Wright Thompson's Ghosts of Ole Miss
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In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case that segregated public schools were inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional. Despite this ruling, Ole Miss remained an all-white university until the enrollment of James Meredith almost a decade later. In the documentary Ghosts of Ole Miss, Wright Thompson tells the story of the 1962 riots at the University of Mississippi, where students and federal troops clashed over the issue of racial integration. James Meredith became the first African-American student to attend Ole Miss, much to the outrage of the students at the all-white university, who let the world know that they did not want Meredith anywhere near campus. The Civil War ended in 1865, but the war for civil rights and racial equality was still raging in 1962, almost one hundred years later. After being freed from literal chains, African-Americans were now bound by the chains of poverty and lack of opportunity. Nearly a century after the end of slavery, the bleak aftermath still haunted Ole Miss, in the form of denying African-Americans the right to the same educational opportunities as whites. Slavery was over, but its legacy remained.
To further explore the history of racial inequality in education, you will visit the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, where the 1962 riots detailed in Ghosts of Ole Miss took place.
To further explore the history of racial inequality in education, you will visit the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, where the 1962 riots detailed in Ghosts of Ole Miss took place.