Meredith, James (Howard) (1933– )

US civil-rights activist and business executive. After serving in the US Air Force, in 1962 he became the first African-American to enrol in the University of Mississippi, but only after he had weathered campus riots (which left two dead) and the resistance of state officials. Federal troops had to protect him on campus until he graduated in 1963. He published his autobiographical Three Years in Mississippi (1966) and not long after was shot while on the March Against Fear in Mississippi. He recovered and completed the march, but dropped out of the civil-rights movement soon afterwards.

Meredith was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi. He worked as a stockbroker, in real estate, and as an investor in 1967 while attending Columbia University Law School, graduating in 1968. He became president of Meredith Enterprises in 1968, lectured on racial problems, and was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in 1972.