1960s Timeline

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Mar 6

Former General Walker Calls Ole Miss Riot “Most Amusing”

Mar. 6, 1963 - Former Major General Edwin A. Walker (pictured right) said today the integration riots at the University of Mississippi last year were “like a comedy, most amusing.” Chuckling, Walker told newsmen: “The students had a lot of fun on campus, plenty of laughs, a good time. I wouldn’t call it a riot, just student high spirits.” Two persons were killed and scores injured in the disturbance. Walker was arrested and charged with insurrection in connection with the vio

Mar 6

JFK Tangles With Rockefeller on Civil Rights

Mar. 6, 1963 - A charge by Governor Rockefeller that President Kennedy had appointed “segregationist” judges in the South was rejected by the President today. Mr. Rockefeller, the President’s likely opponent in the 1964 election, made the charge in a general attack yesterday on the Administration’s civil rights record. He spoke at an Albany, N.Y., rally of the NAACP. One new Federal judge who has been much criticized by civil rights groups is William H. Cox of Mississippi. He

Mar 1

Civil Rights Worker Shot in Mississippi

Mar. 1, 1963 - The shooting of a 20-year-old civil rights worker sparked a vow by the South’s integration leaders today to sign up every qualified voter in Leflore County, Mississippi. The intention was announced in telegrams to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett. Meanwhile, the victim of Thursday night’s shooting, Jimmy Travis (pictured), was reported in satisfactory condition at a Jackson hospital. He has a bullet lodged near his spine. Ano

Dec 16, 2022

James Meredith Arrested on Traffic Charge, Alleges Mistreatment by Police

Dec. 16, 1962 - James Meredith (pictured), the first Negro to be admitted to the University of Mississippi this October, was arrested on a traffic charge while in his hometown of Kosciusko, Miss. He said he was celebrating his sixth wedding anniversary Saturday and alleged the police mistreated him. Kosciusko Police Chief P.H. Harvey denied it. Two Kosciusko patrolmen charged Meredith with failing to yield the right of way at an intersection. He was alone at the time. Meredit

Dec 14, 2022

Bomb Damages Negro Church in Birmingham, Ala.

Dec. 14, 1962 - A powerful bomb was hurled at a Negro church in Birmingham, Ala., tonight, causing heavy damage to the structure and several nearby homes and raining glass and debris on 25 children practicing a Christmas play. One little girl rehearsing a nativity scene was given emergency treatment for a sliver of glass in her eye, and an infant in one of the homes was hospitalized with injuries. Authorities said the dynamite bomb was hurled at the Bethel Baptist Church from

Dec 11, 2022

Exclusive Cosmos Club Admits First Negro

Dec. 11, 1962 - The exclusive Cosmos Club, embroiled earlier this year in a racial discrimination controversy that reached the White House, has elected Negro historian John Hope Franklin (pictured) a member. Franklin, the first Negro member of the club, was approved by the admissions committee Monday night, Cosmos president Francis L. Adams said. Mr. Franklin, 47, is chairman of the department of history at Brooklyn College and is a Pitt professor at Cambridge University in E

Dec 3, 2022

James Meredith Sees More Challenges Ahead

Dec. 3, 1962 - James Meredith (pictured), the first Negro to attend the University of Mississippi, believes that his attendance at the university has failed so far in its most important objective — helping other Negroes of his state. “Not one problem has been solved, not one issue has been settled,” he said today. Moreover, he said, the widespread interest in his grades and the possibility that he may flunk out distracts both Negroes and whites from these problems. “One prime

Nov 25, 2022

Thurgood Marshall Speaks in Harlem

Nov. 25, 1962 - Federal Judge Thurgood Marshall (pictured) stepped from the bench to the pulpit today and urged his Harlem neighbors to “make Harlem the kind of place that people will want to come to.” Speaking at St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Judge Marshall stressed the responsibility that goes along with living in New York, “a city of opportunity in a state of opportunity.” In his appeal to his fellow worshipers, Judge Marshall discussed the problems of Harlem,

Nov 25, 2022

Malcolm X Speaks in Oakland

Nov. 25, 1962 - The diversity of viewpoints of American Negro leadership was demonstrated in Oakland, Calif., last night at a meeting that heard spokesmen for the Black Muslims, the Afro-American Association, and the Committee on Racial Equality. The meeting, which drew 400, was organized by Don Warden, a Negro lawyer in Oakland, as the climax of a series of workshops called “The Mind of the Ghetto.” About one out of five persons in the Oakland-San Francisco-Berkeley area is

Nov 23, 2022

Alabama Prepares for University Desegregation

Nov. 23, 1962 - The prospective admission of a Negro to the University of Alabama has brought one of the South’s most extensive efforts to discourage racial violence. Many of the state’s prominent leaders have joined in a demand that there be no repetition of the riotous outburst that accompanied the university’s short-lived desegregation in 1956. They have drawn support from much of the press. The university’s administration under its president, Frank A. Rose, its faculty, t

Nov 20, 2022

MLK on Federal Housing Bill: “Constitutionally Sound, Morally Right”

Nov. 20, 1962 - Negro and Northern spokesmen said today that President Kennedy’s order barring discrimination in Federally aided housing could lead to a “truly integrated society.” Dr. Martin Luther King (pictured left with Jackie Robinson) said: “It is not only constitutionally sound, but it is morally right.” “The order strikes at the very heart of the segregated system,” Dr. King said. “Where a family lives precludes the schools, parks, and churches its members will attend

Nov 20, 2022

Ole Miss Student Harassed After Eating with Meredith, Leaves Campus

Nov. 20, 1962 - A University of Mississippi freshman who ate with James H. Meredith (pictured right) last Thursday has left the campus. The student, Craig Knobles, of Meridian, Miss., is not expected to return, his roommate, William Temple, said today. Mr. Knobles and Mr. Temple, both 18-year-old freshmen, were among 7 students who dined with Mr. Meredith, the university’s only Negro student, Thursday night. Mr. Knobles, a diminutive youth majoring in classics, was described

Nov 18, 2022

MLK: FBI Sides with Segregationists

Nov. 18, 1962 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King charged today that FBI agents in Albany, Ga., side with the segregationists. For that reason, the 33-year-old integration declared, the FBI has not done an effective job in investigating beatings and other intimidation of Negroes who have been pressing for racial equality in the southwest Georgia city. The Justice Department declined to comment on Dr. King’s remarks, which were made during an interview at New York’s Riverside Ch

Nov 10, 2022

Destroyed Negro Churches in Georgia Being Rebuilt

Nov. 10, 1962 - Approximately $60,000 has been raised to rebuild three Negro churches destroyed by fire in southwest Georgia last summer after their use for voter registration rallies. All the churches were Baptist, but religious groups of other faiths have joined in the fund drive conducted by organizations and individuals, white and Negro, in the North and South. The destruction of the churches came after the civil rights controversy in Albany had spilled over into surround

Nov 10, 2022

Meredith Struggling at Ole Miss

Nov. 10, 1962 - James Meredith said today he had fallen behind in his work at the University of Mississippi and would seek help from a tutor. He attributed his scholastic difficulties to the “abnormal conditions” of his attendance at the university. The 29-year-old Negro was the first member of his race to enroll in a white public education institution in Mississippi. Mr. Meredith said he had found it hard to study because of demands made on his time by noncollegiate matters.

Nov 3, 2022

Four Students Expelled from Ole Miss

Nov. 3, 1962 - The University of Mississippi expelled four students today on charges stemming from demonstrations against James H. Meredith. They were the first students to be expelled by the university since rioting broke out Sept. 30 when the Negro student was enrolled. Several other students have been placed on probation. The assistant to the chancellor, Hugh Clegg, said that the charges were possession of dangerous weapons, possession and use of explosives, drunkenness,

Oct 31, 2022

Faculty and Staff Averts Major Demonstration at University of Mississippi

Oct. 31, 1962 - A show of strength tonight by faculty members, state patrolmen, and military policemen at the University of Mississippi apparently averted a mass student demonstration. Additional military policemen were stationed at Baxter Hall, the dormitory in which James H. Meredith is housed. The Negro student was admitted to the university last Sept. 30 under a Federal court order. The arrival of the troopers came shortly after the Army had searched Lester Hall, next doo

Oct 20, 2022

Dr. King Forming “Nonviolent Army” for Desegregation Push in Alabama

Oct. 20, 1962 - Dr. Martin Luther King said today that he planned to recruit a “nonviolent army” to fight segregation in Alabama, where his passive resistance movement started seven years ago. “I’m going back to Alabama to make a people-to-people tour to recruit a nonviolent army for a new front of the attack on the system of segregation in the whole state,” the Baptist minister said. Dr. King said he fully expected tough opposition to the drive, set to open in about six week

Oct 15, 2022

A Slight Reduction of Tension at University of Mississippi

Oct. 15, 1962 - James H. Meredith began his third week of classes at the University of Mississippi today. For the first time, no jeers or epithets marked his morning walk from the dormitory to the cafeteria, then to his class. The rest of the day was also without incident. The lessening of student reaction was partly attributed to a statement Friday by Dr. Leston L. Love, dean of students. He warned that those taking part in such hostile demonstrations would be subject to dis

Oct 12, 2022

Governor Barnett Continues to Plot Meredith’s Expulsion

Oct. 12, 1962 - Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett has suggested a plan that could lead to the expulsion of James H. Meredith (pictured left registering for classes) from the University of Mississippi as mentally incompetent. This was revealed today by Thomas Jefferson Tubb of West Point, Miss., who is chairman of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning. Mr. Barnett told Mr. Tubb that he knew of at least one psychiatrist in Jackson, the state capital, wh