The man who integrated Mississippi State University dies at 82

When James Meredith became the first Black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962, his arrival was met with attacks from the Ku Klux Klan and riots that killed two people, reports Richard Sandomir for The New York Times. But a calmer scene was playing out at neighboring Mississippi State University.

Dr. Richard Holmes became the first Black student at Mississippi State University just two years after Meredith, in 1965. It was said that he "received a quiet, courteous reception." Instead of the U.S. marshals quelling riots at Meredith’s enrollment, Holmes was met with only a few state patrolmen. Holmes said he was there for an education, not publicity. Dr. Holmes died at 82 on Oct. 16 in Louisville, Miss.

"They would yell things at me sometimes, but it would never be personal," Holmes told The Clarion Ledger in 2015. "But no one ever spit on me, no one hit me, no one pushed me, no one pulled a prank on me. Some befriended me and treated me with dignity and respect. Many just ignored me."

Holmes was an emergency room physician, and graduated from MSU with a bachelor's in liberal arts, and held a master’s in microbiology and a medical degree from Michigan State University. In his youth, he lived with prominent Black physician and Democratic advocate Dr. Douglas Conner. Holmes worked for hospitals in Birmingham, Alabama and at MSU until he retired in 2007.

George Prewitt, another Black student at the time Holmes attended MSU, told the Kansas City Star in 1971 that he and Holmes had tried to attend a pep rally, but white students name-called and screamed at them, and one even threw a bag of ice.

MSU dedicated the school’s cultural diversity center to Holmes, and this August, the YMCA Plaza was also dedicated to him with a monument. "Growing up here in Starkville, he knew about this campus, and he knew about the opportunities that had been denied him and those like him for so long," Mississippi State President Dr. Mark E. Keenum said during the dedication. "He paved the way for so many wonderful, wonderful students who have followed in his footsteps over all of these many years."