Meredith Enrolls Amid Riots
Daily hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
60th Year, No.12
Europe Focuses On Mississippi
LONDON — (UPI) — Newspapers in Europe and Asia gave big headlines to the Mississippi crisis today and called it one of the gravest conflicts in American history since the Civil War.
From London to Moscow and from Tokyo to Singapore and beyond, the dramatic developments at the University of Mississippi were front page news edition after edition. In most places they pushed local news from the limelight.
The Soviet Tass news agency informed Russian readers that President Kennedy had called for a peaceful settlement of the Mississippi violence. It said he was forced to act "under pressure of public opinion."
THE TIMES OF LONDON said the Oxford, Miss., showdown proved a "much greater test" than the Little Rock desegregation battle in 1957.
In Singapore, the newspaper Straits Times said "there have been few graver crisis in American domestic history."
The Paris afternoon newspaper Le Monde praised Attorney General Robert Kennedy's direction of the federal forces in Mississippi.
It supported President Kennedy's stand and said Mississippi is a battle he must win "no matter at what cost."
Monday, Oct. 1, 1962
"The inflammatory suggestions of Barnett and resigned Major General (Edwin) Walker have borne their fruits: blood ran Sunday evening in Oxford and tension seemed to be growing Monday morning." Le Monde said.
THE VIENNA NEWSPAPER Arbeiter-Zeitung, called the Mississippi governor a man "who wants to provoke another Little Rock." The newspaper said Barnett cannot expect Washington to get down on its knees and cannot assume that federal government troops will let themselves be chased away by local police.
But, the Vienna paper added, Barnett can take it for granted that he has become one of the best known Americans as well as a hero of the white majority in the Southern states.
Weather
This morning's light rain and northerly winds are expected to disappear this afternoon and be replaced by clearing and cooler temperatures. Tonight and Tuesday it will be partly cloudy. The high today will be between 55 and 60. The low tonight is expected to be between 40 and 45.
Kansan Condemns Anti-Catholic Writing
More anti-Roman Catholic literature was inserted into copies of the Daily Kansan Thursday and Friday, it was learned this morning.
The Daily Kansan staff emphasizes that this literature was inserted without the knowledge or consent of the Daily Kansan, after the copies were placed in the campus distribution boxes.
The matter first came to the Daily Kansan's attention last Wednesday, after the literature was inserted in several copies of Tuesday's issue.
Anyone having information which may be helpful in stopping the circulation of this literature is requested to telephone the Daily Kansan, extension 711 or 376, or the KU Police Department. extension 701.
The Editors
ENFORCING INTEGRATION Shown above are President Kennedy (left) and his brother, U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy (right). They are taking stern measures to quell rioting and enroll Meredith at the University of Mississippi campus.
Foreign Students Against Barnett
KU foreign students have turned thumbs down on Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett's action in the Meredith case.
In interviews Friday at the International Club, opinions ranged from astonishment at Barnett's defiance to condemnation of the southern official.
HE WAS TERMED a brave man and a fool, but no one said he was right or just.
Some called him fool.
Some called him brave.
None called him just.
"I DON't LIKE their views," said Eberhard Gerlach, Berlin Germany, graduate student. "But the people of Mississippi are so thoroughly convinced they're right they think they can use any means at their disposal to enforce their views."
Fritz Gysin, Basel, Switzerland, graduate student, pointed out that wherever there was difference there is prejudice. "I can understand his
emotional feelings. We have the same problem with Italian workers in Switzerland."
Hsing Wu, Burma graduate student, commented. "Negro students are accepted in other universities. James Meredith also should be admitted at the University of Mississippi. It is silly for Gov. Barnett to interfere in such a matter."
Gysin felt that education would solve the problem in time.
ABDUL BAREK, Kabul, Afghanistan, junior, said, "I would be happy if Meredith were accepted. I do not blame Gov. Barnett for his behavior. He has to carry out what is expected of him. People in the South are very prejudiced. Gov. Barnett may be one of them. Without people's support it will be difficult for him to run in the coming election."
Asked why a Negro should have to prove his capabilities, he said it was a matter of earning the confidence of white citizens. He said that the individual makes his own opportunities. He said he thought Meredith should enter an integrated university and help the Negro cause by serving as an example of what the Negro can do.
Pramon Sutivong, Thailand senior, favored Meredith's admittance. He believes that Gov. Barnett should be punished for contempt of court.
GOV. FAUBUS FACED the use of federal enforcement of desegregation at Central High School in 1957. "The South will one day probably be about as integrated as the North," he predicted.
(Continued on page 8)
Faubus Says Meredith Misquided in His Acts
(Editor's note: This article was written to the riot at Mississippi University.)
By Bernard Henrie
Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus said Saturday that James Meredith could better serve the Negro cause by enrolling elsewhere than "Ole Miss" and then leading an exemplary life.
Gov. Faubus made the statement in a telephone interview. The Arkansas governor was in Topeka for the reunion of the 35th National Guard, his World War II outfit.
Faubus said this would be proof by example of what the Negro is capable of doing.
The 59-year-old governor, campaigning for an unprecedented fifth term, arrived in Topeka Friday afternoon by private plane. He told reporters before leaving Arkansas that he alerted state police and national guard to be watching for possible trouble erupting across the border from Mississippi. He said his action was only precautionary.
"What people call prejudice is sometimes based on facts," he said. "The Negro, and all of us, should work at self-improvement. That is the key. Self-improvement is the most important thing."
HE SAID HIS sympathies were with the "underprivileged." "I was underprivileged myself," he said. "When I became governor I saw to it that Negro teachers were paid as much as white teachers."
Gov. Faubus said there is need for moderation. He cited the brewing violence in Mississippi as proof of an old maxim — force begets force. "No question in the history of social events has been solved by
(Continued on page 8)
By Al Kuettner United Press International
OXFORD, Miss. — (UPI) — Negro James Meredith registered today at the University of Mississippi and began attending classes on a campus littered with the debris of a major riot that took two lives and injured at least 75 persons.
"It is not a happy occasion." he said.
About 400 U.S. deputy marshals and 1,000 federal troops guarded the campus as the 29-year-old Negro cracked the segregation barriers of the 114-year-old school.
The campus was brought under military control early today but the rioting spread to downtown Oxford and at least one soldier was hurt in a barrage of rocks, timbers and pop bottles before the crowd was dispersed with tear gas and reinforcements were brought in.
Witnesses said several shots were fired at the troops at one point downtown. The troops immediately rushed forward and fired rifle shots over the heads of the crowd.
In Jackson, Gov. Ross Barnett was in seclusion but his office issued a statement saying "there has been an invasion of our state resulting in bloodshed of our citizens and threatened bloodshed of others." The capitol building's Mississippi state flag flew at half-mast.
MEREDITH, whose determination to desegregate "Ole Miss" brought about a conflict that threatened to rock the federal union, walked solemnly to an American colonial history class at 9 a.m. to shouts of "Nigger, nigger" and "Was it worth two deaths?"
He was accompanied to the classes by three deputy marshals and U.S. Department of Justice representative Ed Gudman.
The Negro was met at the registrar's office by university registrar Robert B. Ellis who handed him a stack of forms. The historic occasion was concluded quietly.
Meredith, who caught a whiff of the tear gas that clouded the campus early today, rubbed his eyes occasionally.
President Kennedy, who caught only four hours sleep during the troubled night, was in close touch with the situation. His radiotelevision appeal to the students last night failed to quell rioting that broke out when the campus and town learned that Meredith, turned away three times, had been brought onto the campus.
THE CAMPUS, littered today with burned out automobiles, spent tear gas grenades, broken glass and other assorted rubble, was under virtual martial law. An estimated 400 U.S. marshals and 1,000 federal troops kept a firm grip on the order.
The normally sleepy college town of Oxford was in the same condition by noon today. Truckloads of troops roared toward courthouse square to put down a fresh outbreak of rioting that threatened to continue throughout the day.
At least one soldier was reported injured in the downtown rioting when a pop bottle hit him about the head and shoulders. The
Walker Arrested
WASHINGTON — (UPI) — Former Army Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker was arrested today on charges of "rebellion, insurrection and seditious conspiracy." Atty. Gen. Robert F. Keenedy announced.
The Attorney General told newsmen that Walker had been arrested and would be arraigned later today at Oxford, Miss. No other details were immediately available.
Walker's headquarters in Dallas said it had no immediate comment on his arrest.
Walker had left Dallas during the weekend to go to Oxford, after issuing a call for Americans to pick up their "flag, tent and skillets" and follow him on a crusade against use of federal troops in the Mississippi crisis.
crowd of several hundred, apparently mostly young people, was made even furious by the fact that the troops trying to keep order included a number of Negroes.
At least 75 persons were arrested last night and early today, including a Decatur, Ga., man, Melvin Bruce, 24, identified as a frequent companion of members of the American Nazi Party. He was accused by military authorities of sniping at the marshals last night with a powerful rifle.
THE DEAD were identified as Paul Guihard, correspondent for the French News Agency, who was found dead of a bullet wound in the back, and Ray Gunter, 23, an Oxford resident.
Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, who resigned his army commission under fire for his rightist viewpoints, was seen during the rioting congratulating the students. He reappeared downtown this morning in a big, white Texas hat and began shaking hands but was ushered out of courthouse square at bavonet point.
"Ole Miss" and the normally sleepy town of Oxford no longer bore much of a resemblance to a center of education.
Eight bloody hours had turned it into a battleground where southerners and the federal government clashed openly for the first time since the Civil War.
Thirty prisoners—their hands raised over their heads—were marched down University Avenue.
THE ONCE-BEAUTIFUL CAMPUS, NOW littered with tear gas cannisters, burned-out automobiles and broken glass, echoed with the cadence of marching troops.
Stubborn rioters—who under the cover of pre-dawn darkness rained rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire on federal forces—formed in pockets all over the campus and had to be routed out by soldiers.