Walk Against Fear: James Meredith (2020)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk against Fear: James Meredith is a documentary film which premiered on the Smithsonian Channel in 2020.

 

It is a biopic of the African American civil rights activist James Meredith with special focus on two important episodes which changed his life and made a significant impact on the world around him:

 

# 1. The time when he wanted to study at the University of Mississippi, colloquially known as Ole Miss, in 1962.

 

# 2. The time when he wanted to organize a one-man demonstration, which he called the Walk against Fear, in 1966.

 

Here is some basic information about this film:

 

** Director: Sol B. River

** Writer: Simon Boyce

** Narrator: Jeff Wilburn

** Run time: 44 minutes

 

Several persons are interviewed in the film. Here are the names of the participants (listed in alphabetical order):

 

** Ross R. Barnett, Jr. – son of Ross Barnett (1898-1987) (who was governor of Mississippi 1960-1964)

** William Doyle – author (see below)

** Robert Ellis – registrar, Ole Miss 1962

** Dorothy Butler Gilliam – journalist – author of the book Trailblazer (2019)

** Hazel Meredith Hall – sister of James Meredith

** Jessie Jackson (born 1941) – civil rights leader – presidential candidate

** Gloria D. Kellum – assistant vice-chancellor emerita – public relations, Ole Miss

** Edwin E. Meek – assistant vice-chancellor emeritus – public relations, Ole Miss – photographer – (see below)

** James Meredith (born 1933) – civil rights activist – author (see below)

** Judy Alsobrooks Meredith – wife of James Meredith

** Bob Schieffer (born 1937) – journalist - CBS

** Kathleen W. Wickman – journalist – author (see below)

** Curtis Wilkie (born 1940) – journalist – author – student at Ole Miss in 1962

** Yohuru Williams – historian

** Flonzie Brown Wright – civil rights activist – author

 

Archive footage is used between the talking heads. Archive footage is used to support and supplement the statements made by the participants. 

 

Archive footage is used when the narrator is talking.

 

Archive footage allows us to see significant details of what happened during the crisis at Ole Miss in 1962 and what happened during the Walk against Fear in 1966.

 

This film is divided into four parts. Here is an overview:

 

Part one – Prologue

A brief introduction to the life of James Meredith

 

Part two – 1962

James Meredith and Ole Miss

 

Part three – 1966

James Meredith and the Walk against Fear

 

Part four – Epilogue

A brief conclusion about James Meredith and his contribution to the struggle for civil rights in the US

 

JAMES MEREDITH AND OLE MISS

From 1950 to 1959, James worked for the US Air Force. During his time in the Air Force, he followed the struggle for civil rights in the US.

 

In 1954 he heard about the ruling of the US Supreme Court which says that segregation in American schools is a violation of the constitution. From this moment, all schools were supposed to be integrated. In fact, they were not.

 

In 1957 he heard about the Little Rock Nine of Arkansas. Nine African American students wanted to attend a high school in Little Rock, but they were not allowed to enter, because the school they wanted to attend had a policy of whites-only.

 

President Eisenhower intervened. The president sent federal troops to Arkansas. Under the protection of federal troops, the nine students were allowed to enter the high school in Little Rock.

 

What about higher education? What about universities? American universities in the deep south were still segregated. James Meredith felt that he could and should do something about this issue. This was a task for him.

 

In 1962, he sent a message to Ole Miss, which had a policy of whites-only. At first they were positive. But when he told them that he was black, they told him to stay away and find another university.

 

James did not give up. He took his case to court where he won. But Ole Miss still did not want him. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court where the original verdict was confirmed.

 

Ross Barnett, the governor of Mississippi, refused to give in. Integration will never happen, as long as I am the governor, he promised.

 

President John F. Kennedy intervened. The president sent US Marshals and federal troops to Oxford (Mississippi). Faced with this kind of force, the governor and the University finally surrendered: James Meredith was allowed to enter and to register as a student at Ole Miss.

 

Segregation had been broken at Ole Miss, but not everywhere in the deep south. At least one location was still segregated: Mississippi Southern College (since 1962, known as University of Southern Mississippi). This institution was not integrated until 1965.

 

After a while, the administration of Ole Miss realized they had been wrong when they had refused to accept James Meredith as a student the University, just because of the colour of his skin. They began to admit this in public. They began to make amends.

 

** In 2006, more than 40 years after James had graduated, the university decided to erect a statue of him.

 

The statue is placed in the square in front of the Lyceum. The huge confrontation of 1962 took place in front of this building.

 

** In 2018, James was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame. In that year, James was invited to attend a football game at the local stadium, something which had been impossible in the 1960s.

 

He was given a chair at the 50-yard line. When he was formally introduced, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

 

JAMES MEREDITH AND THE WALK AGAINST FEAR

During the 1960s, activists organized several campaigns for civil rights in the south, such as Freedom Riders (1961) and Freedom Summer (1964). There were also several demonstrations and marches.

 

In 1966, James decided that he wanted to organize a one-man demonstration, which he called the Walk against Fear. He wanted to walk (almost) alone from Memphis (Tennessee) to Jackson (Mississippi).

 

He said it should be safe for any man (including any black man) to walk along the road from one city to another. The distance from Memphis to Jackson is ca. 220 miles.

 

While walking from Memphis to Jackson he was going to stop at several towns and urge African Americans to register for the vote.

 

The Walk against Fear began on 5 June 1966. He walked alone, while a few friends and some reporters were watching him from a distance. On the second day, on 6 June 1966, as he entered the state of Mississippi, something happened: he was shot by a lone shooter.

 

The shooter was a white man called Aubrey James Norvell. The incident took place not far from Hernando. Norvell fired several shots. James was wounded. He fell to the ground, but he was not dead.

 

He was rushed to a hospital, while the shooter was arrested. The shooting was immediately reported all over the country. The next day, five persons showed up at the hospital where James Meredith was lying in bed, trying to recover.

 

Who were they? 

 

Here are the names:

 

** Martin Luther King (1929-1968) – SCLC

** Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) – SNCC

** Floyd McKissick (1922-1991) – CORE

** Roy Wilkins (1901-1981) – NAACP

** Whitney Young (1921-1971) – National Urban League

 

These five persons represented five major African American organisations. They were known as the Big Five. Under normal circumstances, the leaders of the five organisations could not come together and could not work together, but in this moment they all realized that they had to show up and that they had to support James Meredith and his project.

 

The five leaders declared that they were going to continue the march on his behalf. And other people were welcome to join them.

 

When the Walk against Fear continued, it was no longer a one-man demonstration; it was a mass demonstration. As the march was resumed, many local people joined the march. The number of marchers increased day by day.

 

After 20 days in hospital, James was ready to return to the road. He joined the marchers for the last part of the walk.

 

When they entered Jackson, the number of marchers had swelled to ca. 15,000. It was a huge manifestation of solidarity. During the march, many African Americans had registered to vote.

 

The Walk against Fear was a big success. James Meredith had started this as a one-man demonstration, but because of the shooting and because of the public response to the shooting it became a milestone in the struggle for civil rights.

 

CONCLUSION

What do reviewers say about this film?

 

** On IMDb it has a rating of 38 percent.

 

** On Amazon there are at the moment five global ratings and one global review. The average rating is 4.8 stars which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent.

 

If you ask me, the former rating is far too low, while the latter rating is much more appropriate.

 

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

 

PS # 1. The following articles are available online:

 

** Leonard Gill, Fear and Loathing in Mississippi, Memphis Magazine, 1 April 2014

** Chris Burn, James Meredith – the complex anti-racism pioneer asking a very simple question, Yorkshire Post, 12 October 2020

 

PS # 2. Ghosts of Ole Miss is a documentary film which premiered in 2012.

 

It is an episode of the program called “30 for 30” which runs on the sports channel ESPN.

 

The topic of this film is college football and civil rights in the deep south in 1962.

 

** Director: Fritz Mitchell

** Writer and narrator: Wright Thompson

** Run time: 52 minutes

 

REFERENCES

 

** An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 by William Doyle (2001) (2003)

 

** The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss by Charles W. Eagles (2009) (2014)

 

** James Meredith and the Ole Miss Riot: A Soldier’s Story by Henry T. Gallager (2012)

 

** A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge for America by James Meredith (with William Doyle) (2012) (2016)

 

** Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Meredith March Against Fear by Aram Goudsouzian (2014) (2015)

 

** Riot: Witness to Anger and Change by Edwin E. Meek (2015) (with an introduction by Curtis Wilkie) (with an afterword by former governor William Winter) (this is a photo-history of the riot in 1962)

 

** We Believed We Were Immortal: Twelve Reporters Who Covered the 1962 Integration Crisis at Ole Miss by Kathleen W. Wickham (2017)

 

** Three Years in Mississippi by James Meredith (2019)

 

** James Meredith: Warrior and the America that created him by Meredith Coleman McGee (2019) (the author is the niece of James Meredith)

 

*****

 

 

 James Meredith

(born 1933)

*****