A new Mississippi law that restricts diversity, equity and inclusion policies in education will harm the way schools teach about important historical events and people who challenged racism and segregation, Judy Alsobrooks Meredith says.
She is the wife of James Meredith, the man who faced a violent white mob when he became the first Black student to enroll in the University of Mississippi in 1962.
More than 100 relatives, friends and admirers gathered Wednesday night at Hal & Mal’s restaurant in Jackson to celebrate Meredith’s 92nd birthday. Many posed for photos with him, and Judy Alsobrooks Meredith spoke on behalf of the family.
She said the new anti-DEI law will make educators reluctant to teach about her husband or other important figures including Medgar Evers, the Mississippi NAACP leader who was assassinated in Jackson in 1963, and his wife, Myrlie Evers, who is still living and who became a civil rights leader in her own right.
“Y’all better start teaching your kids and your grandkids who they are,” said Alsobrooks Meredith, as the Evers’ daughter, Reena Evers-Everette, stood nearby.
A federal judge heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit that seeks to block the anti-DEI measure, which became law when Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed it in mid-April.
The law prevents public schools from creating diversity, equity and inclusion offices; hiring people based on their race, sex, color or national origin; or engaging in “divisive” concepts, including teaching that a person “by virtue of his or her race, sex, color, national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive.”
Legislative Democrats argued that the restrictions will force teachers to minimize ugly parts of history, including slavery and segregation. Republicans who pushed for the law said DEI concepts divide people into victims and oppressors.
With restrictions in schools and universities, Alsobrooks Meredith said it’s more important than ever for people to share their own family histories.
“Young people, start recording when you hear old folks talking … when you hear your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother talking about some stuff, start hitting the record button. Just do that. You’ve got to preserve,” she said. “To say that Medgar Evers and Myrlie Evers and James Meredith … they never existed. Well, that’s a lie born in hell.”
