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Newsmen Attacked in Oxford, Miss. Rioting

Oct. 1, 1962 - Aside from the U.S. marshals, the chief targets of the rioters at the University of Mississippi last night and early this morning were newsmen. One of the men killed was Paul Guihard, who carried press cards identifying him as a correspondent for Agence France Presse and The Daily Sketch of London. Pictured below, U.S. troops guard the ambulance carrying Mr. Guihard’s body. The other man killed was Ray Gunter, 23, of Abbeville, Miss., a town north of Oxford. A spokesman at Oxford Hospital said Mr. Gunter had died of a gunshot wound in the forehead. William Crider, an A.P. reporter from Memphis, was wounded slightly by birdshot. Several other newsmen were beaten. State highway patrolmen, who had made a half-hearted attempt to hold the rioters back, climbed into their prowl cars and left the campus at 9:10 p.m. The Rev. Duncan M. Gray, rector of St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church, stepped on a pedestal at one point and called on the students to end the violence. Some of the students grabbed him and roughed him up. He was led through the mob by an unidentified law-enforcement officer.


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