Synopses & Reviews
When James Meredith enrolled as the first African American student at the University of Mississippi in 1962, the resulting riots produced more casualties than any other clash of the civil rights era. Eagles shows that the violence resulted from the university's and the state's long defiance of the civil rights movement and federal law. Ultimately, the price of such behavior--the price of defiance--was not only the murderous riot that rocked the nation and almost closed the university but also the nation's enduring scorn for Ole Miss and Mississippi. Eagles paints a remarkable portrait of Meredith himself by describing his unusual family background, his personal values, and his service in the U.S. Air Force, all of which prepared him for his experience at Ole Miss.
Review
"Has the potential to teach us all a great deal about who Meredith was and is and about a transformational event in Mississippi's history."--Sid Salter, Jackson
Clarion-Ledger, syndicated review
Review
"Vivid. . . . Provides a perspective only a dedicated historian can do, tapping deeply into sources, files and unknown documents to bring alive one of the historical civil rights moments of the 20th century."--Bill Minor, Jackson
Clarion-Ledger
Review
"
The Price of Defiance is indisputably the definitive history of James H. Meredith's historic desegregation of the University of Mississippi in 1962. Eagles's detailed and compelling account of one of the landmark events in the African American freedom struggle is scholarly history of prize-winning quality."--David J. Garrow, University of Cambridge
Review
"If one is seeking a single book that details most vividly the fanatical intensity of the struggle to maintain racial segregation in the South, this is that volume. It is a remarkable and well-researched chronicle of the historical, political, and social forces that lay behind the violent confrontation at Ole Miss one night in 1962."--William F. Winter, former Governor of Mississippi
Review
"
The Price of Defiance is a compelling account of the eventual integration of Ole Miss and an important case study in the interaction of politics and higher education. James Meredith's brave determination was pitted against the intransigent white racism of a university that surely knew better and that paid a huge price for the resulting conflagration. In this case the political problem was racism, but university administrators would do well to understand where a confluence of education and politics regarding any popular prejudice can lead."--Nicholas Katzenbach, former United States Attorney General
About the Author
Charles W. Eagles has taught history at the University of Mississippi since 1983. His books include Outside Agitator: Jon Daniels and the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and The Civil Rights Movement in America.