As September begins to bleed into October, and the dog days of summer bid us adieu, the University of Mississippi’s 178th year as Mississippi’s flagship institution of higher learning is well underway.
With robots putting about and a sleek new science building rising above the university’s skyline, it can be difficult to walk this campus and think of anything but the future. But this year, we stand face to face with our past.
On Sept. 11, 1962, James H. Meredith sent a letter to Robert Ellis, registrar at the University of Mississippi. It read:
“I plan to enroll in September. Please advise when to report for registration.”
The Western-Union telegram was short, but resolute. Days later, Meredith would enroll at the University of Mississippi. This moment is regarded as one of the most violent but also one of the most important milestones in American Civil Rights history.
This month, we celebrate 60 years since Meredith launched Ole Miss into a new era.
Decades later, it’s difficult to imagine such chaos ensuing over anyone wishing to attend the University of Mississippi. The school flourishes, with people of all colors, backgrounds and experiences pouring onto the campus every year. The progress that has been made is remarkable … but is it enough?
Here’s what a cross section of University of Mississippi students had to say.
“It’s been 60 years?” freshman integrated marketing communications major Evelyn Osorio asked. “I feel like it should have happened a long time ago. But I’m glad that we’re at the point where everyone is accepted and can be together in the same place.”
Osorio is not the only student who expressed shock at the relatively short amount of time that has passed between the first Black student attending this university and where we are today.
“I feel like it should have happened sooner. Sixty years is a big number but like 100 years, 150 years would’ve been better. But I’m glad that it happened because without him (Meredith), I probably wouldn’t be here either,” freshman economics major Ethan Miller said.
Like many students at this university, Miller is a legacy student. For him, progress is quite tangible — his grandparents went to Ole Miss “a long time ago.” Comparing their story to his own, it’s clear that a lot has changed.
“Looking around, there’s not quite an equal distribution of people here — there could be more diversity. But I definitely feel like it has gotten better since my grandparents came here,” he said. “There used to be a lot more segregation. They (his grandparents) described it as whatever color you were, that’s who you hung out with. It’s not like that now, but there’s still kind of that same vibe with frats and stuff.”
Dasana Trammell, a senior exercise science major, said that the freedoms Black students enjoy because of Meredith’s actions in 1962 are what makes this milestone so important.
“I think it’s kind of crazy because we go through our everyday life, and it’s normal for us to be integrated, and we don’t have a second thought about it,” she said. “But 60 years ago, it wasn’t like that and that’s just something super important to remember.”
Despite the progress that has been made, Trammell sees a need for more.
“I think there’s definitely more (progress) to be made. Looking around campus, it’s not even or equally mixed. The campus is still predominantly white. I would say we have a way to go, still,” she said.
Sixty years is hardly a lifetime — if you were born the day James Meredith stepped foot on the University of Mississippi’s campus for the first time, you would still be younger than our current president. Some students, such as Keschawn “Key” Edwards, find this fact alone to be remarkable.
“They’ve made a lot of progress from what I can tell. Mississippi used to be the richest state for like slavery and stuff like that, so for it to have changed this much in 60 years is really good progress,” he said.
In terms of progress moving forward, Edwards is comfortable with where the university is.
“In my two years that I’ve been here, I’ve loved it. I haven’t had a problem with any racial interactions — nothing of the sort. The teachers are fair in everything that they do,” he said. “Everyone has a fair chance of doing what they want, so if you don’t do something, it isn’t because of your race. It’s because you just didn’t do it. There’s always room for improvement, but right now, I think it’s good.”
For some students who see issues with the way things are on campus currently, the issue lies in the decisions of our past.
“We’ve obviously made progress, but there are still things … they’re just deep down and so firmly rooted that I think are still wrong,” freshman business major Jake Vineyard said. “There are still things that are viewed as maybe wrong or bad that are just regular, everyday normal things that are only viewed that way because of certain things that were set up so long ago. We just have to continue to make progress and stay aware.”
Jan’nice Thomas expressed that she would like to see more spaces for Black students on campus. But on the question of progress moving forward, Thomas sees the answer as cut and dry.
“There’s always more progress to be made. Always. The fight … it’ll never end,” she said.
No matter what you see the path forward as, we can all agree on this: The only thing that separates us from the ghosts of our past and the promises of our future is time.
We celebrate anniversaries not because it’s another year around the sun and not simply just to remember where we’ve been, but to figure out where we want to go. To gaze into the future. See what change we wish to make. What progress we want to achieve on behalf of ourselves and everyone who steps foot on this campus in the years after us.
