James H. Meredith poses with his parents at their home Kosciusko, Mississippi and shows off the cuff links that were agraduation present from them. He stopped at their home for lunch en route to Oxford, where he is scheduled to become the first black in the history of Ole Miss (University of Mississippi) to receive a diploma.

James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is a trailblazer in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1962, he became the first black student admitted to the University of Mississippi, following an intense legal battle in the federal courts. In 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. During his recovery, more people from across the country became involved as marchers. Meredith rejoined the march. When he and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, they were leading an estimated 15,000 marchers in what was the largest Civil Rights march in Mississippi.

Associated Press ID #6308180113

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: Associated Press stamp and date stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

P2021.13.1425 and P2021.21.28 are two copies of the same photograph.

This object has the following keywords:

• Broken barriers
• Civil Rights Movements
• Desegregation
• Education
• Gifts
• Graduations
• Injustice
• James Meredith
• James Meredith
• Kosciusko
• Parent and Child
• Racial Discrimination
• Students
• University of Mississippi

• Image Dimensions: 6 3/4 x 9 9/16 in. (17.15 x 24.29 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 8 1/16 x 10 in. (20.48 x 25.4 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen