Education and Activism
Meredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B (law degree) in 1968.
During this time, Meredith organized and led a civil rights march, the March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi beginning on June 6, 1966. This was his public effort to encourage blacks to register and vote after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which promised federal enforcement of rights. He hoped to help blacks overcome fear of violence at the polls. During this march he was shot by Aubrey James Norvell. Jack R. Thornell's post-shooting photograph of Meredith won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1967. Meredith recovered from his wound and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson. During his march, 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote.
Read more about this topic: James Meredith
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