Alive to tell the tale

COEUR d'ALENE — It is the mission of American civil rights movement juggernaut James Meredith to educate youth about the power of doing what is good and doing what is right.

As a young African-American man, he walked into the Deep South in the 1960s and helped ignite one of the most explosive eras of American history. He looked animosity and fear in the eyes and refused to stand down. He felt the shotgun blast of hate and was visited by civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his hospital room during his recovery.

"He made it just a few miles over the state line, came through our town of Hernando, met a lot of African-Americans there, and a lot of white animosity as well," said Brian Hicks, director of the DeSoto County Museum in Hernando, Miss. "He (went) a little bit further south, a gentleman called out his name and said, ‘James, I want you,’ and as he turned around, shot him three times with a shotgun and he fell to the ground.”

Meredith cried out in pain but survived to tell the tale. This pivotal moment in history during Meredith's Walk Against Fear was captured on camera in 1966 and won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for photojournalism.

At 83, Meredith still has work to do. That’s why the Mississippi-born human rights champion is in North Idaho this weekend, spreading the message that society, especially its youth, has the power to shake things up and eradicate the racism and hate that has so long been embedded in America’s history.

Meredith, joined by Hicks and DeSoto Times-Tribune community editor Robert Lee Long, also of Mississippi, gathered for a press conference Friday at the Human Rights Education Institute to discuss Meredith's weekend-long "Walk the Talk" event as well as his personal journey to the present day.

Spot-on Media executive producer and audience member Kent Adams asked Meredith a few questions.

“You have every right to have hate in your heart for some of the things that happened to you," Adams said. "How did you overcome that?”

Meredith thought for a moment, peering out from under the brim of his cream-colored Panama hat. “I was always taught that people either too angry or too happy can’t think straight,” he said. “And I’ve always thought it was necessary for me to be my best in every situation.”

The press conference at HREI, followed by a student workshop, opened the "Walk the Talk" presentation and conference series. Meredith gave a special presentation Friday evening in the Schuler Performing Arts Center at North Idaho College, addressing students about how they can make a difference while educating those in attendance about his extraordinary life. He said he feels that North Idaho's white youths can reach out to Mississippi's black youths to celebrate rather than fear each other.

“My mission from God to North Idaho is to get the students at North Idaho College to communicate with every person in Mississippi … and encourage them to teach every black child between birth and the age of 5 the basic tenets of ‘good’ and ‘right,’" Meredith said. "And if that is done, it will make way for Mississippi to get over the hurdle."

He said present-day Mississippians are spending “too much time dealing with 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and no time dealing with the present.”

“There’s not but one Mississippi in America. There ain’t but one northern Idaho, and it’s real narrow,” he said. “But my god is telling me the black people in Mississippi are scared of you, but why should they fear a 19-year-old from northern Idaho that calls and says, ‘You ought to teach your people the Ten Commandments’? It would teach them to think differently … I may be out of my mind, but if they get a call from a 19-year-old, they’ll think about it. And if you think about anything, eventually you’ll do something.”

A collection of Meredith's life and his battles in the war for equality are permanently a part of the University of Mississippi's library, something that makes the old gentleman smile.

“I’ve been credited for doing a lot of things in my lifetime,” he said. “To me, the most important thing has been the James Meredith Papers, up at Ole Miss, and Ole Miss has preserved them. They’ll last 1,000 years.”

Long said Meredith's message is powerful and is relevant to people everywhere. He said racism is "just as sinister and poisonous if it occurs in the hot sweltering Mississippi Delta as it does in the beautiful landscape of northern Idaho."

“Mr. Meredith is living history,” Long said. “I hope the young people realize this is a man who walks off the pages of a textbook.”

"Walk the Talk" continues today with "Finding the Center," an all-day human rights conference at University of Idaho in Moscow. The event will include workshops, dinner and Meredith will be signing copies of his books, including his memoir, "A Mission from God." Conference registration is $50. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/finding-the-center-human-rights-conference-tickets-18564137836?aff=ehomecard.

Info: kfaunce@roadrunner.com

A closing event will be Sunday from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Silverthorne Theater on the Lewis-Clark State College main campus in Lewiston. It is free and will include a book signing.

Info: defitzgeraldlcsc.edu