Jackson Free Press

NPR has one of the requisite stories about how far Oxford has come since 1962. (Doh.) This one has some good stuff from Boston Globe reporter Curtis Wilkie, who was a famed civil rights reporter and now teaches at Ole Miss:

Curtis Wilkie, a former Boston Globe reporter who teaches journalism at Ole Miss, says that all university campuses lust after high profile events such as presidential debates. "You want it for the excitement it provides to your students," he says, "to enlarge their education. But this is especially important to Ole Miss — and this is where we differ from other campuses — because it means so much to us symbolically."

The debate gives the Ole Miss community "the opportunity to show the world that we are no longer what we were when I was a student here in the 1960s," Wilkie says. "All of this involves race."

When the decision was made by the Commission on Presidential Debates in November 2007 to stage the first of three face-offs at the university's Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, no one knew that Obama would be the nominee, and "that enhances the symbolism," Wilkie says. He adds that Obama's candidacy has brought many of the students into the political process.

The McCains Of Mississippi

McCain also has supporters on campus. And the Arizona senator has some deep Mississippi roots.

"McCain's ancestors are from 50 miles down the road from here," Wilkie says. Sure enough, McCain's great-great grandfather, William Alexander McCain, owned a plantation — and slaves — in Carroll County. According to Salon, he was a member of the Mississippi cavalry and died in the Civil War.

These days, there is a Civil War monument on the Ole Miss campus — and a civil rights monument as well.

Previous Comments

ID

138048

Comment

This is at least the second story I've seen in the Times following the narrative sweeping the country as reporters decide what to do with themselves in Oxford leading up to the debates. Are they really this surprised that Oxford has changed a bit in all these years? It reminds me of all the national news reports after Katrina that seems so shocked that so many African Americans lived in New Orleans in poverty. This latest is written by Shaila Dewan. Ms. Dewan has displeased us here at the JFP mightily in the past with her so-called "analysis" of race evolution in the South after the U.S. attorney re-opened the Dee-Moore case. This latest article is OK, though. Nothing new and a bit ho-hum, but at least not painfully offensive.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-09-23T21:21:13-06:00

ID

138050

Comment

The national media really are going to run out of a way to say that Oxford has changed in the new few days: In Hosting Debate, Ole Miss Steps Away From Its Past (Wall Street Journal) For Ole Miss, debate marks school's progress (Associated Press) Ole Miss Burnishes Image as Obama Debate Trumps Riot (Bloomberg) To name a few. I'd hate to be rude by suggesting that the reporters could be spending their pre-debate time boning up and writing some real, heavy-duty *issue* stories. I mean, they'll always have the horse race.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-09-23T22:52:04-06:00