What do you think?
Rate this book
A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America
“I am not a civil rights hero. I am a warrior, and I am on a mission from God.” —James Meredith
James Meredith engineered two of the most epic events of the American civil rights the desegregation of the University of Mississippi in 1962, which helped open the doors of education to all Americans; and the March Against Fear in 1966, which helped open the floodgates of voter registration in the South.
Part memoir, part manifesto, A Mission from God is James Meredith’s look back at his courageous and action-packed life and his challenge to America to address the most critical issue of our how to educate and uplift the millions of black and white Americans who remain locked in the chains of poverty by improving our public education system.
Born on a small farm in Mississippi, Meredith returned home in 1960 after nine years in the U.S. Air Force, with a master plan to shatter the system of state terror and white supremacy in America. He waged a fourteen-month legal campaign to force the state of Mississippi to honor his rights as an American citizen and admit him to the University of Mississippi. He fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Meredith endured months of death threats, daily verbal abuse, and round-the-clock protection from federal marshals and thousands of troops to became the first black graduate of the University of Mississippi in 1963.
In 1966 he was shot by a sniper on the second day of his “Walk Against Fear” to inspire voter registration in Mississippi. Though Meredith never allied with traditional civil rights groups, leaders of civil rights organizations flocked to help him complete the march, one of the last great marches of the civil rights era. Decades later, Meredith says, “Now it is time for our next great mission from God. . . . You and I have a divine responsibility to transform America.”
James Meredith engineered two of the most epic events of the American civil rights the desegregation of the University of Mississippi in 1962, which helped open the doors of education to all Americans; and the March Against Fear in 1966, which helped open the floodgates of voter registration in the South.
Part memoir, part manifesto, A Mission from God is James Meredith’s look back at his courageous and action-packed life and his challenge to America to address the most critical issue of our how to educate and uplift the millions of black and white Americans who remain locked in the chains of poverty by improving our public education system.
Born on a small farm in Mississippi, Meredith returned home in 1960 after nine years in the U.S. Air Force, with a master plan to shatter the system of state terror and white supremacy in America. He waged a fourteen-month legal campaign to force the state of Mississippi to honor his rights as an American citizen and admit him to the University of Mississippi. He fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Meredith endured months of death threats, daily verbal abuse, and round-the-clock protection from federal marshals and thousands of troops to became the first black graduate of the University of Mississippi in 1963.
In 1966 he was shot by a sniper on the second day of his “Walk Against Fear” to inspire voter registration in Mississippi. Though Meredith never allied with traditional civil rights groups, leaders of civil rights organizations flocked to help him complete the march, one of the last great marches of the civil rights era. Decades later, Meredith says, “Now it is time for our next great mission from God. . . . You and I have a divine responsibility to transform America.”
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 14, 2013
A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America by James Meredith is an important book for our time. Mr. Meredith's recounting of his experiences in the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s is an apt example to us of the dynamics of resisting an oppressive system. That system was the institutionalized notion of the superiority of the Caucasian (white) race in the US state of Mississippi. It was the direct descendant of the feudal plantation system of the old south that was built on the foundation of human slavery. After the south's loss in the Civil War, the system evolved into one of enforced societal segregation between white and black, with laws that nullified Federal laws and resulting in continued oppression of the former slaves. The southern culture could not stand the idea of black people (actually, all nonwhite people) being equal with whites in intellect, political rights, and humanity. Mr. Meredith shines a light on this attitude, describing its prevalence among Mississippi leaders and white citizens as well as its violent edge. This system then, this belief in racial superiority (which long predates Mississippi and the US south) is the enemy that Mr. Meredith opposes with acts that challenged its legitimacy and provoked its anger.
James Meredith is best known for two events: being the first black American to enroll in and earn a degree from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), and being shot. His book opens with a recounting of the latter, which serves as a frame for the Ole Miss events.
In June of 1966, some three years after he graduated from Ole Miss, Mr. Meredith began a one-person march (though others joined him) from Memphis to Jackson with the intent of promoting his call for black people in Mississippi to register to vote. This was big because black people were generally afraid to register and only did so in the face of laws (poll tax, literacy tests, etc) that would prevent them from voting in any case. Mr. Meredith describes the start of his march down highway 51 to strike another blow at the beast of white supremacy. Just outside of the little town of Hernando, the beast took human form as a poor white from the sticks acting on the local tenet of "I'd just as soon kill a n----r as look at him," and Mr. Meredith was shotgunned in cold blood and left for dead.
From here, Mr. Meredith switches to an account of his background and thoughts on the times before beginning his narrative about attending Ole Miss (which was the bigger event though no less life-threatening). In this section, he gets into his reputation as a civil rights rebel, contributing to the moment but never a part of it. He makes no bones about his personal pride and near messiah complex. He was (and is) opinionated and driven to confuse, confound, and confront. This comes through in his writing and nearly put me off at a couple of points. I'm suspicious of people that proudly proclaim themselves as mavericks and declare that they confound others. It's an implication of superiority that is usually unfounded. But I hung with him and found that on balance he comes off as a sympathetic character that genuinely cares about others. Indeed, his attitude of self-confidence and spiritual mission was probably the lightning rod that made him the exemplary focus of the civil rights struggle at that time.
Mr. Meredith describes the University of Mississippi as the bastion of white supremacy in Mississippi. Though a public university, it provided the formal higher-education for most of the state's leaders and maintained an aristocratic ambiance that was exclusive of poor whites as well as minorities. Today it is racially integrated, but there is still an air of that exclusiveness. When Mr. Meredith sought to enroll there, that exclusiveness was buttressed with a violent racial bias that led to riots. He describes his repeated attempts to enroll as the last battle of the Civil War and accounts indicate that he's pretty much correct in that assessment. The inertia against him built to the point that mobs violently opposed the federal marshals (and later the soldiers of the army and national guard) that escorted him at enrollment and in just attending his classes. In all the chaos, shots were fired and people were killed.
The account of his enrollment and time at Ole Miss constitutes the main part of the book. Mr. Meredith describes in graphic detail the anger and torments visited on him throughout his time there. I suspect that many readers, especially younger ones not from the south, will find this narrative hard to believe. After all, you can walk around the Ole Miss campus today, or peruse its website, and see that it's thoroughly integrated and looks like any other university campus. But it was very different in the early 1960s. I was a child then and only vaguely aware of the events centering on James Meredith, but I can affirm the attitudes he describes and the sheer hatred towards black people among working and middle class whites. A quick study of history will affirm his account of the "battle" that erupted from his Ole Miss enrollment. Robert Dallek gives a similar description of it in his book about John Kennedy (An Unfinished Life).
In describing his abuse by the white students at Ole Miss, Mr. Meredith is graphic, quoting their constant use of derogatory terms, insults and harassments, but without reciprocal hatred of them as people. I expect time has tempered his emotions but he does say, regarding his harassers, that "They were programmed to act the way they did." Having grown up in Mississippi, I would concur.
Mr. Meredith graduated from Ole Miss in August of 1963. His ordeal there was barely a year in length (most of his credits to graduate were transferred from other colleges). His military escort around the campus had shrunk and the expressions of hatred had subsided, though mostly from familiarity. He graduated and left, with the implied "good riddance" from staff and students, but he opened a door that others entered.
At this point, Mr. Meredith returns to his ordeal on the road outside of Hernando. Lying on the road, shot, a reporter takes a picture of him that became iconic. The initial news of his death, was corrected after an hour or so and he was taken to a hospital. His march to Jackson was completed by Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. Mr. Meredith himself recovered enough to complete the march amid a crowd that he didn't intend. He talks here about his differences with the civil rights leaders of the day, especially with regards to strict adherence to nonviolence as their primary tactic. Mr. Meredith believed that force was the only way to overcome the violence that the white supremacist establishment used with impunity. He is referring in this to the use of force by the federal government to make state governments comply with the law. This is what worked for him and his impression of the effectiveness of that force, and his gratitude for it, thoroughly infuse his book.
The book concludes with Mr. Merediths' reflection on growing old, finding meaning in his life, and retaining his sense of mission in his final years. To me, this is the books most poignant part. He went to Japan to complete work on the book. It was a return for him. He had spent three years there when in the Air Force and was touched by the people's lack of prejudice towards him. It was a place he felt acceptance as a human being and it became the symbol for him of that place of equality that Martin Luther King dreamed of beyond the mountain. As an old man, Mr. Meredith climbed Mount Takao and found his renewed inspiration there among nature. He heard the voice of God again, renewing his sense of mission.
That new mission is the challenge part of his book. He asks the reader to commit to helping children in public schools, especially disadvantaged children. He believes such an outpouring of love directed at the support of the nation's children, would transform America into the good place of its potential as a moral leader in the world.
I expect it would indeed.
James Meredith is best known for two events: being the first black American to enroll in and earn a degree from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss), and being shot. His book opens with a recounting of the latter, which serves as a frame for the Ole Miss events.
In June of 1966, some three years after he graduated from Ole Miss, Mr. Meredith began a one-person march (though others joined him) from Memphis to Jackson with the intent of promoting his call for black people in Mississippi to register to vote. This was big because black people were generally afraid to register and only did so in the face of laws (poll tax, literacy tests, etc) that would prevent them from voting in any case. Mr. Meredith describes the start of his march down highway 51 to strike another blow at the beast of white supremacy. Just outside of the little town of Hernando, the beast took human form as a poor white from the sticks acting on the local tenet of "I'd just as soon kill a n----r as look at him," and Mr. Meredith was shotgunned in cold blood and left for dead.
From here, Mr. Meredith switches to an account of his background and thoughts on the times before beginning his narrative about attending Ole Miss (which was the bigger event though no less life-threatening). In this section, he gets into his reputation as a civil rights rebel, contributing to the moment but never a part of it. He makes no bones about his personal pride and near messiah complex. He was (and is) opinionated and driven to confuse, confound, and confront. This comes through in his writing and nearly put me off at a couple of points. I'm suspicious of people that proudly proclaim themselves as mavericks and declare that they confound others. It's an implication of superiority that is usually unfounded. But I hung with him and found that on balance he comes off as a sympathetic character that genuinely cares about others. Indeed, his attitude of self-confidence and spiritual mission was probably the lightning rod that made him the exemplary focus of the civil rights struggle at that time.
Mr. Meredith describes the University of Mississippi as the bastion of white supremacy in Mississippi. Though a public university, it provided the formal higher-education for most of the state's leaders and maintained an aristocratic ambiance that was exclusive of poor whites as well as minorities. Today it is racially integrated, but there is still an air of that exclusiveness. When Mr. Meredith sought to enroll there, that exclusiveness was buttressed with a violent racial bias that led to riots. He describes his repeated attempts to enroll as the last battle of the Civil War and accounts indicate that he's pretty much correct in that assessment. The inertia against him built to the point that mobs violently opposed the federal marshals (and later the soldiers of the army and national guard) that escorted him at enrollment and in just attending his classes. In all the chaos, shots were fired and people were killed.
The account of his enrollment and time at Ole Miss constitutes the main part of the book. Mr. Meredith describes in graphic detail the anger and torments visited on him throughout his time there. I suspect that many readers, especially younger ones not from the south, will find this narrative hard to believe. After all, you can walk around the Ole Miss campus today, or peruse its website, and see that it's thoroughly integrated and looks like any other university campus. But it was very different in the early 1960s. I was a child then and only vaguely aware of the events centering on James Meredith, but I can affirm the attitudes he describes and the sheer hatred towards black people among working and middle class whites. A quick study of history will affirm his account of the "battle" that erupted from his Ole Miss enrollment. Robert Dallek gives a similar description of it in his book about John Kennedy (An Unfinished Life).
In describing his abuse by the white students at Ole Miss, Mr. Meredith is graphic, quoting their constant use of derogatory terms, insults and harassments, but without reciprocal hatred of them as people. I expect time has tempered his emotions but he does say, regarding his harassers, that "They were programmed to act the way they did." Having grown up in Mississippi, I would concur.
Mr. Meredith graduated from Ole Miss in August of 1963. His ordeal there was barely a year in length (most of his credits to graduate were transferred from other colleges). His military escort around the campus had shrunk and the expressions of hatred had subsided, though mostly from familiarity. He graduated and left, with the implied "good riddance" from staff and students, but he opened a door that others entered.
At this point, Mr. Meredith returns to his ordeal on the road outside of Hernando. Lying on the road, shot, a reporter takes a picture of him that became iconic. The initial news of his death, was corrected after an hour or so and he was taken to a hospital. His march to Jackson was completed by Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. Mr. Meredith himself recovered enough to complete the march amid a crowd that he didn't intend. He talks here about his differences with the civil rights leaders of the day, especially with regards to strict adherence to nonviolence as their primary tactic. Mr. Meredith believed that force was the only way to overcome the violence that the white supremacist establishment used with impunity. He is referring in this to the use of force by the federal government to make state governments comply with the law. This is what worked for him and his impression of the effectiveness of that force, and his gratitude for it, thoroughly infuse his book.
The book concludes with Mr. Merediths' reflection on growing old, finding meaning in his life, and retaining his sense of mission in his final years. To me, this is the books most poignant part. He went to Japan to complete work on the book. It was a return for him. He had spent three years there when in the Air Force and was touched by the people's lack of prejudice towards him. It was a place he felt acceptance as a human being and it became the symbol for him of that place of equality that Martin Luther King dreamed of beyond the mountain. As an old man, Mr. Meredith climbed Mount Takao and found his renewed inspiration there among nature. He heard the voice of God again, renewing his sense of mission.
That new mission is the challenge part of his book. He asks the reader to commit to helping children in public schools, especially disadvantaged children. He believes such an outpouring of love directed at the support of the nation's children, would transform America into the good place of its potential as a moral leader in the world.
I expect it would indeed.
July 26, 2015
From a young age, James Meredith has felt the burden of a "divine responsibility" to make his country better and more free.
With "A Mission from God," the 2012 autobiography written with William Doyle, an 80-year-old Meredith bequeaths part of that duty to his fellow countrymen:
"I challenge every American citizen to commit right now to help children in the public schools in their community, especially those with disadvantaged students."
Meredith's "memoir and challenge" is a tremendous read that keeps readers engaged from cover to cover. The story provides not only an inside account of two key moments in American history but also contemporary material such as recordings and transcripts, giving the narrative a three-dimensional, definitive feel.
Most of the book centers on Meredith's successful attempt to overcome segregation and become the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. The details will be alarming to young people who haven't studied the period.
Another portion of the book deals with Meredith's "march against fear," a solo demonstration designed to encourage Mississippi blacks to register to vote. The walk would have taken him from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, if an assassin with a shotgun hadn't interrupted.
Meredith survived the attack and eventually completed the last leg of the journey beside Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders.
Though counted among the heroes of the African American civil rights movement, Meredith never accepted the label for himself.
"I know that it may strike some people as a kind of historical blasphemy to say this, but the rhetoric and vocabulary of the American civil rights movement has always seemed upside-down and backward to me. In fact, I always found it grossly insulting to me, to you, and to every American citizen, because it always begins with the assumption or concession that some or any of our civil rights are up for negotiation. They are not now and never have been. We were anointed with and guaranteed all of these rights at birth as Americans... [T]hese rights are eternal, sacred, inviolate, and perfectly equal for every single American citizen."
He rejects hyphenated categories such as African-American, arguing that blacks and their achievements should be considered fully American, and not "ghettoized" or forced into special subcategories.
Meredith gives credit for the outcome at Ole Miss not to the civil rights movement but to "the Founding Fathers of the United States, who created in the Constitution the principle that all citizens are equal and should be treated as equal."
In these and several other ways, Meredith shows himself to be every bit the "conservative" he considers himself to be, to the consternation of anyone who would like to confine him to a stereotypical box.
Meredith's conservative bona fides include his honorable Air Force service, his work as domestic policy advisor to senator Jesse Helms, a former segregationist, as well as his opposition to affirmative action programs, to welfare and government handouts, to political correctness (he was disappointed when Ole Miss stopped using "Colonel Reb" as school mascot), and to the "misguided liberal social policies of the 1960s, [which] created generations of dependency and failure for a huge portion of black America."
Meredith speaks openly of his disagreement with King over the latter's dedication to non-violence (rather than embracing their Second Amendment rights), offers a balanced assessment of the Kennedys, and completely dismisses other heroes of the Left who cross his path, including John Lewis and Morgan Freeman.
Perhaps the most striking thing about Meredith is his insight into what it takes to be free. "Meaningful freedom," he writes, "is rarely gained through the magnanimous benevolence of the predominant powers, but must be won on the field."
The freedom Meredith sought in the '60s could not have be won by him alone. That required not only the protection of 30,000 U.S. servicemen in particular, but also the general engagement of every American who wished to live free.
"Throughout the first semester I received about two hundred letters a day. Most of the people who wrote, particularly the Negroes, said they had great admiration for me. They were praying and hoping that I would make it. Their basic attitude alarmed me... [T]hey had relieved themselves of all responsibility. They thought there was nothing more that they had to do. I felt that every young Negro must make his personal contribution toward the accomplishment of his freedom. No one man can fight alone. You can't confine the struggle for human freedom and dignity to one place or to one man. To free the right arm and cut the left arm off -- this is not progress."
Meredith expands that view with his "challenge" for all Americans to play a role in improving conditions for public school students. It is a war, and it requires us all to take up arms.
With "A Mission from God," the 2012 autobiography written with William Doyle, an 80-year-old Meredith bequeaths part of that duty to his fellow countrymen:
"I challenge every American citizen to commit right now to help children in the public schools in their community, especially those with disadvantaged students."
Meredith's "memoir and challenge" is a tremendous read that keeps readers engaged from cover to cover. The story provides not only an inside account of two key moments in American history but also contemporary material such as recordings and transcripts, giving the narrative a three-dimensional, definitive feel.
Most of the book centers on Meredith's successful attempt to overcome segregation and become the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. The details will be alarming to young people who haven't studied the period.
Another portion of the book deals with Meredith's "march against fear," a solo demonstration designed to encourage Mississippi blacks to register to vote. The walk would have taken him from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, if an assassin with a shotgun hadn't interrupted.
Meredith survived the attack and eventually completed the last leg of the journey beside Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders.
Though counted among the heroes of the African American civil rights movement, Meredith never accepted the label for himself.
"I know that it may strike some people as a kind of historical blasphemy to say this, but the rhetoric and vocabulary of the American civil rights movement has always seemed upside-down and backward to me. In fact, I always found it grossly insulting to me, to you, and to every American citizen, because it always begins with the assumption or concession that some or any of our civil rights are up for negotiation. They are not now and never have been. We were anointed with and guaranteed all of these rights at birth as Americans... [T]hese rights are eternal, sacred, inviolate, and perfectly equal for every single American citizen."
He rejects hyphenated categories such as African-American, arguing that blacks and their achievements should be considered fully American, and not "ghettoized" or forced into special subcategories.
Meredith gives credit for the outcome at Ole Miss not to the civil rights movement but to "the Founding Fathers of the United States, who created in the Constitution the principle that all citizens are equal and should be treated as equal."
In these and several other ways, Meredith shows himself to be every bit the "conservative" he considers himself to be, to the consternation of anyone who would like to confine him to a stereotypical box.
Meredith's conservative bona fides include his honorable Air Force service, his work as domestic policy advisor to senator Jesse Helms, a former segregationist, as well as his opposition to affirmative action programs, to welfare and government handouts, to political correctness (he was disappointed when Ole Miss stopped using "Colonel Reb" as school mascot), and to the "misguided liberal social policies of the 1960s, [which] created generations of dependency and failure for a huge portion of black America."
Meredith speaks openly of his disagreement with King over the latter's dedication to non-violence (rather than embracing their Second Amendment rights), offers a balanced assessment of the Kennedys, and completely dismisses other heroes of the Left who cross his path, including John Lewis and Morgan Freeman.
Perhaps the most striking thing about Meredith is his insight into what it takes to be free. "Meaningful freedom," he writes, "is rarely gained through the magnanimous benevolence of the predominant powers, but must be won on the field."
The freedom Meredith sought in the '60s could not have be won by him alone. That required not only the protection of 30,000 U.S. servicemen in particular, but also the general engagement of every American who wished to live free.
"Throughout the first semester I received about two hundred letters a day. Most of the people who wrote, particularly the Negroes, said they had great admiration for me. They were praying and hoping that I would make it. Their basic attitude alarmed me... [T]hey had relieved themselves of all responsibility. They thought there was nothing more that they had to do. I felt that every young Negro must make his personal contribution toward the accomplishment of his freedom. No one man can fight alone. You can't confine the struggle for human freedom and dignity to one place or to one man. To free the right arm and cut the left arm off -- this is not progress."
Meredith expands that view with his "challenge" for all Americans to play a role in improving conditions for public school students. It is a war, and it requires us all to take up arms.
September 23, 2012
James Meredith admitted, "People have a real hard time putting me into words." ... MS Journalist Bill Minor said, "Its so hard to separate the true James Meredith from what he says for effect."
Meredith said, "I am a free American citizen... I was born black."
Meredith's connection to Medgar W. Evers helped turn his idea of integrating OLE MISS into a reality. Evers helped Meredith obtain the support of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, a resource necessary to fight the Mississippi courts. JFK and RFK authorized the US Marshals and the military to protect Meredith, a resource which saved his life.
After writing a biography about Meredith (James Meredith: Warrior and the America that created him - OCT 2012) and reading this memoir I understand the irony of some of the comments Meredith said for effect.
He risks his life to become the 1st black to attend Ole Miss October 1, 1962. He noted that the federal government authorized helicopters to monitor a game of golf he played with one of his college professors, but other than that event, his college life was severely isolated. He didn't have the privilege of studying with a group of students or discussing a class lecture. A few students who attempted to be friendly to him were mentally tormented.
Meredith's blood was spilled in the street June 6, 1966 on Hwy 51 before wide spread voting rights for blacks occurred in his home state. True, a march on a much grandeur scale was resumed by MLK, Stokely Carmichael, and others, but Meredith was already trying to register voters in Hernando, MS before he was shot...
In this century, Meredith marched on behalf of AIDS, to support justice for immigrants, and to improve the conditions of the poor and public education.
He rises early, has a light breakfast and juice, and engages in his regular exercise regimen before most Americans wake up. On his next birthday, he will be 80, but odds are we haven't seen or heard the last of this unsung hero.
He's like a good battery - he just keeps going.
Meredith said, "I am a free American citizen... I was born black."
Meredith's connection to Medgar W. Evers helped turn his idea of integrating OLE MISS into a reality. Evers helped Meredith obtain the support of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, a resource necessary to fight the Mississippi courts. JFK and RFK authorized the US Marshals and the military to protect Meredith, a resource which saved his life.
After writing a biography about Meredith (James Meredith: Warrior and the America that created him - OCT 2012) and reading this memoir I understand the irony of some of the comments Meredith said for effect.
He risks his life to become the 1st black to attend Ole Miss October 1, 1962. He noted that the federal government authorized helicopters to monitor a game of golf he played with one of his college professors, but other than that event, his college life was severely isolated. He didn't have the privilege of studying with a group of students or discussing a class lecture. A few students who attempted to be friendly to him were mentally tormented.
Meredith's blood was spilled in the street June 6, 1966 on Hwy 51 before wide spread voting rights for blacks occurred in his home state. True, a march on a much grandeur scale was resumed by MLK, Stokely Carmichael, and others, but Meredith was already trying to register voters in Hernando, MS before he was shot...
In this century, Meredith marched on behalf of AIDS, to support justice for immigrants, and to improve the conditions of the poor and public education.
He rises early, has a light breakfast and juice, and engages in his regular exercise regimen before most Americans wake up. On his next birthday, he will be 80, but odds are we haven't seen or heard the last of this unsung hero.
He's like a good battery - he just keeps going.
October 15, 2012
An eye opening look into one of biggest moments in our nations history. I am surprised that his story is not well known by the general public. Awesome book, and an awesome story!
October 1, 2012
I have placed the following review of this book on my Goodreads blog.
James Meredith’s Memoir a Controversial Must-Read
By Arelya J. Mitchell
Once you survive an assassination attempt with bullets flying all over you and in you, you can’t go anywhere but up or crazy.
James Meredith went up and some would say even crazy. Whichever the case, Meredith survived the bullets that came flying on ‘666’ or specifically on June 6, 1966 when he was on his one-man crusade to walk in Mississippi to show the world that he had no fear of white reprisal.
Four years earlier on October 1, 1962, Meredith had put his life on the line when he embarked on his first one-man crusade albeit with National Guardsmen dressed in riot gear to keep white mobs from attacking or possibly even lynching him to keep holy the holiest of ground in the state: the Ole Miss campus. In fact, Meredith refers to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) as the “holiest temple of white supremacy in America, next to the U.S. Capitol and the White House, both of which were under the control of segregationists and their collaborators.” Meredith made his way through lily white mobs that resulted not only in the integration of the University of Mississippi but all institutions of Higher Learning in the country.
Fifty years later in conjunction with that historic date, Meredith has released “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America.” However, with Meredith, it’s hard to tell if the publication was planned to commensurate with one of the most controversial events in history or was done just to finish pissing off some people. In this ‘wavering back and forth’ respect, Meredith is just as complex as the Civil Rights Movement itself, which wavered between absolving white guilt to escalating into blaming the victim; or between arguments to use violence or non-violence because no matter how peaceful a march could be planned that wouldn’t keep it from erupting into a full-blown riot. Times were volatile. And so was Meredith.
In the history of my life, Meredith has been and continues to be a civil rights figure of whom I thought as wavering somewhere between fickle and brilliance. And in Freudian fashion I’ve often wondered: What does James Meredith want?
In this memoir written with William Doyle (Atria Books), Meredith is the first to admit that he has flaws and an arrogance all revolving around the planet Ego. But in vintage Meredith, he doesn’t care how he is perceived or regarded as long as he gets full attention and credit for whatever goes down for his actions. Yes, I believe that Meredith is the type (and most of us know persons in this ilk) that if you say it’s ‘cold’, they will say it’s ‘hot’; and if you say it’s ‘hot’, they will say it’s ‘cold’. The goal is to get a reaction by any means necessary.
But it is this need to rebel for the sake of rebellion just to shake things up which makes James Meredith both fascinating and irritating and subsequently the keeper of his own flame. This disregard has made him un-embraceable to the Civil Rights Movement status quo. It is not that he disrespects those closely associated with the Movement, but dare I say that they have shown a disrespect towards Meredith because he doesn’t fit their mode on how they think a civil rights leader should behave or rather it seems that they don’t want the label ‘leader’ attached to Meredith period? Seemingly, they cannot accept a colleague who marches to his own tune and one who does not need their consultation or permission before he makes a move. But this is the thing I do respect about Meredith. He runs in and on the outskirts of the Civil Rights Movement status quo. Meredith has perpetually been Peck’s bad boy. He has been that Civil Rights figure who made you turn your head and ask “What the hell is he doing now?” or “Why the hell did he do that?”
It’s the type of questions you ask when you know that this is the same man who upset Ole Miss and who later got a bullet bouquet that damned nearly took his life on ‘666’ by an avowed white supremacist, yet this is the same man who went on to work for staunch segregationist, U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, a Democrat-turned-Republican senator from North Carolina—and oh—it gets better—a man who openly supported Klansman David Duke for governor of Louisiana.
Meredith explains his logic for cavorting with the enemy as part of his “mission”. For example, he said that both he and Helms believed the welfare system destroyed Black families, but what Meredith probably failed to realize was that both he and Helms might have agreed that welfare destroyed Black families; however, Meredith’s concern was genuine and noble; Helms just might have been looking at the millions of dollars it was costing when theoretically the American practice always has been that you can give Blacks money as long as it’s not too much; you can let Blacks make money as long as it’s not too much. But then again who said politics didn’t make strange bedfellows while keeping the white sheets warm in place? Then there was the David Duke thing which was totally unbelievable in that Meredith believed Duke was a born-again negrophile in the sincerity of the slave-trader who penned “Amazing Grace”; nevertheless, it was Meredith being Meredith. Both cases are worth the read in Meredith’s memoir. But in spite it all, Meredith has a charm that makes whatever civil rights sin he commits, he’s forgiven for it.
But be forewarned: Don’t think this propensity to upset the apple cart in any way stands in the way of Meredith’s brilliance and commitment once he embarks on a ‘mission’. It’s very much a part of it.
This is the same man who plotted back as far as 1960 to integrate Ole Miss when he was in the U.S. Air Force serving a country which regarded him less than a man. And it was this authentic patriotism and love Meredith had (and still has) for his America which was not reciprocated by treating him as a full citizen which made him plot with unerring precision to get his rights.
This is the same man who made his resolve formal when he put in an application to enter Ole Miss on January 21, 1961, precisely the day after John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States.
Meredith writes: “I knew that so far in his career JFK had done virtually nothing to help the cause of black Americans. Like the vast majority of Americans, he was a segregationist collaborator, and a millionaire power politician who I knew had to be forced to do the right thing.” And here Meredith is expressing no more than a state of white liberalism hypocrisy that Blacks have always known about and have had to deal with to push for integration and for the country to at least live up to its own Constitution.
Of course, in life hypocrisy is more apropos in dealing with both white liberals and white segregationists who at times can be on the same side of the coin. Even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that, but it was James Meredith who could only afford to openly express it, outside of Malcolm X.
As I stated earlier, Meredith was not necessarily embraceable with the Movement’s status quo. When he first met Thurgood Marshall (who would later become America’s first Black Supreme Court Justice), the two did not hit it off well. And Meredith was angry when Marshall, then an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, asked to see his credentials that is, grades from the black Jackson State University (Jackson, Mississippi) where Meredith was attending. Marshall wanted to see if this young man was worth the trouble if the NAACP decided to back him when he set foot on holy ground. Meredith quotes Marshall saying: “I got your letter, but we need some documents to prove that you are legitimate.” This pissed off Meredith who felt insulted that his integrity should be questioned. Medgar Evers, who was becoming a prominent figure in Mississippi’s NAACP, tried to calm Meredith down and eventually (behind Meredith’s back) gave Marshall the documents he needed to warrant the fight. Followed were court hearings along with other myriad of legalese. You will find an excerpt from one of Meredith’s depositions to get into Ole Miss as hilarious as “My Cousin Vinny”. But it only hurts when you laugh.
If Allan Bakke (of Bakke vs. the Regents of the University of California fame) who charged reversed discrimination in ‘higher learning’ had to go through what Meredith did, he probably would not have survived an ordeal that was about seventeen years removed from Meredith’s turmoil of getting into Ole Miss.
Meredith’s ego (which he readily admits to having) does not prevent him from giving credit to the first Black, Clennon King, who attempted to integrate Ole Miss as far back as 1958. This King—not the other King—would cease to become even a footnote in history had it not been for Meredith being one of a handful to acknowledge him, but I will not go into King’s story because the horror of it should be read in Meredith’s memoir.
Another figure who deserves an ample footnote if not more is Meredith’s father, Cap Meredith, who had a most pronounced influence on Meredith and who mirrors the thinking of the progressive Blacks in Mississippi who did exist regardless of how history wants to portray Mississippi as a state of ignorant victimized Blacks who couldn’t and wouldn’t fight back.
Let this sink in from Cap Meredith: “Power respects power. When a man stands up, other men respect him. When I was a young man I always carried a gun, sometimes two. I’ve never gone to bed a night in my life when I didn’t have a loaded shotgun in the rack above my head and everybody in the county, white and black, knew that I would use it.”
When his son returns home for a visit, Cap Meredith continues giving advice to his son when the family is threatened by white racists: “You just go on and act like nothing unusual happened. That will throw them off. Whites don’t know how to deal with a black person that ain’t scared.”
Cap Meredith’s philosophy adds another layer to Meredith, and more than likely explains why Meredith was not too fond of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violence philosophy. Cap Meredith’s philosophy mirrors how Mississippi’s Black progressives deemed whites as being the inferior race or at best stupid—an image that does not fit the stereotype of Mississippi Blacks or southern Blacks being victims who wouldn’t fight back. Had Mississippi Blacks and southern Blacks been so full of fear, the battle for Civil Rights would not have happened, seeing that those who made the difference were in fact Black southerners in the ilk of Mrs. Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. And this was long before white Northern ‘liberals’ decided to descend into the region to aid and abet in securing a 1964 civil rights bill.
And speaking of ‘footnotes’ this book which is both a memoir and American history should have had an index. Hopefully that will be done in a reprint, because Meredith mentions little known figures such as Clyde Kennard, Clennon King, Constance Baker Motley—among others-- who are apt to go or have already gone into oblivion along with their roles in integrating the bastion of ‘higher learning’. An index should also be supplied for young 21st Century Blacks who seemingly have a pride in not knowing any civil rights figures other than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and/or Malcolm X.
They really do believe they live in a post-racial society.
Meredith himself would love to believe in a post-racial society, and he goes into this diatribe of how he does not like the term, African-American.
He writes almost with idealistic flair: “I have always considered white liberals just as capable of racism and racial hypocrisy as white conservatives. I object to being labeled primarily as an ‘African-American’ because all other Americans are not simultaneously described as Caucasian-American, Irish-American, German-American, and so on, nor should they be. I reject the idea of any American identified primarily as a hyphenated American. A hyphenated American usually implies second-class citizenship. There is no such thing in my America.”
What I would imagine that he means is in his ‘idyllic’ America, where he admits:
“I am the American Don Quixote. Over the years I’ve led countless one-man marches…sometimes I lecture to large audiences and sometimes I lecture to empty rooms. Still I keep moving…”
Or does he? Because he doesn’t fully keep moving when he brings up whites’ ‘Myth of Innocence’. “We will not live in a post racial society and we will not live in a truly United States of America until this myth is confronted and destroyed…The Myth of Innocence is the vast national denial of responsibility for the horrific conditions of poverty and ignorance that millions of Americans live in today as a direct result of systemic, institutionalized white supremacy and racial discrimination, the entrenched results and shock waves of which linger to this day.”
It is not so much that a post-racial America exists as it is that it is no longer in vogue to talk about race and racism because white America idealistically thinks that having its first Black president terminates racism and discrimination in America.
And this goes into that other side of Meredith who can, along with just about every other Black –un-hyphenated-American, laugh slyly about ‘bi-racial’ roots of its first Black president as being some type of repellant to racism; thus, the reason why Blacks aren’t impressed with President Barack Obama’s ‘bi-racial’ roots as white liberals seem to be. Everyone knows that practically every Black-un-hyphenated-American became ‘bi-racial’ when the white roosters went into the black hen house. When Black slaves were bred on breeding plantations (a subject neither whites nor Blacks want to fully acknowledge. Just as Jews were put into camps to be exterminated; Blacks were put on plantations to be bred and promulgated.). Meredith’s comments on America getting its first Black president should be read, because I won’t give it away here.
Meredith writes in essence what could be practically every Black American’s story when you go back to Black ‘roots’: “My great-grandfather was not only a white man, but the founding father of white supremacy in Mississippi. He was Mississippi Chief Justice J.A.P. Campbell…J.A.P. Campbell wrote the Mississippi Codes of Law and Constitution of 1890, which established legal and official white supremacy for the first time in the Western world.”
Bottom line: Had white-unhyphenated-America done what it was supposed to have when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were incorporated into the Constitution, there might indeed now be a post-racial America.
Just like the Civil Rights Movement itself, Meredith goes through this ‘thing’ (for my lack of a better description) of wanting to absolve whites then blame whites; where he wants to blame Blacks for their own dilemma then blame whites for it—very much like the Civil Rights struggle itself which it has morphed into a 21st Century America of Black liberals vs. Black conservatives.
Where I give the enormous credit to Meredith is that he is brutally honest with a brutality that bleeds. To reiterate, he cuts into white America’s idea and ideal that Blacks are impressed with the white mentality of white superiority. As stated earlier, progressive Blacks are not. White liberals or whites in general might find the memoir disturbing to their ego or to their perceived notion of what Blacks think about them. He cuts to a post Civil Rights Movement establishment that insists that it is still in charge of who is to be let into the post-movement echelon of leadership. Meredith doesn’t fit. He continues to be a square peg in a round hole. He doesn’t care and neither should we, because he changed America. Like him or not. Agree with him or not.
Getting Meredith into Ole Miss is only part of the journey in this book. Meredith’s life is stuff good movies and history are made of: Drama. All in all with Meredith’s warts, ego, arrogance, windmill fighting, and acts of bravery, “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America” is well-written and a must-read because Meredith is a historic figure in American history and-- whether he likes it or not-- also in African hyphenated American history which is (which he would hopefully approve) American history.
###
Arelya J. Mitchell is an award winning journalist and the author of “Puppy Love”, a novel available on Kindle. She is also a Goodreads author.
James Meredith’s Memoir a Controversial Must-Read
By Arelya J. Mitchell
Once you survive an assassination attempt with bullets flying all over you and in you, you can’t go anywhere but up or crazy.
James Meredith went up and some would say even crazy. Whichever the case, Meredith survived the bullets that came flying on ‘666’ or specifically on June 6, 1966 when he was on his one-man crusade to walk in Mississippi to show the world that he had no fear of white reprisal.
Four years earlier on October 1, 1962, Meredith had put his life on the line when he embarked on his first one-man crusade albeit with National Guardsmen dressed in riot gear to keep white mobs from attacking or possibly even lynching him to keep holy the holiest of ground in the state: the Ole Miss campus. In fact, Meredith refers to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) as the “holiest temple of white supremacy in America, next to the U.S. Capitol and the White House, both of which were under the control of segregationists and their collaborators.” Meredith made his way through lily white mobs that resulted not only in the integration of the University of Mississippi but all institutions of Higher Learning in the country.
Fifty years later in conjunction with that historic date, Meredith has released “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America.” However, with Meredith, it’s hard to tell if the publication was planned to commensurate with one of the most controversial events in history or was done just to finish pissing off some people. In this ‘wavering back and forth’ respect, Meredith is just as complex as the Civil Rights Movement itself, which wavered between absolving white guilt to escalating into blaming the victim; or between arguments to use violence or non-violence because no matter how peaceful a march could be planned that wouldn’t keep it from erupting into a full-blown riot. Times were volatile. And so was Meredith.
In the history of my life, Meredith has been and continues to be a civil rights figure of whom I thought as wavering somewhere between fickle and brilliance. And in Freudian fashion I’ve often wondered: What does James Meredith want?
In this memoir written with William Doyle (Atria Books), Meredith is the first to admit that he has flaws and an arrogance all revolving around the planet Ego. But in vintage Meredith, he doesn’t care how he is perceived or regarded as long as he gets full attention and credit for whatever goes down for his actions. Yes, I believe that Meredith is the type (and most of us know persons in this ilk) that if you say it’s ‘cold’, they will say it’s ‘hot’; and if you say it’s ‘hot’, they will say it’s ‘cold’. The goal is to get a reaction by any means necessary.
But it is this need to rebel for the sake of rebellion just to shake things up which makes James Meredith both fascinating and irritating and subsequently the keeper of his own flame. This disregard has made him un-embraceable to the Civil Rights Movement status quo. It is not that he disrespects those closely associated with the Movement, but dare I say that they have shown a disrespect towards Meredith because he doesn’t fit their mode on how they think a civil rights leader should behave or rather it seems that they don’t want the label ‘leader’ attached to Meredith period? Seemingly, they cannot accept a colleague who marches to his own tune and one who does not need their consultation or permission before he makes a move. But this is the thing I do respect about Meredith. He runs in and on the outskirts of the Civil Rights Movement status quo. Meredith has perpetually been Peck’s bad boy. He has been that Civil Rights figure who made you turn your head and ask “What the hell is he doing now?” or “Why the hell did he do that?”
It’s the type of questions you ask when you know that this is the same man who upset Ole Miss and who later got a bullet bouquet that damned nearly took his life on ‘666’ by an avowed white supremacist, yet this is the same man who went on to work for staunch segregationist, U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, a Democrat-turned-Republican senator from North Carolina—and oh—it gets better—a man who openly supported Klansman David Duke for governor of Louisiana.
Meredith explains his logic for cavorting with the enemy as part of his “mission”. For example, he said that both he and Helms believed the welfare system destroyed Black families, but what Meredith probably failed to realize was that both he and Helms might have agreed that welfare destroyed Black families; however, Meredith’s concern was genuine and noble; Helms just might have been looking at the millions of dollars it was costing when theoretically the American practice always has been that you can give Blacks money as long as it’s not too much; you can let Blacks make money as long as it’s not too much. But then again who said politics didn’t make strange bedfellows while keeping the white sheets warm in place? Then there was the David Duke thing which was totally unbelievable in that Meredith believed Duke was a born-again negrophile in the sincerity of the slave-trader who penned “Amazing Grace”; nevertheless, it was Meredith being Meredith. Both cases are worth the read in Meredith’s memoir. But in spite it all, Meredith has a charm that makes whatever civil rights sin he commits, he’s forgiven for it.
But be forewarned: Don’t think this propensity to upset the apple cart in any way stands in the way of Meredith’s brilliance and commitment once he embarks on a ‘mission’. It’s very much a part of it.
This is the same man who plotted back as far as 1960 to integrate Ole Miss when he was in the U.S. Air Force serving a country which regarded him less than a man. And it was this authentic patriotism and love Meredith had (and still has) for his America which was not reciprocated by treating him as a full citizen which made him plot with unerring precision to get his rights.
This is the same man who made his resolve formal when he put in an application to enter Ole Miss on January 21, 1961, precisely the day after John F. Kennedy was sworn in as president of the United States.
Meredith writes: “I knew that so far in his career JFK had done virtually nothing to help the cause of black Americans. Like the vast majority of Americans, he was a segregationist collaborator, and a millionaire power politician who I knew had to be forced to do the right thing.” And here Meredith is expressing no more than a state of white liberalism hypocrisy that Blacks have always known about and have had to deal with to push for integration and for the country to at least live up to its own Constitution.
Of course, in life hypocrisy is more apropos in dealing with both white liberals and white segregationists who at times can be on the same side of the coin. Even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that, but it was James Meredith who could only afford to openly express it, outside of Malcolm X.
As I stated earlier, Meredith was not necessarily embraceable with the Movement’s status quo. When he first met Thurgood Marshall (who would later become America’s first Black Supreme Court Justice), the two did not hit it off well. And Meredith was angry when Marshall, then an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, asked to see his credentials that is, grades from the black Jackson State University (Jackson, Mississippi) where Meredith was attending. Marshall wanted to see if this young man was worth the trouble if the NAACP decided to back him when he set foot on holy ground. Meredith quotes Marshall saying: “I got your letter, but we need some documents to prove that you are legitimate.” This pissed off Meredith who felt insulted that his integrity should be questioned. Medgar Evers, who was becoming a prominent figure in Mississippi’s NAACP, tried to calm Meredith down and eventually (behind Meredith’s back) gave Marshall the documents he needed to warrant the fight. Followed were court hearings along with other myriad of legalese. You will find an excerpt from one of Meredith’s depositions to get into Ole Miss as hilarious as “My Cousin Vinny”. But it only hurts when you laugh.
If Allan Bakke (of Bakke vs. the Regents of the University of California fame) who charged reversed discrimination in ‘higher learning’ had to go through what Meredith did, he probably would not have survived an ordeal that was about seventeen years removed from Meredith’s turmoil of getting into Ole Miss.
Meredith’s ego (which he readily admits to having) does not prevent him from giving credit to the first Black, Clennon King, who attempted to integrate Ole Miss as far back as 1958. This King—not the other King—would cease to become even a footnote in history had it not been for Meredith being one of a handful to acknowledge him, but I will not go into King’s story because the horror of it should be read in Meredith’s memoir.
Another figure who deserves an ample footnote if not more is Meredith’s father, Cap Meredith, who had a most pronounced influence on Meredith and who mirrors the thinking of the progressive Blacks in Mississippi who did exist regardless of how history wants to portray Mississippi as a state of ignorant victimized Blacks who couldn’t and wouldn’t fight back.
Let this sink in from Cap Meredith: “Power respects power. When a man stands up, other men respect him. When I was a young man I always carried a gun, sometimes two. I’ve never gone to bed a night in my life when I didn’t have a loaded shotgun in the rack above my head and everybody in the county, white and black, knew that I would use it.”
When his son returns home for a visit, Cap Meredith continues giving advice to his son when the family is threatened by white racists: “You just go on and act like nothing unusual happened. That will throw them off. Whites don’t know how to deal with a black person that ain’t scared.”
Cap Meredith’s philosophy adds another layer to Meredith, and more than likely explains why Meredith was not too fond of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s non-violence philosophy. Cap Meredith’s philosophy mirrors how Mississippi’s Black progressives deemed whites as being the inferior race or at best stupid—an image that does not fit the stereotype of Mississippi Blacks or southern Blacks being victims who wouldn’t fight back. Had Mississippi Blacks and southern Blacks been so full of fear, the battle for Civil Rights would not have happened, seeing that those who made the difference were in fact Black southerners in the ilk of Mrs. Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. And this was long before white Northern ‘liberals’ decided to descend into the region to aid and abet in securing a 1964 civil rights bill.
And speaking of ‘footnotes’ this book which is both a memoir and American history should have had an index. Hopefully that will be done in a reprint, because Meredith mentions little known figures such as Clyde Kennard, Clennon King, Constance Baker Motley—among others-- who are apt to go or have already gone into oblivion along with their roles in integrating the bastion of ‘higher learning’. An index should also be supplied for young 21st Century Blacks who seemingly have a pride in not knowing any civil rights figures other than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and/or Malcolm X.
They really do believe they live in a post-racial society.
Meredith himself would love to believe in a post-racial society, and he goes into this diatribe of how he does not like the term, African-American.
He writes almost with idealistic flair: “I have always considered white liberals just as capable of racism and racial hypocrisy as white conservatives. I object to being labeled primarily as an ‘African-American’ because all other Americans are not simultaneously described as Caucasian-American, Irish-American, German-American, and so on, nor should they be. I reject the idea of any American identified primarily as a hyphenated American. A hyphenated American usually implies second-class citizenship. There is no such thing in my America.”
What I would imagine that he means is in his ‘idyllic’ America, where he admits:
“I am the American Don Quixote. Over the years I’ve led countless one-man marches…sometimes I lecture to large audiences and sometimes I lecture to empty rooms. Still I keep moving…”
Or does he? Because he doesn’t fully keep moving when he brings up whites’ ‘Myth of Innocence’. “We will not live in a post racial society and we will not live in a truly United States of America until this myth is confronted and destroyed…The Myth of Innocence is the vast national denial of responsibility for the horrific conditions of poverty and ignorance that millions of Americans live in today as a direct result of systemic, institutionalized white supremacy and racial discrimination, the entrenched results and shock waves of which linger to this day.”
It is not so much that a post-racial America exists as it is that it is no longer in vogue to talk about race and racism because white America idealistically thinks that having its first Black president terminates racism and discrimination in America.
And this goes into that other side of Meredith who can, along with just about every other Black –un-hyphenated-American, laugh slyly about ‘bi-racial’ roots of its first Black president as being some type of repellant to racism; thus, the reason why Blacks aren’t impressed with President Barack Obama’s ‘bi-racial’ roots as white liberals seem to be. Everyone knows that practically every Black-un-hyphenated-American became ‘bi-racial’ when the white roosters went into the black hen house. When Black slaves were bred on breeding plantations (a subject neither whites nor Blacks want to fully acknowledge. Just as Jews were put into camps to be exterminated; Blacks were put on plantations to be bred and promulgated.). Meredith’s comments on America getting its first Black president should be read, because I won’t give it away here.
Meredith writes in essence what could be practically every Black American’s story when you go back to Black ‘roots’: “My great-grandfather was not only a white man, but the founding father of white supremacy in Mississippi. He was Mississippi Chief Justice J.A.P. Campbell…J.A.P. Campbell wrote the Mississippi Codes of Law and Constitution of 1890, which established legal and official white supremacy for the first time in the Western world.”
Bottom line: Had white-unhyphenated-America done what it was supposed to have when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and when the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were incorporated into the Constitution, there might indeed now be a post-racial America.
Just like the Civil Rights Movement itself, Meredith goes through this ‘thing’ (for my lack of a better description) of wanting to absolve whites then blame whites; where he wants to blame Blacks for their own dilemma then blame whites for it—very much like the Civil Rights struggle itself which it has morphed into a 21st Century America of Black liberals vs. Black conservatives.
Where I give the enormous credit to Meredith is that he is brutally honest with a brutality that bleeds. To reiterate, he cuts into white America’s idea and ideal that Blacks are impressed with the white mentality of white superiority. As stated earlier, progressive Blacks are not. White liberals or whites in general might find the memoir disturbing to their ego or to their perceived notion of what Blacks think about them. He cuts to a post Civil Rights Movement establishment that insists that it is still in charge of who is to be let into the post-movement echelon of leadership. Meredith doesn’t fit. He continues to be a square peg in a round hole. He doesn’t care and neither should we, because he changed America. Like him or not. Agree with him or not.
Getting Meredith into Ole Miss is only part of the journey in this book. Meredith’s life is stuff good movies and history are made of: Drama. All in all with Meredith’s warts, ego, arrogance, windmill fighting, and acts of bravery, “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America” is well-written and a must-read because Meredith is a historic figure in American history and-- whether he likes it or not-- also in African hyphenated American history which is (which he would hopefully approve) American history.
###
Arelya J. Mitchell is an award winning journalist and the author of “Puppy Love”, a novel available on Kindle. She is also a Goodreads author.
November 5, 2018
The most powerful pages are the opening of the book as Meredith recounts his role in the work of integrating the South. He gives depth and insights to the work in the 1950’s and 60’s to make our country aware of the inequalities. Reading the first half of the book engaged me as it revitalized my memories I saw it live on TV, including the day the Mississippi governor literally stood in the door of the “Old Miss” registration office.
The second half of the book is less engaging. He continues the story with retelling of his work and the work of many others who kept the movement moving. The second half covers a lot of territory and is delivered in a rather plain tone. Near the end of the book, we get a collection of themes that don’t have the power of his entry into the University.
Nevertheless, his challenges for change ring clearly today as it did in 1962
The second half of the book is less engaging. He continues the story with retelling of his work and the work of many others who kept the movement moving. The second half covers a lot of territory and is delivered in a rather plain tone. Near the end of the book, we get a collection of themes that don’t have the power of his entry into the University.
Nevertheless, his challenges for change ring clearly today as it did in 1962
September 4, 2018
A fascinating and surprising look at the life of James Meredith. His opinions are not what most would consider orthodox where civil rights are concerned. They are spelled out and defended well in his autobiography.
January 9, 2021
A valuable history lesson and worthwhile read but was not well organized.
January 19, 2021
A very interesting and courageous individual.
March 1, 2025
4.25 Stars
October 3, 2016
I had heard that James Meredith is an unusual man, so I was a bit tentative about reading this book. But, on page 9, he comes right out and says, "I've been accused of having both a 'Messiah complex' and a colossal ego, and both are true." There is something unique, lovable, and completely respectable about someone so honest and straightforward. James Meredith is definitely not "your mama's civil rights hero", as he calls it, which is kind of refreshing after reading so many serious books on the movement and hearing so many cheesy, banal descriptions of civil rights players that have been watered down to a simple endorsement of "African-American history" every February. Mr. Meredith directly describes his point of view concerning his distaste for the term "civil rights movement" and his disapprobation of the concepts of nonviolence and civil disobedience. I completely understood his point of view from the start, and this is why I love to read about the movement- because there were so many different ways of getting to the same place. I love that. And, while I completely appreciate his view, I am proud to say that I am still a strong believer in nonviolence, as I see it as more than just a tactic. It is a way of life.
I do love that Mr. Meredith does not get pulled into all of the cloying praise and metamorphoses of humans to extra-human hero status by the media who really only has one-tenth of the true story. I am angered by the fact that he was not allowed to speak at the unveiling of a statue of his own likeness because, in an act seemingly antithetical to someone who admits he has a huge ego, he did not want it displayed. But when you read this book and get to know Mr. Meredith, it makes complete sense.
I also have to say in response to the final section where he calls to each of us to become involved in the future of education, as a strong opponent of the current system, I believe the only quoted "great mind" in the bunch was that of Howard Gardner. So, I am glad that he included him. I feel the rest are sadly completely misguided in their suggestions.
I do love that Mr. Meredith does not get pulled into all of the cloying praise and metamorphoses of humans to extra-human hero status by the media who really only has one-tenth of the true story. I am angered by the fact that he was not allowed to speak at the unveiling of a statue of his own likeness because, in an act seemingly antithetical to someone who admits he has a huge ego, he did not want it displayed. But when you read this book and get to know Mr. Meredith, it makes complete sense.
I also have to say in response to the final section where he calls to each of us to become involved in the future of education, as a strong opponent of the current system, I believe the only quoted "great mind" in the bunch was that of Howard Gardner. So, I am glad that he included him. I feel the rest are sadly completely misguided in their suggestions.
September 27, 2012
I thought I knew a fair amount of civil rights history. But I knew nothing about the actual battle that ensued the day before James Meredith enrolled at Ole Miss. Two men were killed and scores injured, Americans against Americans. The virulence of racism, the impact on his life and that of his family [his baby sister committed suicide a few years after the family home was shot up] are all clearly described here. And here we are again, facing efforts to suppress the vote through voter id laws.
December 18, 2012
Very good book. I enjoyed this as much as American Insurrection. Looking back it seems eons ago that 30,000 US troops were needed to get one man registered at Ole Miss. It seems incredible that those troops were needed to back up the hundreds of US Marshals originally assigned the task. All that just so one citizen could attend a taxpayer supported University. A lot of this story was lost in the news clutter of the cuban missile crisis which took over news shortly after this started.
December 18, 2012
With this memoir James Meredith has claimed the title of Mississippi Moses.
December 8, 2015
Interesting book, well worth a read and discussion, he makes some great points
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews