The racial overtones of Mississippi’s past are the backdrop of Sept. 26th’s debate as the country makes history with its first black presidential candidate Barack Obama. Ole Miss is hosting the debate between Obama and John McCain. UWIRE affiliate The Daily Mississippian is covering the preparations on its news and opinion pages.
U. Mississippi mulls racial past before presidential debates
The upcoming presidential debate at the University of Mississippi will bring into consideration a comparison of racial relations in the university’s past as the community prepares for the possibility of welcoming the nation’s first black presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.
“I do not know of another university that has been more conscientious to make (black) students feel more a part of the community,” said David Sansing, author of “The University of Mississippi: A Sesquicentennial History.”
“I do not think that there is another university in the country that has experienced such a dramatic and sweeping change in the racial atmosphere on campus.”
Full Story from the Daily Mississippian
Web site to book housing during presidential debates
A new Web site is now open for journalists to book properties for their stay in Oxford during the presidential debate.
Oxforddebatehousing.com came out of a brainstorming session between University of Mississippi officials and Oxford city officials on what Oxford could do to help with the upcoming influx of 3,000 journalists into Oxford at the presidential debates in September.
Oxford has only about 700 hotel rooms to house them, Vice President for the Oxford and Lafayette County Economic Development Foundation Christy Knapp said.
Full Story from The Daily Mississippian
Students Speak: Obama’s nomination & the debate at Ole Miss
The Daily Mississippian’s Elizabeth Googe sought students’ thoughts and opinions on Sen. Barack Obama securing the Democratic nomination, and the quickly-approaching presidential debate at the Ford Center.
Full video interview from The Daily Mississippian
Column: The sanctity of free speech
We must keep in mind that the presidential debates are fundamental celebrations of democracy and free speech. It is not a time for unpopular ideas to be suppressed to perpetuate a politically correct image.
So if the protesters unfurl confederate flags, will armed guards escort them to “free speech zones?” Perhaps I am mistaken, but my civics class taught that the “free speech zone” extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific - an idealistic concept, no doubt, but one that we absolutely must cling to like Pigpen’s blanket.
Our Constitution was not written to protect ideas that are popular and politically correct. It exists to facilitate dissent, to prevent the masses from shouting down and shutting out ideas that are deemed offensive.
Unfortunately, in the context of Sept. 26th’s debate, the constitutionally protected ideas are likely to be repugnant, ignorant and racist. Will we choose to protect them, or our carefully crafted image?
Full column from The Daily Mississippian
Column: Obama’s nomination shouldn’t give false hope U.S. free of racial division
The ascendancy of blacks to civil and political prominence has been a long journey. The imminent nomination of Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic party’s presidential nominee should not be mistaken as the culmination of this journey.
Obama’s nomination should not give us a false sense of hope that we have arrived in an America free of racial division. Instead, Obama’s nomination should be viewed as a sign that racial divisions are receding and should be counted as a great victory for blacks. […]
Given the history of the University of Mississippi, its progress in race relations and its strong desire for equality and diversity, it is only fitting that Obama will arrive on the Ole Miss campus this fall - the same campus James Meredith integrated on Oct. 1, 1962 - to debate the Republican presidential nominee on topics pertinent to the future of our nation.
Full column from The Daily Mississippian