An episode in the US civil rights struggle. Officials of the state of Mississippi defied a federal court order requiring the University of Mississippi to allow a Black man, James Meredith, to enrol as a student. The governor made defiant statements, thus encouraging thousands of segregationists to attack the federal marshals assigned to protect Meredith as he entered the university. President Kennedy sent in national guardsmen and regular army troops to restore peace, enforce the court’s orders, and secure the entry of Meredith as the university’s first Black student.