Of the Southern states that have avoided even token compliance with the Supreme Court's 1954 school-desegregation decision, none has thundered "never" louder than Mississippi. Last week Mississippi's "never" turned to "soon." The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Negro James Meredith, 29, admitted to the University of Mississippi.
In a 17-month legal battle, university officials presented almost every conceivable reason except his color for rejecting Meredith. They pointed, for example, to the lack of accreditation of the school from which Meredith is transferring—their own Jackson State College. U.S. District Judge Sidney Mize duly ruled that Meredith had been turned down on nonracial grounds. But Circuit Judge John Minor Wisdom called the Ole Miss burlesque "a carefully calculated campaign of delay, harassment and masterly inactivity." He ordered Judge Mize to issue an injunction forcing Meredith's admission. If Meredith enters Ole Miss next fall as planned, Alabama and South Carolina will be the only states with no integration at any level of public education.