William Doyle: "An American Insurrection"

Doyle spoke to Ole Miss students at the Overby Center.

Have you ever thought about how the present is still living in the past?

Author of "An American Insurrection," William Doyle, spoke at the University of Mississippi Oct. 25, in hopes of retelling and continually exploring the past of the first African American accepted into the University, James Meredith, and how it still affects people today.

Doyle talked about the integration battle, focusing on Meredith, in Oxford in 1962. Doyle described the crisis as being the gravest federal and state conflict since the Civil War, and in fact being a small scale civil war.

The lecture was based on Doyle's book and wanted to open the eyes of the audience to see how finding the truth takes a lot of research and asking questions and to not be afraid to ask questions.

Doyle said most American Whites were cowards on the issue of race and still hold some of those cowardly views. Doyle wants all of us to look inside and see who we are as individuals.

Doyle wants everyone to understand the lifelong battle, today, is realizing it's not just about race, it's about what it means to be American.