Media Contacts
Chief Communications Officer
Ole Miss – The University of Mississippi
Office of the Chancellor
P.O. Box 1848
131 Lyceum Circle
University, MS 38677
662-915-8813
teppes@olemiss.edu | www.olemiss.edu
Associate Director, Internal and Local Media Relations
Ole Miss – The University of Mississippi
University Communications
219 Gerard Hall
University, MS 38677
662-915-5639
mdiggs@olemiss.edu
Biographies
James Meredith
James Howard Meredith was born on June 25, 1933, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and raised on his family’s eighty-four-acre farm in Attala County. After graduation from Gibbs High in St. Petersburg, Florida in June of 1951, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1960, including a three-year tour of duty at Tackikawa Airforce Base in Japan. Read full bio.
Mr. Harry Belafonte
Award-winning Harry Belafonte is as well known for his social activism and pursuit of social justice as he is for his acting and musical talent. His album Calypso made him the first artist in history to sell more than one million LPs. He won a Tony award for his Broadway debut in “John Murray Anderson Almanac” and an Emmy for “An Evening with Belafonte,” in which he was also the first black producer in television. He was also awarded the National Medal for the Arts by President Clinton. Read full bio.
John Michael Doar
As a young attorney working within the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, John Doar was in downtown Jackson in June, 1963 to prevent a riot following the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Doar placed himself between angry black youths and a double line of heavily armed, police ready to move in with clubs and guns. Sidestepping stones and bottles he moved along Farrish Street urging the mob to put down their weapons. “My name is John Doar, D-O-A-R,” he shouted. “I’m from the Justice Department, and anybody around here knows I stand for what is right.” Read full bio.
Related News Stories
UM African American Studies Program
African-American Studies Program in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi, was instituted in 1970 after over 80 African American students demonstrated at the university for the establishment of a Black Studies program and the hiring of black faculty and administrators. After the protest, a number of students were arrested. Protesters were housed in Lafayette County jail, and over forty were sent to Parchman prison until they were bonded out. Eventually, eight students were expelled from the university, but in the fall of that year, the university hired Ms. Jeanette Jennings as the first black faculty member. Also during that year, the first classes were offered under the Black Studies Program.
UM Firsts–African American Doctoral Fellows in Chemistry
UM Firsts–Ole Miss First Female African American ASB President
UM Firsts–Ole Miss Honors its First African American Athletes
Videos
Images
View a gallery of images from James Meredith’s first day of class
UM, Former PR Director Release Unpublished Photos of Meredith’s First Day in Class
