President John F. Kennedy eventually quelled the riot by mobilizing more than 30,000 troops, the most for a single disturbance in United States history.

In preparation for another registration attempt, federal law enforcement were dispatched to accompany Meredith to maintain order, but a riot erupted on campus.

Partly incited by white supremacist and former General Edwin Walker, the mob assaulted reporters and federal officers, burned and looted property, and hijacked vehicles.

Reporters, U.S. marshals, and the U.S. Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach sheltered in the Lyceum, the university's administrative building into the late morning of October 1.

The riot and the federal crackdown were a major turning point in the civil rights movement and resulted in the desegregation of Ole Miss—the first integration of any public educational facility in Mississippi.

[4] Eight years after the Brown decision, every Mississippi school district remained segregated, and all attempts by African American applicants to integrate the University of Mississippi—better known as Ole Miss—had failed.

[7] Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy (who promised advances in civil rights), James Meredith applied to Ole Miss.

Facing contempt charges and jail, the university's board passed a resolution naming Governor Barnett as temporary regent of the college, making him responsible for Meredith's admission.

[11][note 2] Meredith then travelled to the Ole Miss campus in Oxford to register; he was blocked by Barnett, who read and presented a proclamation on states' rights.

[19] Following the precedent of his arbitration with Alabama Governor John Patterson during the Freedom Rides, Robert had extensive telephone conversations with Barnett in hopes of resolving the issue.

[20] On September 27, the governor offered to enroll Meredith if federal marshals made a display of threatening him at gunpoint, thereby allowing him to maintain his reputation while resolving the issue.

[23] On September 28, the Fifth Circuit found Barnett to be in contempt of court and threatened to imprison and fine him $10,000 daily ($104,237 in 2024) if Meredith were not registered by October 2.

White-supremacist Citizens' Councils organized a "wall of human flesh"—over 2,000 people—to surround the mansion and protect Barnett, but the alleged federal arrest never materialized.

[31] They converted the university's administration building, the Lyceum, into their operational headquarters, and local police established barriers on campus to prevent the entry of all except for students and faculty.

[32] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had intelligence that the lieutenants of Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton, as well as 19 Klansmen from Louisiana, were at the university.

[49][note 5] Minutes after the tear gas was fired,[51] President Kennedy delivered an Oval Office Address to the nation on Meredith's admission and thanked Mississippi for its contributions "to the progress of our democratic development".

[63] At around 10 p.m., with no other option, President Kennedy invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and ordered the U.S. Army to suppress the riot, beginning with the dedicated anti-riot battalion of the 503rd Military Police (MP).

Led by Captain Murry Falkner—nephew of Nobel Prize-winning writer and Oxford native William Faulkner—Troop E drove to Ole Miss, albeit without any ammunition (a direct order from Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach to avoid civilian deaths).

[65] The guardsmen's trucks and jeeps were immediately attacked with projectiles—a hurled concrete slab broke Falkner's arm—but continued to the Lyceum, where they reinforced the marshals.

[67] The Pentagon tasked Brigadier General Charles Billingslea with organizing the "invasion" of North Mississippi and ordered him to deploy the entirety of the 108th Cavalry Regiment to Oxford.

To complicate it further, President Kennedy instructed Billingslea to fly directly to Oxford, survey the situation, and then determine the necessary troop count.

[53][74] On October 1, members of the 716th Battalion raided the Sigma Nu fraternity house—whose president Trent Lott later became the Republican majority-leader in the U.S. Senate—and discovered a large weapons cache.

A unit of the 101st Airborne Division arrived by convoy from Ft. Campbell, Ky. Machine gun nests were set up along roadways,[77] and a radio observation post was established on the roof of the Oxford Elementary School.

[81] Two civilians were killed during the riots: French journalist Paul Guihard, on assignment for Agence France-Presse, who was found behind the Lyceum building with a gunshot wound to the back; and 23-year-old Ray Gunter, a white jukebox repairman who had visited the campus out of curiosity.

[53] Following rumors of dynamite in Baxter Hall, an October 31 search by troops and campus police discovered a grenade, gasoline, and a .22-calibre rifle, among other weapons.

According to Louis F. Oberdorfer, Robert Kennedy underestimated the "extent to which segregation in the South was undergirded by violence", and he reportedly blamed himself for failing to prevent the riot.

[95] He privately accused Secretary of the Army Vance of providing the president with poor and misleading advice and delaying the military's arrival.

[102] Illustrative of the riot's impact, during the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" at the University of Alabama the following year, segregationist Governor George Wallace capitulated expressly to prevent another Ole Miss.

[100] In 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus.

[108][note 9] The 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing was awarded to Ira B. Harkey Jr. for his coverage of Meredith's admission, Barnett's resistance, and the riot.