 4 photos »

Retired Episcopal Bishop Duncan Gray Jr., recalls for reporters some of the events surrounding the integration of the University of Mississippi, Wednesday Sept. 26, 2012 in Jackson, Miss. Gray was rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Oxford during the 1962 integration of the school.

Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press

Summary

Is the University of Mississippi putting a glossy sheen on its commemoration of 50 years of integration?

JACKSON, Miss. — Is the University of Mississippi putting a glossy sheen on its commemoration of 50 years of integration?

One expert says it is, and he contends that's not good for the university or the state.

Ole Miss history professor Charles Eagles says the university should reach beyond slogans and teach more about slavery, segregation and other difficult parts of the state's past. That way, he says, people could better understand why mob violence erupted when James Meredith finally gained court-ordered admission as the university's first black student on Oct. 1, 1962.

Ole Miss has held events during the past year to mark the anniversary. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks on the Oxford campus Thursday night.

Chancellor Dan Jones says integration "positively changed the university, our state and our country."

Comments