Mississippi, Proud of its Racial Progress, Happy to Shine in the Spotlight Brought by Debate

By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart

Few places conjure up images of segregation that compare to Mississippi.

It’s a place where, in the 1960s, three civil rights workers -- one black, one Jewish and one white -- were murdered by a mob, then buried in makeshift graves.

It’s a place where voting rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten and jailed because she wanted to register black voters.

And it’s a place where Air Force veteran James Meredith was met by rioting mobs of white people as he enrolled in the fall of 1962 at the state’s flagship college, the University of Mississippi.

But at that same institution on Friday, a black man and a white man who both are vying for the presidency of the United States are scheduled to face off in the first formal nationally-televised debate between the Democratic and Republican nominees.

Mississippi residents -- and especially campus leaders -- are hoping America sees how the state has transformed since its racially-turbulent days and how that alone exemplifies change in America.

“Ole Miss really wanted this,” said Rose Flenorl, who on Saturday will become the first black president of the university’s alumni association. “When we applied for this debate, who knew that the first African-American to be the nominee of a national party would come to Ole Miss, with our history?”