Customer Reviews

An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

William Doyle brilliantly recreates a little remembered incident that challenged America to its core: the attempt of an Air Force veteran named James Meredith to exercise his right to go to school. That would, on the surface, seem an easy task. However the year was 1962, the school was the University Of Mississippi, and the citizen was African American. The battle which took place left an armed force occupying an American campus, two people dead, and a nation facing the inevitable moral conflict brought about by segregation.

Doyle's research is superb; he uncovers evidence, testimony, and events which have never before been reported. At the same time, the writing is crisp, exciting and momentous - events race along spinning out of the control of the racist Governor (Ross Barnett), the vacillating President (John Kennedy) and the cool observer (Meredith himself)

Readers wanting to know more about the Civil Rights Movement, human courage, and the Kennedy Administration will, naturally, find this book to be fascinating. However, any citizen who wants an exciting read about the history of their nation should buy this remarkable book.

I gave this book to my Dad who attended Ole Miss at the same time Meredith was there. He felt the book was an accurate depiction of the events and has throughly enjoyed reading it.

This is a great book. The story takes place in 1962 when a black veteran James Meredith tries to enroll in University of Mississippi. Since Ole Miss is a white school, he is refused. After court injunctions, the Mississippi state government and Governor Ross Barnett flatly refuse to enroll Meredith. The Federal Government through similar attempts also tries to enroll Meredith. Finally two weeks into the fall semester, Federal Marshalls and government troops are called into action to enroll Meredith. White students and right wing radicals from surrounding states decide to confront Meredith and the registration process and a riot/battle ensures. The battle is the climax of the book. It is amazing this happened in my lifetime. I am surprised how narrow minded these people were in intregating the University of Mississippi.
I commend Doyle on a great book. He tells the story with suspense so it becomes a page turner. This is not a short book, but the reading flows well and it becomes an easy read because of how the author approaches the subject. This book also is well researched and is ground breaking telling the reader of a little known conflict that most people now would like forgotten.
Great story.

Having personally lived through this event thought I knew most of what had happened. Not so. Some of the many behind the scenes happenings were pretty frightening considering what might have happened. With the gunfire I saw it was scary enough. I graduated with James Meridith and he now lives two doors away. This really is a well done book.

This is an excellent book about a crucial point in the Civil Rights movement initiated by one man determined to exercise his right of citizenship at the risk of his life. His court ordered admission to "Ole Miss" sparked the white supremacists to converge on Oxford from all over the country armed to the teeth and looking for Meredith and attacking his federal guardians. A multi day riot ensued ultimately quelled by federal troops. The author is somewhat critical of President Jack Kennedy for not having better prepared for the disturbance but Kennedy got the job done and that is what ultimately counts.

Meredith graduated and changed the history of the South and this country.

A very interesting treatment of a critical series of events in the early sixties.