For some Alabamians, George Wallace’s primary victory promised to preserve segregation across the state, but events in Mississippi soon threatened to spill across the border. On September 20, 1962, twenty-nine-year- old Air Force veteran James Meredith, flanked by a US marshal and an assistant attorney general, walked through a gauntlet of taunts and threats into the alumni building at the University of Mississippi in an attempt to register for fall classes. Inside, he was met by Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, acting as registrar. After twenty-three minutes of discussion, Barnett rejected the African American student’s enrollment. Meredith left for Memphis, where he began to plan another attempt to register at the all-white school. Barnett emerged victorious, praised by segregationists, fellow southern governors, and the state legislature for a “fearless and courageous stand.”
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Becoming Alabama:
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