ARCHIVE OF MATERIAL ON THE 1962 BATTLE OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI - INCLUDING AN UNPUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF THE RIOTS BY AN OLE MISS PROFESSOR
A small group of material relating to the October 1962 riots at the University of Mississippi following the enrollment of the school's first Black student, James H. Meredith.
The highlight of this collection is a copy of the book INTEGRATION AT OLE MISS by Russell Barrett which is annotated by Ole Miss professor William B. Keith. Included is a xerox copy of an unpublished two-page typed letter by Keith detailing his experiences during the riot.
The letter is addressed to his close friend Don Davis (a high school history teacher and principal in Ohio). In the letter, Keith recalls the trepidation of not knowing how Gov. Barnett would respond the the Federal government forcing the issue of desegregation at Ole Miss; his recollection of the Sept. 30 Ole Miss football game; and the subsequent beginning of the riots the following day.
Keith and a friend (then graduate students at Ole Miss) went over the Lyceum where students were gathering. He notes there are actually pictures of him in the crowd included in the Barrett book and that he has marked them. He was still in the crowd when the first volley of tear gas was fired into the crowd. A State Patrol officer next to him was struck in the head and Keith and a Miss. patrolman carried the officer to safety. It then occurred to Keith to go over to the biology building to lock up the dangerous acids kept there (a smart move, as rioters did break into the building to search for flammable acids). His account then ends as he watched the rest of the action on television.
The letter is included in a copy of Russell Barrett's Integration at Ole Miss (Chicago: 1965 1st ed) which is inscribed from the author to Don Davis (the recipient of Keith's letter). Also included is a two-page ALS from Keith to Davis discussing hopes they can visit soon. Keith became a long-time Professor of Biology at Ole Miss until his death in 2007. The whereabouts of the original of the letter (if it still exists) are unknown.
Also included:
James W. Silver. Mississippi: The Closed Society (NY: Harcourt Brace 1964). Inscribed to Davis by Bill Keith along with an original one-page typed letter signed from Keith to Davis.
James W. Silver. Running Scared: Silver in Mississippi. Inscribed from Keith to Davis.
A four-page typed document which was distributed on the Ole Miss campus in late Sept. 1962 by the school's Board of Trustees. The first page is a statement from the Trustees that they are complying with the Federal Court order to enroll James Meredith. The remaining three pages are a copy of the official court order. The document is is signed by Wm. B. Keith on the first page. Item #1282914
Price: $1,000.00