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... 1962 (45 years ago today), 2 persons were killed and at least 75 injured in Oxford, Miss., amid riots against desegregation of the University of Mississippi. Protests continued despite a televised speech in which President John F. Kennedy urged quiet in the wake of the enrollment of James Meredith, an African-American man, to the state's flagship public university. Meredith required security protection throughout his matriculation; he was graduated in 1963.