Shooting of James Meredith
1967 Pulitzer Prize, Photography, Jack R. Thornell, Associated Press
It has been four years since James Meredith became the first African-American to attend the University ot Mississippi— with the intervention of the U.S. attorney general U.S. marshals and the National Guard. Determined to prove that black Americans can pursue their civil rights without fear. Meredith decides to walk the length of Mississippi to encourage African-American's to vote.
It is the second day of the walk—June 6, 1966, two years alter three civil rights workers were killed in Mississippi. The state is deeply divided by racial hatred. Meredith is unarmed, accompanied by a handful of supporters, a few police officers and some journalists. One of them is Jack Thornell of The Associated Press. "The press wasn't really walking with him." says Thornell. "We were leapfrogging ahead in cars."
Thornell and two other photographers are parked by the side of the road as Meredith approaches. Suddenly, a voice calls out: "James. I just want James Meredith." A white man stands, leveling a 16-gauge shotgun.
Says Thornell, "I was sitting in the car when we heard the shot. By the time we got out. Meredith was going down. We were in the line of fire. We were trying to protect our heads. We weren't taking a lot of photographs." But as Meredith crawls painfully to the side of the road. Thornell manages to capture his outraged agony on film.
Galvanized by the shooting, black leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael take up the cause. Meredith recovers and rejoins the march, which is now 18,000 strong. The term "black power" is born.