During the final week, on June 22, a mob of local whites attacked the contingent of marchers who took a side trip to Philadelphia, Mississippi, to observe the second anniversary of the murders of three civil rights workers. On June 7th, 1966, James Meredith, who had integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, began the March Against Fear; an attempt to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to promote black voter registration and defy entrenched racism. The Mississippi Highway Patrol attacked them with tear gas and rifle butts. Two days later, the marchers planted their tents on the grounds of another black school, this time in Canton. It was 20 days before Meredith, at the hospital would be able to rejoin the march. A photograph of the writhing Meredith appeared on the front page of newspapers around the country. A single man’s walk had become a massive civil rights demonstration.By June 7 major civil rights leaders had congregated in Memphis. On Sunday, June 5, 1966, James Meredith had just stepped off U.S. Highway 51 to begin a 220-mile trek through Mississippi. Among others, Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) vowed to continue Meredith’s march. When he emerged from jail, a rally was occurring in Broad Street Park, in the heart of Greenwood’s black district. He wounded Meredith with bird shot pellets in the back, neck, and shoulder. The three week march struggled with death threats, arrests, and tear gas, as well as internal tensions including leadership, routing, and use of the slogan "Black Power." In Grenada, a town notorious for violent racial intimidation, the marchers rallied around the statue of a Confederate soldier, brandishing their defiance of white supremacy. In 1966 he was a student at Columbia Law School in New York City. On June 7th, 1966, James Meredith, who had integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962, began the March Against Fear; an attempt to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, to promote black voter registration and defy entrenched racism. The mainstream press interpreted the slogan as violent and vengeful, while to many African Americans the phrase conveyed desires for black political autonomy, cultural pride, and the right to self-defense. Soon after starting his march he was shot by sniper. SNCC organizers, such as Willie Ricks, had primed the crowd. Department of Special Collections and University Archives.The March Against Fear, also known as the Meredith March, coursed from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in June of 1966.
On the second day of the march Meredith was shot by an unknown gunman. March Against Fear (1969) aka: Walk Against Fear (1969) For four days between August 20 and 24, 1969, Lance Watson (alias Sweet Willie Wine), leader of Memphis, Tennessee, black power group the Invaders, led what he called a walk against fear across eastern Arkansas. In Batesville, the new registrants included El Fondren, a 106-year-old man who had been born a slave. But leaders of the more militant, grassroots organizations—such as Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Floyd McKissick of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)—wanted a march with a focus on black voter registrations and a strong black identity, as well as armed protection from the Deacons for Defense and Justice.
Prominent figures of the Mississippi movement—including Fannie Lou Hamer, Charles Evers, Flonzie Goodloe, and Lawrence Guyot—played crucial organizing roles.Departing from Meredith’s path down Highway 51, the march detoured into the Mississippi Delta. He stated two goals: to encourage black voter registration and to challenge white intimidation. James Meredith and the March Against Fear. March Against Fear; American History > Events & Issues 1940-1980 > March Against Fear; March Against Fear. To many black Mississippians, it was also a moment of inspiration.http://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/the-march-against-fear/ The March Against Fear, also known as the Meredith March, coursed from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, in June of 1966. The march had evolved in ways that Meredith never imagined or desired, but it accomplished his stated goals. The March Against Fear was designed by Meredith to be a solitary walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi to counter continuing racism in the Mississippi Delta after passage of federal civil rights legislation, and to encourage African Americans in Mississippi to register to vote.