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

Image courtesy of the Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries.

In this talk, Adam Clemons and Abbie Norris-Davidson (University of Mississippi) will detail the creation and findings of the 'Dear Mr. Meredith' project, which maps over 1,200 letters sent to James Meredith during his integration to the University of Mississippi in 1962. This event is part of Bodleian Bytes, a series of online talks hosted by the Centre for Digital Scholarship at the Bodleian Libraries.

James Meredith first applied for admission to the University of Mississippi in January of 1961. At that time, the University had never admitted a Black student despite the 1954 United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, which established racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional. Meredith’s application was initially denied, but, with legal assistance from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that Meredith should be admitted. That decision was again confirmed by the United States Supreme Court on September 10, 1962, following an appeal brought forward by the state of Mississippi. 

The long and arduous process of Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi captured the world’s attention. As news travelled, James Meredith received hundreds of letters from all over the world. 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.  

This presentation will detail the creation and findings of the “Dear Mr. Meredith” project, which maps the letters based on the locations from which they were sent. Cataloguing over 1,200 letters, the map captures national and international attitudes toward the university’s integration by coding each letter as “sympathetic” or “unsympathetic” to Meredith’s cause. The project reveals a snapshot of national and international attitudes about segregation and allows for critical examination of public perception of James Meredith’s actions during a turbulent period in American history.  

Content warning

Some of the images and language that appear in the digital collection depict attitudes of racially-based violence and discrimination. These prejudices are not condoned by the University of Mississippi or the authors of this project. This content is being presented as historical documentation to aid in the understanding of both American history and the history of the University of Mississippi. The University of Mississippi Creed speaks to the authors' current deeply held values, and the availability of this content should not be taken as an endorsement of previous attitudes or behaviour. 

Speaker Biographies

Abbie Norris-Davidson is the Digital Initiatives Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi. Her primary role is overseeing eGrove, the University of Mississippi’s institutional repository, which collects, preserves, and disseminates the intellectual and creative output of the University. Abbie earned her MS in Information Studies from The University of Texas at Austin, where she focused on archival science and digital humanities. Her research interests include born-digital archival preservation, geospatial humanities, and Automatic Speech Recognition applications in archives. In addition to Dear Mr. Meredith, Abbie is the creator of Mapping Memphis, a geospatial analysis of historical funeral home data (www.mapping-memphis.com). 

Adam Clemons is an Assistant Professor of Scholar Support and Data Services specializing in the use of digital scholarship methodologies and tools in interdisciplinary research and teaching. He also serves as the library’s liaison to several academic units on campus including the Croft Institute for International Studies and the Departments of History, Political Science, and Public Policy Leadership. His research interests include geospatial humanities, citation analysis, data literacy, and the business of professional wrestling. He earned his graduate degrees in Library Science and African Studies from Indiana University. 

Bodleian Bytes

Bodleian Bytes is a series of online talks hosted by the Centre for Digital Scholarship at the Bodleian Libraries. The series engages with innovative national and international research in digital scholarship. It is a virtual space for discussions surrounding different tools and methodologies whilst also providing inspiration for future digital research.