Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63

by Taylor Branch

The soldiers remained practically unnoticed at Ole Miss until the last five hundred departed late in the summer of 1963, after Meredith received his degree. The climate of the times helped contain the story. Had the riot occurred later, in the era of the “live network feed,” synchronized scenes of the Ole Miss rioting before, during, and after President Kennedy’s national address might have been broadcast with jarring effect, making the President appear Pollyannish or incompetent. As it was, however, the sequence of events was blurred to his advantage, making the riot appear to be a rude answer to Kennedy’s timely appeal. Friendly newspapers went to great lengths to adjust the speech to the riot. The New York Times went so far as to report that Kennedy “qualified his optimism most carefully” in his address, “and indeed made clear that the Government was waiting anxiously to see how Mississippi officials and citizens behaved.”