James Meredith was born in Mississippi in 1933 and raised on a farm with nine siblings. After graduating from high school in Florida, he served nine years in the Air Force before becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962 and later organizing his lone “Meredith March Against Fear” in 1966.
Meredith graduated in 1963 from the University of Mississippi with a degree in Political Science. He went on to receive a master’s degree in economics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and a law degree from Columbia University.
He has authored 27 books and says that his published work is his greatest contribution to Mississippi and America. In his first book, he wrote an account of his experience, “Three Years in Mississippi,” which was published in 1966.
Meredith married Mary June Wiggins in 1956 and had three children, John, Joseph and James. Mary died unexpectedly in 1979. In 1981, Meredith met and married Judy Alsobrooks, who had one son, Kip, from a previous marriage. James and Judy have one daughter, Jessica Meredith Knight, and share 12 grandchildren.
A tree farmer in Attala County and a Jackson businessman, Meredith continues to speak around the country.