An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 [Hardcover]

William Doyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 18, 2001

Forty years ago, James Meredith tried to integrate the University of Mississippi, and ignited an armed white rebellion in the nation’s heartland. This riveting book re-creates the day the country went to war against itself.

An American Insurrection is the true story of the worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War and a major turning point in American history. It takes readers into the eye of the chaotic and ferocious white uprising that occurred when air force veteran James Meredith tried to become the first black student to register at the University of Mississippi, only to be physically blocked by radical segregationist Governor Ross Barnett, hundreds of state police, and thousands of student and civilian “volunteers” from across the South. The revolt climaxed in a fourteen-hour battle and the lightning invasion of the state by 30,000 combat troops ordered in by President John F. Kennedy.

Based on years of intensive research, including more than 500 interviews with witnesses and key players in the drama, recently unsealed FBI files, and on JFK’s Oval Office and Cabinet Room tapes recorded during the crisis, An American Insurrection unearths the unsung heroes–and more than a few villains–of a dark and violent event that has remained buried in the historical shadows until now. It is the unforgettable account of a governor in rebellion, a president in crisis, soldiers on a perilous mission, a state sliding into civil war, and a battle that crushed forever the Southern strategy of massive resistance. What Black Hawk Down was to the American mission in Somalia, An American Insurrection is destined to become to the epic struggle for civil rights.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

William Doyle, author of Inside the Oval Office, calls the forced integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962 "the biggest domestic military crisis of the twentieth century." In An American Insurrection, he delivers a blow-by-blow account of how the school, popularly known as Ole Miss, was opened to black students for the first time. At the center of the tale is James Meredith, a determined but unusual hero gripped by what Doyle calls "an almost messianic vision of destroying the system of white supremacy in Mississippi." Meredith was one of the first black men to serve in the armed forces following its integration, enlisting right out of high school in 1951. He later decided to seek a college education and resolved to get his degree from the all-white precincts of Ole Miss. Through clever plotting and the assistance of a beleaguered civil rights movement, Meredith won admittance to the school, but his troubles had only just begun. Thousands of segregationists descended upon Oxford, Mississippi, to block Meredith from attending class. Their numbers included students, state police, governor Ross Barnett, and an assortment of troublemakers with no real ties to the university. Through it all, Meredith "succeeded in forcing three new allies to his side: the president of the United States, the U.S. Justice Department, and the most powerful military machine in history."

The story recounted in An American Insurrection is inspiring, and Doyle tells it well. It is also fresh, because it has been forgotten in a way other epic civil rights struggles--at Little Rock and Selma, for instance--have not. Meredith never took his place beside Rosa Parks as a celebrated hero of the civil rights movement; its leaders wound up regarding him as something of an annoyance. As Doyle writes, "Meredith maintained a ruthless, jarring intellectual integrity and courage that considered the traditional discussion of civil rights as an insult to him as an American citizen, as invalid, even preposterous." The key word is "jarring": Meredith spent his later years rebuking the NAACP and working for conservative senator Jesse Helms. Admirers of Diane McWhorter's Carry Me Home and other readers interested in the civil rights movement will enjoy An American Insurrection--and nobody will suppress a smile during Doyle's description of graduation day, when Meredith wore one of the red-and- white "Ross Is Right" badges distributed by his foes. It was hidden under his robes, turned upside down. --John Miller

From Publishers Weekly

When James Meredith was about 12 years old, he had a "young boy's dream of attending the football powerhouse school," the University of Mississippi. But when he became the first black student to register at "Ole Miss" in 1962, a "Byzantine legal struggle" ensued, which Doyle chronicles along with the military maneuvers by U.S. Deputy Marshals and others sent to contain the revolt by radical segregationists and hundreds of student and civilian "volunteers." The episode which Time magazine called the "greatest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War" collapsed into complete mayhem and violence. Doyle (Inside the Oval Office), cowriter and coproducer of the A&E documentary The Secret White House Tapes, makes extensive use of the Kennedy tapes as well as interviews with over 500 eyewitnesses and participants. Unfortunately, his indiscriminate accumulation of detail (the governor's wife wore pearl-frame glasses; the average height of the 503rd Military Police Battalion is 5'10") mars the book. The sketches of Civil War battles (provided by way of analogy to the Mississippi crisis) and of assorted local, state and federal troop movements fail to cohere. Some of Doyle's facts that World War II paratroopers served in "Normandy, Holland, Belgium, Sicily, Italy and North Africa"; references to JFK's "overlapping extramarital affairs and fleeting sexual experiences"; the price tag on Meredith's graduation suit ($85) bring neither depth nor diversion to this unimaginative text. Agent, Mel Berger/William Morris. (Sept. 18)Forecast: Military buffs may relish the logistical detail, but the dust jacket comparison to Black Hawk Down is unwarranted, since this account is unlikely to break out of its niche.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (September 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385499698
• ISBN-13: 978-0385499699
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oxonian my whole life..., April 5, 2002

By 

J. Murchison "walrus26" (Oxford, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 (Hardcover)

I've lived in Oxford my entire life (26 years) and never knew the true story behind the integration of Ole Miss. It is something I hate I was not privy to, but something I am glad to now know. Mr Doyle does an excellent job telling both sides of the story. I come from a long line of Mississippi racists. I always heard what a mistake it was for Meredith to have been admitted to the University. Thankfully, I have never felt this way since I was able to give my own opinion on matters. I now work for the University in the Old Gym, just behind the Lyceum. I see those visuals everyday and I enjoy the lush beauty of the rolling campus. It brings tears to my eyes to know that these actions took place not long ago. Oxford still has a long way to go, but I am so proud it is no longer like this. A few students still insist on the band playing "Dixie" and carrying their Confederate flags wherever they go, but they are no longer the Oxford of 1962. Anyone who enters the beautiful town of Oxford and grand campus of Ole Miss will find it full of friendly folk, of various nationalities and races. Drink a coffee and read at the balcony of Square Books, stroll through the tree-filled Grove (but watch out for theiving squirrels!), and walk past the magnificent Lyceum, a time-honored symbol of the University. You'll get a real feel of what the University is now, not then.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there on that very morning., March 1, 2003

By 

Mike Cugginoimagination Records "Mike Cuggino" (Greenlawn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 (Hardcover)

I am 62 years old now. On that morning when
the 716th MP Battalion was brought to the campus,
I was in one of the groups exactly as pictured in
the middle of the book. At the time I had no idea
what the big picture was. I just did as I was told.
I was in the army for about a year prior to that day,
but never had live ammunition except for practice.
We had our gas masks on and our bayonets fixed. We
were each handed one clip of live ammunition for
our M-1 rifles. I vividly remember my knees literally
knocking together as we stood there waiting for the
trouble that never came at that time. We had heard
that a soldier had been killed prior to that. This
book is giving me the big picture and a full under-
standing of how we got there and why we were there.
I am finding this book to be riviting and educational.
I heartily recommend it. Mike Cuggino, NY.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, January 7, 2002

By 

Stanford L. Ross (Jackson, MS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962 (Hardcover)

This book gives what appears to be an almost complete and factual account of the events of the enrollment of James Meredith at Ole Miss. Having first hand experience of being there as a staff member in the Office of the Registrar, I was drawn to this book and find it flows well and coordinates time lines in an understandable format. It can easily be read in two evenings and makes you feel as though you were there. A must for anyone interested in history.