How Far Ole' Miss Has Come

There were riots at the University of Mississippi when the school admitted its first black student, James Meredith, in 1962.

Now, the campus in Oxford has a statue in his honor.

That, as much as anything, symbolizes the social progress at Ole' Miss in the time since, reports Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, who visited the campus ahead of the scheduled debate Friday between Barack Obama John McCain, assuming McCain shows up.

Mississippi was arguably America's most segregated state in '62. Civil rights would come, but grudgingly, Smith observed.

Almost 50 years have passed, and much has changed, Smith says.

"I was a little freshman at 18 years of age when I first entered ... in 1968," says Donald Cole, who lived through the transformation. He's now an assistant professor.

"When I first came," Cole continued, "there was no African-American faculty, no African-American administrators, and very few (African-American) students. It really wasn't until we embraced the concept, and our past, that I saw a change sort of take place over the years."

Black student enrollment at Ole' Miss has almost doubled in just the last decade.

And, especially on football Saturdays, the diverse student body rises as one.

Home to the Running Rebels, Ole' Miss is where the nation's most famous football father, Archie Manning, played. His number, 18, has become the speed limit on campus.

Ole' Miss also houses the largest blues archives in the U.S., much of it donated by the legendary BB King.

Best-selling novelist John Grisham went to law school there.

And recently, a statue was erected on campus to honor the courage of James Meredith.

The event slated for Friday night, Smith noted, was unimaginable when he bravely first set foot on campus.