Top Stories

Ole Miss trailblazer, James Meredith to receive Harvard award

Dean Kathleen McCartney has announced that Civil Rights activist, author, and political adviser James Meredith will receive the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Education Impact, the highest honor given by the school, and speak at the 2013 Convocationceremony on May 29.

“Just over 50 years ago, Mr. Meredith walked through the doors of the University of Mississippi, becoming the first African American to enroll in the previously segregated school. In doing so, he forced America to look in the mirror and become a better nation. Fifty years later, he is still working to address inequality in America’s schools,” McCartney said. “At HGSE we know that education is a civil right. James Meredith endured beatings and bullets to fight for that right. His courage and determination cannot be overstated. Today, we all walk in his footsteps and through the doors he opened.”

According to Meredith, the award will be the first he has accepted in 50 years. […]

Education

Mississippi university could get first black chief

More than 50 years ago, the University of Southern Mississippi rejected a chance to admit a black man and end segregation in the state’s higher education system. Today, the school is likely to become the first of Mississippi’s historically white public universities to be led by a black man.

College Board officials said this month that they want Dr. Rodney Bennett, the University of Georgia’s vice president of student affairs, to become the next president of 16,000-student USM.

Bennett was chosen from among three finalists by the board that oversees all eight public universities. Assuming campus interviews go well, Bennett will likely be named to the post Thursday, Feb. 7. […]

News

Reena Evers-Everette to speak at MLK event – Jan. 18

The Mississippi Link Newswire

The Margaret Walker Center is pleased to announce that Reena Evers-Everette will be the keynote speaker for the 44th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 18, in the Rose Embly McCoy Auditorium on the JSU campus. The MLK Convocation is free and open to the public.

Evers-Everette is the daughter of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers…. […]

Education

Courtney Pearson elected first black Homecoming Queen at Ole Miss

Campaigning was challenging and winning the election was rewarding, but making history in the process is mind-boggling for Courtney Roxanne Pearson, who recently became the University of Mississippi’s first African-American homecoming queen.

The 21-year-old senior English secondary education major from Memphis won the title in a run-off during annual campus personality elections. […]

Entertainment

Belafonte: Civil rights is a way of life

Entertainer Harry Belafonte says civil rights is a way of life, not just a moment in history.

The 85-year-old singer spoke Monday night at a convocation marking the 50th anniversary of James Meredith’s enrollment as the first black student at the University of Mississippi. […]