THE DAILY
MISSISSIPPIAN
Monday, September 14, 2015
Volume 104, No. 15
T H E S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F M I S S I S S I P P I S E R V I N G O L E M I S S A N D OX F O R D S I N C E 1 9 1 1
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Volleyball sweeps Rebel Classic Page 7
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Students remember Alison Turbeville Second man to plead ASSOCIATED PRESS
guilty in noose incident
PHOTOS BY: TAYLOR COOK
More than 100 people came to mourn the loss of Alison Turbeville on Sunday night in the Sigma Nu courtyard. Turbeville, a Jackson native and member of Chi Omega sorority, passed away Saturday after a long battle with cancer. Friends and sorority sisters held a candlelight vigil Sunday night after CRU’s Greek Night of Worship.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man implicated by federal prosecutors in placing a noose on a statue of a civil rights activist plans to plead guilty. Federal court filings show Austin Reed Edenfield is scheduled to waive indictment and plead guilty Wednesday to a criminal charge before U.S. District Judge Michael Mills in Oxford. The court filing doesn’t indicate what charge Edenfield faces. People typically agree to waive indictment and plead guilty in federal court as part of a plea bargain. A lawyer for Edenfield didn’t respond to requests for comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Norman, in a June 18 court hearing, said Edenfield took part in the February 2014 incident. A noose and a former Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem were placed on a University of Mississippi statue of James Meredith, the school’s first black student. Prosecutors said in June that another former student, Graeme Phillip Harris, hatched the plan to place the noose and flag on
the statue after a night of drinking with Edenfield and a third freshman in an Ole Miss fraternity house. The third man has not been charged. Harris pleaded guilty in June to a misdemeanor charge of threatening force to intimidate African-American students and employees at the university. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in June, and faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $100,000. Prosecutors have agreed to drop a stiffer felony charge in exchange for the plea. After the noose and flag were placed on the statue on the night of Feb. 15, 2014, Norman said Harris and one of the other freshmen returned at sunrise on Feb. 16 to observe and were filmed by a video camera at the Ole Miss student union. All three of the students withdrew from Ole Miss and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity closed its chapter. Ole Miss officials have said that they turned the case over to federal prosecutors and deferred to their judgment.
Paris-Yates plaza dedicated to Civil Rights leader JENNIFER LOTT
jblott@go.olemiss.edu
The University dedicated the plaza outside Paris-Yates Chapel to the late Rev. William Davis Campbell, a former professor who served as Ole Miss’ director of religious life in the 50s and became a leader in the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation dedicated a plaza Friday outside Paris-Yates Chapel to Campbell as part of its Racial Reconciliation Week. Outgoing Chancellor Dan Jones’ said the dedication supports his hope to use spaces on campus as informational landmarks. Jones said he believes commemorations such as the Paris-Yates plaza will educate people about the rich and painful history of the University. Jones’ participation as keynote speaker in the dedication was his first official duty on campus since he took leave in June. Jones was wel-
comed with a standing ovation. “Will Campbell taught us how to love people who are different from us,” Jones said. “I’m so glad there will be a plaque here that will bear his name. I hope students will pay attention to this and be curious about who Campbell is.” Campbell was a renowned figure in many significant civil rights issues throughout the 50s and 60s. He escorted the “Little Rock Nine” into Central High School in Little Rock. Campbell was forced to leave his position at the University in 1956 because of backlash resulting from his participation in promoting civil rights. He later distanced himself from the Baptist church because of refusal of its members to fight segregation. Jones and other speakers quoted Campbell’s National Book Award winning “Brother to a Dragonfly”: “We’re all bastards, but God loves us anyway.” Jones said this book guided many of his
decisions as chancellor. William Campbell’s son, Webb, said he believes his father would be very proud because of the impact the dedication could have. “Maybe people will walk by and wonder who he is,” Campbell said. “He was an arrow of justice in the 50s and the 60s. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s still a lot of social activism that remains untapped. Maybe one or two of those folks will come through this plaza. I hope they will carry on the banner because we aren’t finished yet.” Grant Beebe, a student at the University reflecting on the commemorative plaque, commented on the value of reconciliation as a component of education. “We should challenge each other to change our beliefs.” Beebe said. “In the next 10, 15, 20 years, what I’ll most powerfully remember is the change that I’ve witnessed at the University and how much that has affirmed to me the value of diversity.”
PHOTO BY: TAYLOR COOK
Outgoing Chancellor Dan Jones returned to campus last Friday to attend a dedication service for the late Civil Rights activist Rev. Will D. Campbell.