Walking Through the Tear Gas

On the evening of September 30, 1962, James Meredith sat in a dormitory room at the University of Mississippi while a mob of over two thousand raged outside. Tear gas drifted through the Oxford night. Bricks shattered windows. Gunshots echoed across the Grove. By morning, two men lay dead, and hundreds were injured. Yet when the sun rose on October 1, the thirty-year-old Air Force veteran walked to the registrar's office, signed his name, and became the first Black student enrolled at Ole Miss.

For the next nine months, federal marshals flanked Meredith on every walk to class. Students spat at him, threw rocks, and left threats under his door. He ate alone. He studied alone. And on August 18, 1963, he walked across the stage and received his degree in political science.

When asked years later how he endured it, Meredith spoke of a conviction deeper than personal ambition — a belief that he was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was called to do.

Joshua 1:9 reminds us that courage is not the absence of danger but the presence of God in the midst of it. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." The Almighty never promised Meredith — or us — a life without tear gas. He promised to walk with us through it.