When James Meredith attempted to start school as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi in the fall of 1962, he had to turn back before actually reaching the Oxford, Miss., campus.
The crowd of thousands of protesters and hundreds of police officers gathered there threatened to overrun his escort of 25 federal marshals. When he finally did make it to the school a few days later, Meredith was met with a riot that ultimately left three people dead and several wounded.
The Atlantic staff writer Adam Harris, in his new book, “The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right,” chronicles the legal and literal battles students like Meredith fought to integrate some of the nation’s colleges. And while Meredith’s story may seem like one from a bygone era, Harris persuasively makes the case that America’s higher education system has been unequal from the start — and that pattern persists today.
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