The Past That Would Not Die

by Walter Lord

Lord’s history of the 1962 Ole Miss riots, sparked by one man’s heroic stance against segregation in the American South On September 30, 1962, James H. Meredith matriculated at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. An air force veteran with sixty hours of transfer credits, Meredith would have been welcomed were it not for the color of his skin. As the first African-American student to register at a previously segregated school, however, he risked his life. The Supreme Court had determined that Oxford’s university must desegregate, and several hundred federal marshals came to support Meredith. It would not be enough. As President Kennedy called for peace, a riot exploded in Oxford. By eleven o’clock that night, the marshals were out of tear gas. By midnight, the highway patrol had pulled out, gunfire was spreading, and Kennedy was forced to send in the army. In this definitive history, Walter Lord argues that the riot was not an isolated incident, but a manifestation of racial hatred that was wrapped up in the state’s identity, stretching all the way back to the Civil War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Politics, Social Justice, American

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Walter Lord was an American author, best known for his documentary-style non-fiction account, A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

In 2009, Jenny Lawrence edited and published The Way It Was: Walter Lord on His Life and Books.

Reviews

[Paul Gaya Ochieng Simeon Juma · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The past is never dead,' William Faulkner wrote. 'It is not even past.' This book goes into the very hard-core of segregation and white supremacy in Mississippi, the State that changed everything for the black race in America. It highlights the case of James Meredith, who is considered a leader of the old generation of African Americans.

Apart from highlighting James Meredith's case, it shows how Mississippi stood at a crossroads on other issues such as the education of the black people, right to vote, and right to protest. The State resisted reconstruction, it also led resistance against the civil rights movement. It highlights how years of peaceful protests was met with bombings, beatings, and simple murder.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v Board of Education, which declared separate schools to be 'inherently unequal', Mississippi bemoaned 'Black Monday'. Mississippi was a haunted State. Haunted by the civil war. It was a land of contrasts, red clay and green grass, mansions and shacks, folks as sweet as flowering magnolias, folks as mean as swamp snakes. For years it remained an outpost of civil rights movements that championed for the rights of the black race. Fans of black history will enjoy this one!

[Charles Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1962, when Air Force veteran James Meredith entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford, over the strenuous objections of the state’s white power structure, led by Governor Ross Barnett, who stood against the weight of the United States government, it led to several days of rioting and bloodshed. This was not, however, an isolated incident in the turbulent Civil Rights era of the 1960s, but a continuation of a struggle that had plagued the nation’s poorest state since the Civil War and before, as whites in Mississippi fought to retain their ‘privileged’ status vis a vis black citizens of the state; a struggle that infected much of the rest of the country while it came to terms with how to deal with its minority populations.
The Past That Would Not Die by Walter Lord was written originally in 1965, and has been reissued in e-Book format. The result of extensive research and interviews with participants in this epic struggle, it offers a rare insight into America’s struggle with race and class that has some bearing on current populist movements in that it shows how economic upheaval can cause people to look for ‘others’ to blame for their misfortunes, and how politicians can manipulate feelings of dispossession to unfortunate ends.
This book will aid those interested in history to better understand a dark chapter in American history, but also help in understanding some of the undercurrents in today’s society. It is disturbing and enlightening at the same time, and a must-read for anyone wanting to get behind the headlines.

[Jane Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

History Book

This is a good history of the roots which took place at Old Miss during the Civil Rights Revolution. The author has done a good job of covering all aspects of the root especially a long section on the bases of the conflict. It is too bad that it is our of date because it does not cover the last 40 years of the evolution.

[Catherine Hultman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published two weeks before I was born, this book is fascinating, yet problematic in reference to today’s vernacular. Since I teach & work at Ole Miss, I know this story well. However, it was interesting to read an account written so closely to the time of the events.