born June 25, 1933, Kosciusko, Miss., U.S.
U.S. civil rights leader.
He grew up in poverty in Mississippi, the most racially segregated state in the U.S. In 1961 he applied for admission to the all-white University of Mississippi. He won a legal battle to be admitted, but federal troops and Justice Department officials had to be brought in to enforce the court order. While participating in a voter-registration drive after his graduation from "Ole Miss," he was shot and wounded by a white supremacist.