OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (WLOX) – If you’ve been inside the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Arts Center in Ocean Springs this summer, you may have seen a photography exhibit title “I’m Still Here” featuring photos of James Meredith.
The Mississippi Civil Rights activist joined with photographer Suzi Altman to exhibit 60 images honoring Meredith’s 60th Anniversary of desegregating the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss.
The two reunited Saturday at the Mary C. for the exhibit’s closing reception.
Altman has documented Meredith’s life through photography for 20 years. This most recent exhibit is just a small portion of her archive.
After his time at Ole Miss, Meredith helped lead the 1966 “March Against Fear” from Memphis to Jackson in protest of the physical violence that African Americans faced while exercising their right to vote.
Bryan Smith brought his grandsons to the event to meet Meredith. He believes it’s important for them to learn about the civil rights movement. And who better to learn from than a man who helped write that chapter in American History?
Speaking about one grandson, Smith said, “He’s mixed and his father is not here anymore, so it’s my responsibility to have him keep in touch with both sides so he can learn. And that’s what I wanted him to do today.”
Charles Sims follows Altman’s work, and also has a deep respect for James Meredith.
“I love Suzi’s work, so it was important for me to come back here, show love,” Sims said. “And obviously Mr. Meredith is everything to me. He’s an Ole Miss alum, I’m an Ole Miss alum. So we definitely support him in everything that he’s done.”
Sims told WLOX his great, great, grandfather help create Jim Crow laws – a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation across the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But he believes the individual histories we’re all tied to can’t impede progress when people come together in search of resolutions.
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