In January 1961, James Meredith, an African-American, applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. Officials at the school returned his application. Mr. Meredith took his case to court. On September 10, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he had the right to attend the University of Mississippi. The Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, personally blocked Mr. Meredith from registering at the University even after the Supreme Court ruled. Finally, on September 30, 1962, a Sunday, Mr. Meredith was escorted onto the campus by federal marshals and Civil Rights Division lawyers. Stationed on or near the campus to protect him were 123 deputy federal marshals, 316 US Border Patrolmen, and 97 federal prison guards. Within an hour, the federal forces were attacked by a mob that would grow to number 2,000 and who fought them with guns, bricks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails. The marshals had been ordered not to shoot and so used tear gas to try to stop the rioting. The violence continued until President Kennedy sent 16,000 federal troops to the campus. When it was over, two people were dead, twenty-eight marshals had been shot, one hundred sixty people were injured, and James Meredith became the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi. (Law).
The history of Supreme Court rulings concerning school desegregation is one of initial unwillingness to dictate solutions, followed by growing impatience with the speed of integration in many jurisdictions, culminating in detailed and sometimes drastic orders for complete and immediate desegregation, and finally some backing off in the 1970's from hard-line solutions. Following are some of these cases as outlined by Sar Levitan in Still A Dream:.
Cooper v. Aaron, 1958 v/s The court repeated that no law or policy of state or local governments could directly or indirectly have the effect of promoting racial segregation.
