The first black American at Ole Miss
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2017
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There were riots when the first black student was enrolled at the University of Mississippi in the American south in October 1962. Mississippi's white segregationist governor only allowed James Meredith to be admitted after President John F Kennedy himself intervened. Louise Hidalgo has been talking to Norma Watkins, the daughter of the governor's lawyer, about that watershed moment and about growing up in one of America's most segregated states.
Picture: James Meredith walks to class at Ole Miss university accompanied by US marshals, October 1st 1962 (Credit: Marion S Trikosko courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories. |
| 1:04.3 | And that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.2 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, |
| 1:09.4 | find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hello and thank you for downloading our history program, Witness. |
| 1:15.0 | I'm Louis Adaggo and today I'm taking you back to October 1962 |
| 1:20.0 | and the enrollment of the first black student at the University of Mississippi in the American |
| 1:25.4 | South following riots in which two people died. Mississippi's white segregationist governor |
| 1:31.9 | only allowed the admission of James Meredith after the personal |
| 1:35.2 | intervention of President John F. Kennedy. |
... |
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