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James Meredith became the first Black to graduate from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor's degree in political science on this day. In 1962 Meredith was a student at Jackson State College when he applied for acceptance to the University of Mississippi but was denied based on his race. A class-action lawsuit was filed on Meredith's behalf against "Ole Miss," but the court ruled in favor of the university. However, the U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned that decision and allowed Meredith to be admitted to the university.--As the first Black to gain admission there, his attempt to register caused 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.

August 21, 1943

Harriet M. Waddy, military officer, became the first Black woman major in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) on this day. She was one of the two highest-ranking Black officers in the Women's Army Corps during World War II and its wartime adviser on racial issues. Waddy was born in Jefferson City, MO, on June 20, 1904. She attended area schools before graduating 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 Affair s who later served as a civilian adviser to WAC. Waddy entered the WAC officer candidate school at Fort Des Moines in 1942, later she was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1948 before retiring from the armed forces in 1952. Waddy, however served in the Reserves until 1969. Then she worked for the Federal Aviation Administration and counseled troubled girls at a Job Corps center in Oregon. She died February 21, 1999, in Las Vegas.