On May 31, 1961, the NAACP and James H. Meredith filed a lawsuit at the Federal Court in Meridian, Mississippi. Constance Motley, a talented African American lawyer, represented Meredith in the case of Plaintiff v. Charles Dickson Fair, President of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning of the State of Mississippi. The lawyer representing Charles Fair was the well-known Mississippi lawyer and anti-civil rights strategist, Assistant General Dugas Shands.

excerpts from the
Deposition of James Meredith