The Civil Rights subcommittee was appointed and charged by the Chancellor of The University of Mississippi to oversee commemorative campus activities that would inform, educate, and provide deserved recognition and acknowledgement to the historic, meaningful, and significant activities that occurred on October 1, 1962 when Mr. James Meredith became the first African American student to enroll in The University of Mississippi. The committee has appropriately themed this period of acknowledgement “Opening the Closed Society.” The year-long celebration will run from September 2011 through October 1, 2012.
Harry Belafonte will serve as the keynote speaker on the evening of October 1 for the official “Opening the Closed Society” program that will honor this important event which forever changed our institution and state.
The committee looks forward to leading the campus remembrance of this significant occasion with events that will provide tributes and acknowledgments to the opening of what was once a closed society.
Charles K. Ross
Chair, Civil Rights
Committee Members:
Charles K. Ross, Chair Civil Rights Movement Sub-Committee, Director of African American Studies Program and Associate Professor of African American Studies and History
Andy Mullins, Co-Chair Civil Rights Movement and Civil War Subcommittees, Chief of Staff to the Chancellor and Associate Professor of Leadership & Counselor Education
Donald Cole, Co-Chair Civil Rights Movement and Civil War Subcommittees, Assistant Provost and Assistant to the Chancellor for Multicultural Affairs and Associate Professor of Mathematics
Patsy R. Brumfield, reporter for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Amy Wells Dolan, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Leadership & Counselor Education
Tom Eppes, Chief Communications Officer
Susan M. Glisson, Director William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation
Julian Gilner, Assistant Director University of Mississippi Alumni Association
Maurice Hobson, Assistant Professor of African American Studies and History
Michael Hoffheimer, Law School
Jeff Jackson, Associate Professor of Sociology
Taylor McGraw, 2011-2012 President of the Associated Student Body
Jan Murray, Associate Dean College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Art
Ted Ownby, Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Professor of History
Valeria Ross, Assistant Dean of Students for Multicultural Affairs & Volunteer Services
Christine Wallace, Director of University & Public Events
J. Coulter Ward, Assistant Dean of Students for Student Involvement
Curtis Wilkie, Associate Professor of Journalism
Lauren Wright, 2011- 2012 Vice-President of the Black Student Union