{"id":952,"date":"2008-11-11T15:09:28","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T21:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=952"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:41:24","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:41:24","slug":"wintereagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wintereagles\/","title":{"rendered":"New William Winter Professor of History to Tell Little-Known Story of Attempt to Integrate University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"clennon-king.jpg\"<\/p>\n
\nClennon King<\/b>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Free, public lecture Nov. 13 marks Charles Eagles’ new appointment<\/h3>\n

\nOXFORD,
\nMiss. – In 1962, James Meredith made history as the first black
\nadmitted to the University of Mississippi, but he wasn’t the first one
\nto apply. That distinction goes to another legend of the civil rights
\nmovement: Medgar Evers, who was denied admission to the UM law school
\nin 1954.<\/p>\n

Between those two iconic figures lies the little-known
\nstory of Clennon King, whose 1958 attempt at admission quickly landed
\nhim inside a mental institution instead of a university classroom.<\/p>\n

“I’m
\ntrying to understand the uprising here in 1962 and why it happened
\nhere,” said Charles Eagles, recently named UM’s William F. Winter
\nProfessor of History. “You don’t really understand the reaction to
\nJames Meredith unless you understand all the things that led up to
\nthat. Clennon King was one of those incidents.”
\n
<\/p>\n

\n\"Charles<\/p>\n
\nCharles Eagles<\/b>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Eagles plans to dig into that story in a free, public program at 7 p.m. Thursday (Nov. 13) in Johnson Commons Ballroom. The presentation, “Integration and Insanity: Clennon King at Ole Miss in 1958,” is the longtime professor’s inaugural lecture as the Winter Professor. A reception follows.<\/p>\n

“This is a chance for us to celebrate the accomplishments of one of the most productive and well-regarded members of our faculty,” said Joseph Ward, history chair. “Professor Eagles has been at work for many years exploring the racial integration of this university. This is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on that history.”<\/p>\n

Eagles, who joined the UM faculty in 1983, plans to include in his lecture information that he uncovered while researching for his forthcoming book, “The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and The Integration of Ole Miss,” due out next fall from the University of North Carolina Press.<\/p>\n

King, who was a history professor at Alcorn A&M College (now Alcorn State University) in the 1950s, was a controversial figure among some blacks. After he openly supported segregation and denounced the NAACP in 1957, 600 Alcorn students boycotted classes and called for his dismissal. A little over a year later, King attempted to enroll in summer classes at Ole Miss.<\/p>\n

“He showed up on campus early one morning and was arrested,” Eagles said. “By afternoon of the next day, he was at the Whitfield Mental Hospital. He was there maybe 10 days or so, and I’m confident he was treated well while he was there.”<\/p>\n

King went on to live an unusual and colorful life. In 1960, he won nearly 1,500 votes in his campaign for U.S. President as candidate for the Independent Afro-American Party. Later in life, he would also attempt to integrate President Jimmy Carter’s home church in Plains, Ga., and he ran for mayor of Miami, Fla., where he had established a nondenominational church. He died in 2000.<\/p>\n

As for King’s role in Meredith’s admission, Eagles said there wasn’t one; they were two different men with different outlooks. Meanwhile, resentment had been simmering for decades before violence erupted on that fateful day in 1962.<\/p>\n

“For my book, I go back and look at a long series of incidents involving race, politics and the university, dating back to the 1940s, in which the university got a lot of attention for how it was dealing with race,” he said. “As we got closer to Meredith’s admission, the intensity and severity of those controversies escalated, and what happened in 1962 was the culmination of all of that.”<\/p>\n

Eagles is the second UM faculty member named to the Winter Professorship, following on the heels of the late Winthrop Jordan. With a dispassionate approach to his research, Eagles said his research typically doesn’t inspire him, but the facts he finds often provide a few chuckles.<\/p>\n

“I don’t get emotionally caught up in my topics. That’s not what a historian is supposed to do,” he said. “In fact, I laugh a lot at the things I discover. Some of my colleagues joke that I have too much fun doing my research. What makes it fun is that it’s all right there. I don’t have to make anything up.”<\/p>\n

For more information or for assistance related to a disability, call the Department of History at 662-915-7148.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clennon King Free, public lecture Nov. 13 marks Charles Eagles’ new appointment OXFORD, Miss. – In 1962, James Meredith made history as the first black admitted to the University of Mississippi, but he wasn’t the first one to apply. That distinction goes to another legend of the civil rights movement: Medgar Evers, who was deniedRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew William Winter Professor of History to Tell Little-Known Story of Attempt to Integrate University - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/wintereagles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New William Winter Professor of History to Tell Little-Known Story of Attempt to Integrate University - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Clennon King Free, public lecture Nov. 13 marks Charles Eagles’ new appointment OXFORD, Miss. – In 1962, James Meredith made history as the first black admitted to the University of Mississippi, but he wasn’t the first one to apply. 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