This week in black history.

Jet, August 23, 2004

August 18, 1963

James Meredith received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Mississippi on this day, becoming the first Black to graduate from the 115-year-old institution.

In 1962 Meredith was a student at Jackson State College when he applied for, and was accepted by, the University of Mississippi. As the first Black to gain admission there, his attempt to register was met with resistance by local police and state officials which sparked riots on the Oxford campus that left two people dead. Federal troops were stationed on the campus to protect him until he graduated in 1963.

In 1966, he recounted the experience in his first book, Three Years in Mississippi. In 1968 Meredith received an LL.B. from Columbia University. In 1995 Meredith published a historical work titled Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Currently, he teaches African-American history and literacy courses in Jackson, MS.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

August 21, 1943

Harriet M. Waddy became the first Black woman major in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) on this day. Waddy was born in Jefferson City, MO, on June 20, 1904. She graduated from Kansas State University. She worked during the Depression as an aide to Mary McLeod Bethune, the director of the National Youth Administration's Division of Negro Affairs and later as a civilian adviser to WAC. Waddy entered the WAC officer candidate school at Fort Des Moines in 1942. She was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1948. Waddy was one of the two highest-ranking Black officers in the Women's Army Corps during World War II and was consulted as a wartime adviser on racial issues. Waddy retired from the armed forces in 1952, but served in the Reserves until 1969. Later she worked for the Job Corps center in Oregon. Waddy died February 21, 1999, in Las Vegas.