Statue of James Meredith, Civil rights monument at University of Mississippi, US.
The Statue of James Meredith is a bronze monument on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. It shows Meredith mid-stride and is part of a larger memorial that includes a limestone portal with inscriptions.
James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1962 as its first Black student, an event that sparked violent protests requiring federal intervention. The memorial was later built on the same campus where those events unfolded.
The statue stands on the University of Mississippi campus and shows a figure walking through a limestone portal. The portal is carved with the words courage, knowledge, opportunity, and perseverance, which visitors can read as they pass by.
The memorial is on the open grounds of the University of Mississippi campus and can be visited on foot without any special access. Visiting during the day makes it easier to read the inscriptions on the portal.
In 2014, the statue was vandalized and a noose was left at its base, a symbol of racial intimidation. The university responded by launching new programs focused on dialogue about its own history.
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