UWF reenacts the trial of James Meredith

University of West Florida Department of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Legal Studies and UWF Department of Theatre will present the James Meredith Trial Reenactment and Q&A at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, in the Mainstage Theatre at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts, Building 82, on the Pensacola campus. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required for this event.

• In 1961, James Meredith applied for admission to the University of Mississippi. He was well qualified, had served honorably in the United States Air Force and had taken courses at several colleges. Yet, he was rejected. Meredith was Black and the university had never admitted a Black student.
  • • Represented by Constance Baker Motley and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Meredith sued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had denied him admission because of his race.
    • The litigation was difficult and hard-fought. Although seven years had passed since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, many in the South were still resisting the notion that segregation in public education was unconstitutional

The performance will include theatre students, legal studies students, and local attorneys. The trial will be reenacted from 4 to 5 p.m. A short Q&A and refreshments will follow.

• Criminology, Criminal Justice and Legal Studies will be collaborating with the Department of Theatre to put on the trial reenactment The event is generously co-sponsored by the Escambia Santa Rosa Bar Foundation.

Director Marcci Duncan discusses the event.