Life on the Campus

All but 500 of the 23,000 U.S. troops had been pulled out of Oxford, Miss. Some of Negro James Meredith's fellow students pestered him by repeatedly slamming their doors while he was trying to study. Others passed out scurrilous tracts, one of which said: "Kennedy is out to destroy America because he is a sick, sick Communist." Mostly, Meredith had only to endure a cold, hate-filled silence.

But last week life at Ole Miss began turning really rough again. The university's white students had cause to think they could get away with violence. After all, eight students arrested during the bloody September riots were merely placed on campus probation (last year three students were expelled from Ole Miss for participating in a panty raid). University officials were mild and mellifluous in their rare admonitions against more student violence.

Early last week, 200 students gathered near the cafeteria where Meredith was eating. They slung eggs, pop bottles, and at least one Molotov cocktail at troops and U.S. marshals. Scores of cherry bombs were hurled with slingshots. Next day, firecrackers exploded all over the campus. A Coke bottle smashed the window of a car carrying Meredith, laid open the face of an accompanying marshal.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach flew to Oxford to plead with university administrators to get tough with unruly students. On Halloween, after a soldier had been hurt by a cherry bomb that exploded near his face, faculty members for the first time helped break up milling students, although their pleas did not increase respect for the troops. Shouted Student Housing Director Binford Nash: "They are trigger happy, and they will shoot. So for the sake of your mothers, go back to your rooms." University officials and M.P.s searched student rooms, turned up a startling array of weapons.

Ole Miss Chancellor John D. Williams finally declared that the university would take "whatever steps are necessary to ensure the establishment of peaceful and orderly conditions--including expulsion." At week's end, the university did get tough. Four students were expelled for their anti-Meredith activities.

That seemed to quiet things down. And as James Meredith ended his fifth week on the campus, all he had to endure was that old cold silence.

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