Sept. 29, 1962 - Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower (pictured with President Kennedy earlier this month) said today he was “quite sure the Executive department would find some way to make certain” that a Federal Court desegregation order was obeyed in Mississippi. The General held an impromptu news conference at his farm in Gettysburg, Pa., after discussing the nation’s political trends with a group of 32 Republican candidates. Referring to Governor Ross R. Barnett’s defiance of the court order to admit a Negro student, James H. Meredith, to the University of Mississippi, General Eisenhower said: “If the order isn’t executed, then it will be a sad day for the United States.”
