James Meredith: First Black Student to Attend Ole Miss

On June 6, 1966, Civil rights activist James Meredith was wounded by a white sniper in Mississippi during a Civil Rights march. From the article:

"March Against Fear, 1966

On June 6, 1966, Meredith began a one-man, 220-mile “March Against Fear” from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Meredith told reporters that his intent was “to challenge the all-pervasive overriding fear” that Black Mississippians still felt when trying to register to vote, even after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Asking only individual Black citizens to join him, Meredith publicly rejected the involvement of the major civil rights organizations.

However, when Meredith was shot and wounded by a White gunman on the second day of the journey leaders and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) all joined the march. Meredith recovered and rejoined the march just before some 15,000 marchers entered Jackson on June 26. During the trek, more than 4,000 Black Mississippians registered to vote."