Page "James Meredith" Paragraph 5

On May 31, 1961, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed suit in the U. S. District Court, alleging that the university had rejected Meredith only because of the color of his skin, as he had a highly successful record.

The case went through many hearings and finally to the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school.

Though Meredith was legally entitled to register, the Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, tried to block him by having the Legislature pass a law that “ prohibited any person who was convicted of a state crime from admission to a state school .” The law was directed at Meredith, who had been convicted of “ false voter registration .” Since passage of its 1890 constitution, the state had voter registration rules that effectively disfranchised black voters.