James Meredith

"To understand the world, one must first understand a place like Mississippi.” --William Faulkner

First 14 months in the courts.
Then the president called the governor,
The governor waffled, passed the buck said,
"You just don't understand the situation down here."
Mr. President.

They sent in 127 US Marshalls, who then deputized another three to four hundred,
Then JFK nationalized the Mississippi guard, since the governor wasn't using them.
It was raining bricks and birdshot,
Even tried to take the front door with a bulldozer and a fire truck.
The tear gas almost ran out, 79 of those original 127 were wounded,
And as Bobby Kennedy put it, if just one of those guys had gotten trigger-happy,
Would've been a whole mess of bodies.
The click of rifles of a company of US Army regulars from Fort Bragg, and a yelled order
To fire when fired upon, cleared the early morning air.

"Did you find anything 50 years ago that I should be celebrating?"

We celebrate civil rights as a fait accompli,
Ribbon-cuttings "glossing over the magnitude of Mississippi's
Resistance to...an obvious human right."
As if hatred and fear of difference
Aren't endemic to the human species.
As if it could never happen again,
As if there are good guys and racists,
As if I don't see and smell colour,
As if I'm not a racist.

James Meredith believed he had citizenship rights,
Rights as an American,
As a human being.
He had little patience with the promoters of black rights.
When he decided to do a march against fear,
To encourage Mississippians to vote,
He did it alone,
And got shot by a sniper.

"Mississippi has so humiliated me, They ain't never acknowledged that there was a war."