History Is Lunch: Aram Goudsouzian and Vijay Shah, “James Meredith and the Battle of Ole Miss”

In 1962, James Meredith desegregated the University of Mississippi—an action that was delayed by political maneuvering at the state and local levels and met with deadly violence when it did finally happen. Federal marshals and the National Guard were sent by President John F. Kennedy to try and maintain order amidst the rioting on campus and in Oxford. Now Meredith’s story is being told in a new graphic novel by author Goudsouzian, editor Shah, and artist Bill Murray, and published by the University of Arkansas Press. “Man on a Mission depicts Mr. Meredith’s relentless pursuit of justice, beginning with his childhood in rural Mississippi and culminating with the confrontation at Ole Miss,” said Goudsouzian. “This graphic history tells the dramatic story in his own singular voice.”

History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state’s past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on Facebook, and later posted on YouTube.