Some Civil Rights Memories from the 1960s

Sent this off as a response to questions from a student. His questions are followed by my answers.

Here goes:

1. When you covered the enrollment of James Meredith at Ole Miss, who were you writing for? What attracted you personally to Oxford? >>>I was an editor on Christianity and Crisis and founder-editor of Renewal Magazine. Both had some influence then in liberal churches and beyond. My accounts appeared there and that goes for all my accounts.

2. Why did you go to Mississippi in 1962 in the first place? What drove you to participate as a journalist? >>>> I was always a journalist from aqe 14. My colleague and friend Will D. Campbell (deceased) was a major white activist in the South working with King and others. He suggested I go. He was my guide in a way.

3. Before the federal troops arrived and the violence started, did you have any expectation of how the integration of Ole Miss would go? >>> No. I was staying with Duncan Gray who was the chaplain and I really was waiting with everyone else to see what would happen. It was evening and there was a long night ahead.

4. When the violence broke out in Oxford over Mr. Meredith’s enrollment, how did you protect yourself? Are there any moments that really stick out in your mind from that event? >>> I never in any civil rights engagements took steps to protect myself — I was oblivious to danger I think. Violence broke out before I descended from the hill down to the main campus and had calmed when I got there that morning. What sticks in my mind was the silence of a crowd , the pall over it, and the news that a French journalist had been killed.

5. How did you go about covering the event? Who did you talk with? What was your experience like as a sympathetic white reporter? >>> I talked with Gray mainly and simply gave my impression, that we were in for a long siege there and throughout the country. Being there was the experience but nothing about it really surprised me or changed my sense of the need to keep on while it was possible. People forget how easy and loose everything was then compared to now.

6. Some historians characterize the integration of Ole Miss in 1962 as the “last battle of the Civil War.” Do you think that this is in accurate description? >>> We have not yet fought the last battle of the Civil War. This was an episode, not a defining event.

7. What were some of the challenges for you as a white reporter covering these events in the deep south? >>>> I think I was largely invisible and rarely was challenged. My only major problem came later when Black Power rose and pretty much closed the door on folk like me. I like the South and feel racism is about the same everywhere.

8. As a young journalist, you covered some very tragic, violent moments in history. How were you able to handle the trauma of telling the stories of these moments? >>>> I do not believe we die and I am very even in my responses. I have never felt risk even when there may have been reason to do so.

9. How did covering the bombings in Birmingham and Meredith’s enrollment influence the rest of your career? How did it influence your view on the role of the press? >>> My career essentially ended when the 60s collapsed into the aftermath. My subsequent work has had little direct reference to these experiences. It was impossible to regard myself as having a career because I never intended to build one and the thought of doing so is not appealing. I remain a writer always and keep at it and will as long as I can. While I have evolved from that time, it remains fundamental and highly personal to me.