Presented
by David Sansing, University of Mississippi
Reception and book signing immediately following lecture
Thursday,
November 16, 2000, 7 p.m. at the Southern Cultural Heritage Complex Auditorium,
Corner
of Cherry and Crawford Streets, Downtown Vicksburg
(Vicksburg)
Historian David Sansing will
explore the history of the University of Mississippi on Thursday, November 16,
2000, at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Cultural Heritage Complex (SCHC) Auditorium
in downtown Vicksburg.
Dr. Sansing will discuss his book, The University
of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial
History, written to commemorate the university’s 150th
anniversary in 1998. The book is a comprehensive
study of the state's oldest institution of higher learning and one of the Deep
South's early state universities, covering the history of the university from
its conception in 1841 to 1998. Dr.
Sansing will highlight the
triumphs and the tragedies of the university, including the great losses during
the Civil War and the struggle for racial equality.
Established
as an alternative to sending the sons of the gentry to the north for their
collegiate education, the University was located at Oxford in 1841, chartered in
1844, and opened in 1848. During
the administration of Chancellor F. A. P. Barnard, 1856-1861, the University
assembled perhaps the finest collection of scientific apparatus in antebellum
America and was in the forefront of collegiate reform. After all but four of its
students enlisted in the Confederate army, the University closed in the fall of
1861 and remained closed until October 1865. In the closing decades of the
nineteenth century the University evolved from a small liberal arts institution
with a prescribed classical curriculum into a university with a broad elective
curriculum, a college of liberal arts, and several professional schools. During
America's civil rights struggle, Ole Miss became a battleground when the federal
government sent several thousand troops to Oxford to enforce the admission of
James Meredith, the
University's
first African American student. During the riot that occurred on September 30,
1962, there were two fatalities, the campus was seriously damaged, and the
University's image was tarnished. Since Meredith's graduation in 1963, the
University of Mississippi has made remarkable progress in accommodating the
ethnic and racial diversity of the constituency it serves.
Dr.
David Sansing is a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of
Mississippi. Sansing’s
other books include Make Haste Slowly: The
Troubled History of Higher Education in Mississippi, A History of the
Mississippi Governor’s Mansion with Carroll Waller, and Mississippi:
A Study of Your State with Ray Skates.
The
presentation is part of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation’s (SCHF)
Humanities Lecture Series, which takes place on the third Thursday of every
month. The SCHC Auditorium is located at the corner of Cherry and Crawford
Streets in Downtown Vicksburg. A
reception and book signing will immediately follow the lecture. The event is
free and open to the public. For more information call (601) 631-2997.