Dear Mr. Meredith: Mapping Correspondence Sent to James Meredith During the Integration of the University of Mississippi

Abstract

On October 1, 1962, James Meredith made history as the first African-American student to be admitted to the then racially segregated University of Mississippi. In the weeks before and after his admission, Meredith received thousands of letters from around the world expressing support or condemnation of his actions. Today, many of these letters are housed at the University of Mississippi Archives and Special Collections and have been digitized and made publicly available on eGrove, the University’s institutional repository. Motivated to raise awareness of and interest in this important archival collection, the authors designed a spatial humanities project, “Dear Mr. Meredith,” that maps the locations from which these letters were sent. By coding the letters based on whether they are “pro” or “anti” integration, the project creates a snapshot of American attitudes about segregation and allows for critical examination of public perception of James Meredith’s actions during the height of the civil rights movement. This article will provide a detailed account of the project, including the methodological approach, a thorough analysis of the findings, implications of the mapping project, and next steps for future research using the letters.

Keywords:

• geospatial humanities
• GIS/mapping
• integration
• civil rights
• James Meredith

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The original language that appears in this quotation depicts prejudices that the University of Mississippi does not condone. The authors chose to censor this language to mitigate this letter’s harmful and violent nature in a present-day context.

2 For information on future plans to conduct in-depth sentiment analysis on all of the Meredith letters, please see the section “Opportunities for Future Research.”.

3 Prior to 1984, the region now known as the Midwest was called “North Central” by the United States Census Bureau. The remainder of this paper will refer to the region by its modern label, the Midwest. (U.S. Census Bureau 2021).

4 The 3^rd, 12^th, and 18^th most populous cities in the U.S. in 1960.

5 See “Opportunities for Future Research.”.

6 The original language that appears in this letter depicts prejudices that the University of Mississippi does not condone. The authors chose to censor this language to mitigate this letter’s harmful and violent nature in a present-day context. The original letter in its complete form may be viewed on eGrove, where the content is presented as a historical document to aid in understanding American history and the history of the University of Mississippi. The University Creed speaks to our current deeply held values, and the availability of this content should not be taken as an endorsement of previous attitudes or behavior. All censors marked with dashes were written by the author of the original letter.