MISSISSIPPI--More than half a century after he first moved to desegregate higher education in the Magnolia State, James Meredith is calling for another revolution.
"There is desperation in Mississippi, particularly in the Mississippi Delta," said the 77-year-old icon who applied to attend the University of Mississippi after returning from the Air Force in 1960.
"It is finally coming home that you can't neglect everything without the impact spreading to everybody."
Only 10 percent of Delta seniors meet college readiness benchmarks in math, science, reading and language arts, statistics show.
"The solution, as I understand, it is not a movement to get somebody to do something but an effort to get everybody to do their little bit," said Meredith, who broke the color barrier at Ole Miss in 1962.
After public schools integrated in 1970 in Mississippi, many white families fled public schools, creating a dual system of private and public schools and a situation that "has totally devastated the population as a whole," he said.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a third of African-American males born this century can expect to spend time in prison in their lifetimes. In Mississippi, less than half of the black male students entering the ninth grade graduate on time.
Meredith said the problem goes beyond schools to include homes.
The best way to raise children can be found in two proverbs, he said. Quoting Solomon, he said, "You should train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
The second came from an African proverb: "It takes a whole village to raise a child."
In those two proverbs lie the answer to Mississippi's problems, Meredith said. "Only the family of God can solve the problems of our time."
The Rev. Dolphus Weary, executive director of Mission Mississippi, said the key is making the home, church and school work together.
"Churches need to have after-school programs for students that don't have a home to go to, a place to do their homework," he said.
"We need parents, teachers and churches to work together. We need to stop pushing the blame game and see what we can do together."
Tom Burnham, state superintendent of education, believes Meredith's ideas are worth trying.
In 1997, state lawmakers approved th Mississippi Adequate Education Program, created to ensure adequate education for all Mississippi children, regardless of where they live. That legislation sought to ensure both equity and adequacy, he said.
In places such as Madison County, a mill can generate $1 million in tax money for schools, he said. "A mill in the Delta may raise only $18,000 to $25,000. There is nothing to be taxed, except some farm land, so you no longer have equity."
Adding to that problem is the fact MAEP remains underfunded by $250 million, he said. "Now you no longer have equity, and you no longer have adequacy."
Earlier this month, he visited schools in Shaw, deep in the Delta.
"You walk around, and you realize they don't have anything," he said. "Yes, they're trying to provide education, but they're so devoid of resources to do it."
Every Mississippi child should get a shot at education, but where that child lives continues to matter, he said.
Four of the six districts under conservatorship are in or near the Delta, he said.
"We went into Sunflower County a year ago. We had students out of school, and parents were threatening to boycott," he said. "It's pulled back together. We have discipline back in the schools, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's improvement in the test scores."
Last month, Meredith traveled to Greenwood to see how the community would react to his ideas.
He said he wanted to know "if the black (families) can be motivated to take charge of training up their children, will the white powers that be encourage this change or will they block such a change?"
For too long, those in the Delta have looked to "the big man" to rescue them, he said.
Meredith confessed he had thought of himself as that big man for years, even as he tried to disguise that desire.
Much of his life, he said he believed "God and I were partners, and I was the senior partner."
That changed in December, he said. "I came to the conclusion no man can get the job done. Only God can."
Other revelations came to him as well, he said. "God told me when I made peace with him, 'James Meredith, you talk too much.' "
A native of Kosciusko, Meredith attended schools in Mississippi before moving to Florida for his senior year in high school.
He went into the Air Force for nine years, and when he was done, he returned home. "I came back to Mississippi to launch a war against Mississippi," he said.
After starting to attend Ole Miss in fall 1962, Meredith received endless threats, and four years later, he was shot during his one-man "March Against Fear."
Asked what he remembered about the famous photograph that shows him marching between Chief U.S. Marshal James McShane and Justice Department lawyer John Doar, he replied, "I didn't see a soul."
Perhaps that is true. After all, Meredith kept the blinds on his dormitory room closed the whole time he attended Ole Miss.
"Most people don't realize how much energy it takes," he said.
David Sansing, history professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi, said Meredith deserves tremendous credit. "At that time, there was not one integrated institution in the state," he said. "He literally did transform the state."
Meredith is an enigma. He has drawn criticism for working for then- Sen. Jesse Helms and for remarks such as saying 99.9 percent of African Americans can't speak or write "proper English."
Greenwood lawyer Hiram Eastland Jr. called Meredith "the most misunderstood man in America."
The civil rights icon "is like a 20th century Frederick Douglass," the African American who escaped slavery and became a powerful orator and leader of the abolitionist movement, Eastland said. "Frederick Douglass discovered that the pathway to freedom was through education."
Meredith opened the door for all Mississippians to enter higher education, and now he hopes to open the door to a quality education, Eastland said.
Meredith received a warm welcome from the hundreds, Eastland said.
He said when he has gone with Meredith to ball games at Ole Miss, "he can't walk more than five steps before somebody stops him and says, 'I want to thank you for what you did. Now I understand why you did it.'"
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Monday, April 25th 2011 at 6:53PM
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