reuben v. anderson: he was the bravest man in my lifetime in mississippi that i knew. there would be no way for me to do what james meredith did. he was a great man. [music playing] curtis wilkie: it was the biggest story in the world. it was finally pushed off the front pages by the cuban missile crisis in october of '62. but i felt for a time, and i wasn't alone, that mississippi might try to secede from the union again. speaker 12: if integration attempts are made here, mississippians are-- ross barnett: close to the brink of an open revolution! james h. meredith: my job was to get the laws that applied to citizens of america to apply to me. the only thing that mattered to me was what i did. i pretty well knew what the opposition was going to do. speaker 13: little rock was a skirmish. oxford was the war. james meredith is enrolled at the university of mississippi. the school is technically integrated at the cost of two lives, almost 200 injuries, and the reputation of a state. now the questions are,