Ole Miss Integration Facts
Ole Miss Integration Facts
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Interesting Ole Miss Integration Facts: |
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Most of the violence took place in and around the Lyceum, which is a cluster of eight building in the center of campus. |
The riots are often also referred to as "The Battle of Oxford." |
The rioters were instigated by former Army Major General and rightwing activist Edwin Walker. |
Once the most militant portions of the mob learned that Meredith was being housed in Baxter Hall, they attempted to surround the building. |
The two fatalities were thirty-one-year-old French journalist, Paul Guihard and twenty-three-year-old repairman Ray Gunter. Guihard was shot in the back and Gunter in the forehead. Both were killed behind the Lyceum. |
Although President Kennedy agreed with integration in theory, he was more moderate than most civil rights activists and tried to reach a diplomatic solution before the violence began. |
It is believed that possibly due to his goatee and foreign accent, Guihard was thought to be a leftist protester. |
No one was arrested for either Guihard's or Gunter's murders. |
About 160 Marshals and forty guardsmen were injured during the riots. |
In football crazy Mississippi, the University of Mississippi's football team had a perfect record during the 1962, which was obviously overshadowed by the riots. |
Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi in August 1963 with a degree in political science. He had hundreds of troops guarding him twenty-four hours a day during his entire time at the university. |
The event turned public attention on the state of Mississippi and drew more civil rights activists to the state. |
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