James Meredith:
The Forgotten/Ignored Civil Rights Pioneer
During my ten-year career in the NFL, I was honored to play with two Super Bowl Champion MVP’s, Jim Plunkett and NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath. They were both “game changers” in their era, and once at the crossroads when they concluded they could no longer be, they both retired and moved on to their next life chapter. In time, every athlete, business owner, and employee, regardless of profession, comes to this same crossroads. Only in the world of American politics is this not always the case. In this arena, a class of professionals who can, with long-term strategy and name recognition, conceivably keep their elected position until they die of old age.
My former teammates continue to be well-compensated by fans from that era that seek to relive the memories of World Championship organizations. They are credited as tenacious overcomers and have a sports room full of trophies and lines of autograph seeking fans who confirm their past value. They continue to command the respect of their former teammates not only for their contributions on the field, but also for their grace in leaving it. It would be an embarrassment and case of misplaced ego for either Joe or Jim to attempt to compete in today’s game.
So it is with the eternal reliving of crossing the 1968 Birmingham Bridge by John Lewis. Today’s battle for success in the urban community is no longer one that needs judicature against institutional racism or protection from the night-riding KKK. There are no schools, businesses, communities, or opportunities that are off-limits to Black Americans due to his or her skin color, proving that institutional racism has indeed been eradicated from our nation. Is there still individual racism? Yes, and there will always be, for it is within the nature of everyone to love and hate. This power of choice results in both good and evil being selected. Neither can be demanded nor legislated away
Addressing today’s problems within the Black community with strategies that were effective sixty years ago would be akin to today’s NFL World Champion running the 1960s Green Bay Sweep and thinking they could win. This approach to an offensive game plan would end in embarrassment for both the coaching staff and players forced to use it.
Today’s failure within the Black community requires a new strategy. The act of walking across the Selma, Alabama bridge in 2017 to invoke sentiments of institutional racism that were real and palatable during the 1960s is a misplaced effort. It is a strategy that is embarrassing to both Lewis and the Democratic Party. The reality is that most racists of the ’50s and ’60s are long dead, while the real enemy gnawing at the heart and soul of our nation, Socialism/Marxism, is alive and well. The first step to victory for our nation is identifying this enemy, one that is color blind and portrays itself as compassionate through stealth and deceit.
This raises the question. What does a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge sixty years ago have to do with addressing the misery prevalent in today’s Black community, i.e., lack of jobs, education, abandonment of one’s own children, and hope? In this light, I’m tempted to rehash a play I made as a former Jet many decades ago:
Question: What does an eighty-two-yard touchdown return my 1973 rookie year in the NFL have to do with today’s NY Jets’ attempts to get to the Super Bowl Championship?
Answer: Absolutely NOTHING!
At the age of twelve-years old, I participated in a demonstration in front of the segregated Florida State Theater. During the civil rights era my parents were pioneers, often being the first, with my four siblings, to enter formerly segregated parks, lakes, and schools. I’ve often wondered why John Lewis has been singularly chosen to represent the courage of the civil rights movement. If the 1965 crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge was the act that serves as a benchmark for civil rights courage, shouldn’t the NAACP, the Democratic Party, and other civil rights leaders also honor the civil rights freedom fighter James Meredith? Meredith, after all, attacked the evils of the Jim Crow segregation on several fronts, solo, and nearly lost his life in the process. The courage of this American hero is left unspoken by those who exalt Lewis (who did less for the cause).
After serving his country in the Air Force in the late ’50s, James Meredith was the first Black American student admitted to the segregated University of Mississippi in 1962. This event was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. He graduated years later, enduring daily racism, verbal taunts, and intimidation tactics that few Americans today, Black or White, have the courage or discipline to endure.
Speaking in a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith explained the purpose for his solo effort to integrate Ol’ Miss: “I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from day one. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen.”279
It was James Meredith who, in 1966, began a solo 220-mile “March Against Fear“ from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. He wanted to highlight racism in the South and to encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also did not want any involvement by the NAACP. He saw himself as an individual citizen demanding the same constitutional rights held by other Americans, not as a participant in the civil rights movement. In a CNN interview, Meredith said, “Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind.”280
During the second day of his march, Meredith was shot by a White gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While Meredith was recovering, more people from across the country joined the marchers. He later rejoined the march and with other leaders entered Jackson, Mississippi on June 26, 1966. There were an estimated 15,000 marchers, making it the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. As a result, more than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote. The march was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration.281
To put Meredith’s efforts in perspective, he singularly ended the segregation barriers in one of our country’s most racist and violent regions. Meredith’s 1962 University of Mississippi registration required the Kennedy administration to nationalize the Mississippi National Guard and send in federal troops. During a riot the day before his admission, two men were killed, and the White mob burned cars, pelted federal marshals with rocks, bricks, and small arms fire, and damaged university property.282 Not only did Meredith enter this hostile environment alone, he remained and succeeded in earning his degree.
After these remarkable acts of courage, why hasn’t James Meredith received the annual hero-worshipping granted John Lewis? If the goal is to exemplify the grit, tenacity, and courage of the civil rights era, why hasn’t Meredith been granted a Presidential Award, had a Navy destroyer named after him, have a prominent statue in the Washington, D.C. African American Museum, or the annual commemoration of the “Bridge Crossing” by BET, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, The New York Times, or Washington Post? Is it possible that the lack of acknowledgement of Meredith’s contributions has to do with the fact that he is a Republican? Or is it possible that, unlike Lewis, Meredith would never conceive of writing for the Communist publication, the People’s Weekly World and others? It was, after all, John Lewis, and not James Meredith, who received an endorsement from the Democratic Socialists of America Political Action Committee.283
Civil rights icon James Meredith represents a model for Black manhood lacking in our communities today. He represents the men of generations past who commanded the respect of their fellow Americans, not begged for or demanded it. He is a Black man who is courageous, educated, articulate, self-respecting, patriotic, God-fearing, visionary, and, most of all, fiercely independent. These attributes pose a threat to the Socialist/Marxist Left; therefore, he is purposely ignored by their propaganda arm, Black Entertainment TV (BET).
It is within this media environment of indoctrination that successful conservative Black Americans like Condi Rice, Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Star Parker, Col. Allen West, Sherriff David Clarke, Harris Faulkner, Deneen Borelli, David Webb, Lonnie Poindexter, Jason Riley, Jennifer Carroll, and many, many others are “hidden in plain sight” from Black youth.
The following statements highlight why a true American civil rights hero, James Meredith, remains a small footnote in the history books written by the Socialist/Marxist progressives.
Quotes by 1960s Civil Rights Pioneer James Meredith
“Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind.”
“White Liberals are the greatest enemy of African Americans.”
“My answer to the racial problem in America is to not deal with it at all. The founding fathers dealt with it when they made the Constitution.”