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12. ‘‘I Regret to Inform You . . . ’’ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ ∏ W ith the declaration that he was ‘‘not a White applicant,’’ James Meredith’s application caught Ole Miss o≈cials only slightly by surprise. No Mississippi college or university had desegregated, but university leaders must have monitored changes across the South. If the slow desegregation of higher education frustrated many people, to white Mississippians the delays o√ered hope that it could be avoided. As 1961 began, the attack on segregated public universities escalated and threatened to render white resistance futile. On January 3, the first three black undergraduates enrolled at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville; at the same time the university’s medical school in Memphis admitted its first black student. Also early in January, just two weeks before Meredith made his original inquiry, a federal judge ordered the University of Georgia to enroll two black undergraduates, Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter.∞ Only the specifics of Meredith’s bid could have surprised university o≈cials, for they must have realized that racial segregation in higher education could not remain unchallenged for long. Following procedures, Meredith submitted a completed application, his health record, and an application for housing. In letters to his previous universities to have transcripts sent, Meredith stressed the urgency because he wanted to enroll on February 6. His request to Jackson State College asked only that the registrar forward a copy of his transcript to the university in Oxford; he avoided divulging his purpose because he feared any announcement might cause a delay by skittish bureaucrats. With his application as complete as he could make it, he asked for immediate admission so that he could enroll when registration for the spring semester began.≤ For the first time since Clennon King tried to enroll in 1958, the university faced a breach in the racial barriers in higher education. In the intervening years, the commitment of whites to segregation had intensified, as shown in 1959 when state authorities fabricated criminal charges against Clyde Kennard to fend o√ his attempt to integrate Mississippi Southern College.≥ Written on Tuesday, January 31, Meredith’s application went first to registrar Robert B. Ellis. A native of Memphis and an Ole Miss graduate, thirtynine -year-old Ellis had served as registrar for a decade. When he read Mere- 222 ja m e s m e r e d i t h dith’s letter and reviewed his application in his second floor Lyceum o≈ce, he learned that Meredith was a Negro but also that he was unusual in other respects: he was a native-born Mississippian, an air force veteran, and a successful student at several other colleges. Ellis, who in the 1950s had handled several inquiries from blacks, knew the sensitivity of the application. He understood that he could not handle it routinely, that he had to confer with his superiors, and that they had to act fast. Ellis first notified Hugh Clegg, who had been designated to handle applications from Negroes, and he forwarded copies of Meredith’s application to the attorney general and to the ihl board’s executive secretary.∂ Meredith’s letter to the registrar caused university administrators to scramble because registration for the spring semester began on the following Monday . Initial discussions in the Lyceum and with o≈cials in Jackson led to a special meeting on Saturday, February 4. According to the minutes of the meeting, it ‘‘was called for the purpose of discussing the problem of overcrowding ’’ and the problem of more than four hundred students in academic di≈culty, but the real purpose must have been to plan for the latest threat to segregation. E. R. Jobe, the board’s executive secretary, considered the meeting so serious that he drove to Oxford to join Chancellor Williams, Clegg, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts (substituting for the provost), the university attorney, the comptroller, and the registrar. Jobe suggested that the university stop accepting applications on the justification that limiting the size of the student body would enhance faculty-student interaction. In support, the dean of liberal arts pointed to crowded laboratories and classrooms and to budgetary limitations on hiring additional faculty. The comptroller similarly stressed cramped dormitories and study space.∑ Although the meeting’s minutes revealed no discussion of Meredith’s application, it surely caused the decision to curtail enrollment for the spring. To prevent a deluge of new students, the administrators settled on January 25 as the ‘‘best cut-o√ date...

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