In September, 1965, she and Raylawni Branch, both local natives, integrated the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg.
[1][2] By this time (September, 1965) both Ole Miss and Mississippi State University had been integrated – the former violently, the latter peacefully.
Therefore, McCain and his staff made extensive confidential plans for the admission and attendance of Armstrong and Branch.
Student athletic, social, and political leaders were recruited to keep the calm and protect the university from such bad publicity as Ole Miss had suffered from its reaction to James Meredith.
The university administration appointed Dr. Geoffrey Fish, an oceanographer who taught biology as her guardian and tutor.