Ole Miss Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Integration

Three panelists discuss the progress that has been made over the past 50 years at the University of Mississippi.


Megan Hauglid

JOUR. 271

Oct. 4, 2012

Overby Lecture

397 words

            UNIVERSITY, Miss. – The 50^th anniversary of integration at the University of Mississippi is marked by celebration, remembrance and achievement among students, faculty and staff. The University of Mississippi and the city of Oxford now look back on that life-changing day, September 30, 1962, when James Meredith was the first African-American student admitted into the segregated University of Mississippi.

Charles Overby greeted the prominent Ole Miss historian David Sansing, as well as Gerald Walton, Donald Cole and Valerie Ross who spoke about how integration has affected the past, present and future of the university.

“In my opinion we have come a long way and my perspective about the present is very good,” Gerald Walton said. “We have a long way to go and it’s simply going to get better.”

Since 1962, African-Americans at the University of Mississippi have gained more and more leadership roles. Donald Cole, Assistant Provost at the university, says that he has always encouraged African-Americans at Ole Miss to “push for leadership at the top.”

            Fifty years later and the University of Mississippi has now acquired the first African-American teacher, first African-American integrated football player, African-American fraternities and sororities, an editor for the Daily Mississippian, a Vice Chancellor, a Dean of the Law School, a male and also a female Associated Student Body President and the first African-American Homecoming Queen. Needless to say, fifty years later, James Meredith has made a huge impact for the University of Mississippi.

            Valerie Ross, Associate Dean of Student Affairs, especially takes pride in her participation in changing the name of university’s gospel choir from the Black Student Union Choir, to currently the University of Mississippi Gospel Choir. However, Ross strives to witness more accomplishment for the African-American community at Ole Miss. There is a saying about Ole Miss, “You graduate from Ole Miss, but you don’t leave Ole Miss” Ross hopes that the African-American students and alumni will “become more active” and that they eventually will feel the same way about Ole Miss.

            “I am thrilled with how far Ole Miss has come over these past fifty years,” Sophomore Journalism major Sarah Douglass said. “It is inspiring to see how one person can make such a huge impact in the history of our school.”

            Donald Cole describes the current day University of Mississippi to be a “university of the 2000’s” meaning that it is “totally different then back then.”