Who in 1962 became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, graduating with a degree in political science, and later began a lone civil rights march through the South known as the 'March Against Fear'?

James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights movement figure, although he vocally prefers not to be regarded as such.

On October 1st, 1962, he became the first black student at the University of Mississippi after being barred from entering on September 20. His enrollment, opposed by Governor Ross Barnett, sparked riots on the Oxford campus, which required federal troops and U.S. Marshals, which were sent by President John F. Kennedy. The riots led to a violent clash which left two people dead, 48 soldiers injured and 30 U.S. Marshals with gun wounds. His actions are regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights. He graduated on August 18, 1963.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meredith

James Meredith

James Meredith was the first black person to be accepted into the University of Mississippi amid racism and violence in 1962. He reminisced shortly after his graduation:

"I saw the mobs and heard them jeering, 'Go home, n*****!' and that stuff, but I never blamed them as individuals at all, even those who showed the greatest contempt for me. I feel they were not personally attacking me but that they were protesting a change and this was something they felt they must do. Some of them were crying and their crying indicated to me even more the pain of change and the fear of things they did not know or understand."

He was shot by a sniper on 6th June 19666, while leading the March Against Fear to encourage blacks to register and vote he was shot by a sniper.