Robert L. Logan Collection
U.S. Federal Marshals at Lyceum, The Mississippian, Oct 1, 1962
The Mississippian, Oct 1, 1962
On September 29, 1962, Robert L. Logan, a parts officer at U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth, was sworn in as a U.S. Marshal, given an ID card, and put on a bus bound for Oxford, Mississippi. He planned for a six-to-seven-day trip spent at the University of Mississippi because “the university was in trouble.” An impending riot required twenty-five Leavenworth prison guards to become part of the early response to firings, explosions, and war-like conditions on the campus. Logan and his group stood guard at the Lyceum as it was the point of James Howard Meredith’s entry to register as the first African American student at the university.
Logan says he joined another one hundred and seventy-five U.S. Marshals and close to one hundred border agents that day. He estimated “six or seven thousand students and a lot of local yokels” protested the entry of Meredith. The marshals were assailed by those throwing bricks, rocks, and Molotov cocktails. U.S. Marshals were prevented from firing unless direct fire was issued at their fellows, and no shots were fired by Logan’s account.
No acquiescence or resolution to integrate the university came despite lengthy negotiations between the White House and Governor Barnett. A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on September 28th intended to permit peaceful entry of Meredith and force Barnett’s compliance. This ruling required Meredith’s enrollment by October 2nd. After Logan’s group had already been deployed to Oxford, a reluctant Attorney General Robert Kennedy said on Saturday, September 29, 1962, “We’d better get going with the military. Maybe we waited too long” (Doyle, 95).
Logan and others in his group of newly deputized marshals were removed to a building on campus to sleep the night of September 29th. Logan procured two mattresses thrown from an army truck, but many others slept on a concrete floor after twenty-four hours awake with no food or water. They noticed injuries they were unaware of until they left the area of the protests. The Leavenworth contingent was flown later by helicopter to Holly Springs’ army encampment, but they would return to campus each day for the worst of the riots taking place on September 30th and October 1st.
For the U.S. Marshals, the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of James Meredith’s integration of the University of Mississippi brought renewed awareness to their presence at the insurrection that began on September 29th and 30th. A Leavenworth Times writer whose article is within Logan’s collection claims oral histories collected from those present at Meredith’s entry to the university overlooked the Leavenworth officers’ accounts. The University of Mississippi recognized marshals for their service during the 50th celebration of integration in 2012. On behalf of the U.S. Marshals, the Department of Justice donated a Deputy U.S. Marshals Memory Book to the University of Mississippi Libraries at that time.
The Robert L. Logan Collection is accessible at the Department of Archives and Special Collections, and other sources related to the integration at the University of Mississippi can be found in the University of Mississippi Subject Guide, in eGrove, and in the library catalog.
Notes & Bibliography
Deputy U.S. Marshals 50th Anniversary Memory Book
James Howard Meredith Collection
Mississippi Highway Patrol Collection
The Mississippian, "October 01, 1962" (1962). Daily Mississippian (all digitized issues). 3507.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/thedmonline/3507
Purnell, Deborah, "U.S. marshals remember 1962" (2012). University of Mississippi News. 6973.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umnews/6973
Jeannie Speck-Thompson, University Archivist, July 2024.
