A Bell Rang...
Item
Title
A Bell Rang...
Issue Date
27 September 1962
Issue
Vol. 69, No. 2
Issue Editor
Melvin Meyer
Note: This editorial was years later revealed to have been penned by an editorial board member, Robbie Roberts; Meyer accepted responsibility for printing it and allowed the public to believe he wrote it, in part to protect Roberts's father, a public school teacher, from backlash.
Note: This editorial was years later revealed to have been penned by an editorial board member, Robbie Roberts; Meyer accepted responsibility for printing it and allowed the public to believe he wrote it, in part to protect Roberts's father, a public school teacher, from backlash.
Description
Written around the time of the integration of the University of Mississippi by James Meredith and the riots that followed.
It reflects on the initial success of the Mississippi governor in keeping Meredith out, viewing it as a dangerous precedent. It cautions that bowing to "the bigot or the demagogue" would not stop at preventing Black people from being in a place they are not wanted but would be turned on other minority groups to do the same.
Note: The title, as indicated in the piece, refers to a line from a 1623 meditation by the poet John Donne, which argues that everyone is part of mankind and thus has a responsibility toward others.
It reflects on the initial success of the Mississippi governor in keeping Meredith out, viewing it as a dangerous precedent. It cautions that bowing to "the bigot or the demagogue" would not stop at preventing Black people from being in a place they are not wanted but would be turned on other minority groups to do the same.
Note: The title, as indicated in the piece, refers to a line from a 1623 meditation by the poet John Donne, which argues that everyone is part of mankind and thus has a responsibility toward others.
Source
Related Content
Followup editorial
John Donne, "Meditation XVII," from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, 1623.