On July 19, 1965, 21-year-old Richard Holmes enrolled at Mississippi State University to take some summer courses. Like many other students registering that day, he had come to MSU to get a few electives out of the way before returning to the college that he had been attending. At his home college, he was active in his fraternity, he played football and his grades were high. He was like every other student enrolling that day-with one exception: He was the only black student on campus.
Richard Holmes was the first black student in MSU history.
Unlike the enrollment of James Meredith at Ole Miss, which caused a riot that resulted in two deaths and did not end until 23,000 federal troops were called in, Holmes’ registration occurred without incident. He waited in line, paid his fee of $93.33, was greeted cordially by several students, released a brief statement to the press and went home.
Looking at the newspaper articles of the day, one can see the drastic changes in American society which have taken place in the last 36 years.
A headline in the Commercial Appeal of July 19, 1965 read, “MSU to enroll negro today.” The Clarion Ledger headline read, “No incidents as MSU registers first negro.”
Holmes’ statement to the press was printed in newspapers across the state and the nation. He said: “I realize that my entering Mississippi State University is a news item, but I hope that after today the press, news media and the public will forget I am here. I did not come here for fanfare or publicity. As a life-long Mississippian, I am here to study and learn at a high-rated university which happens to be in my hometown. I seek no special favors. I hope there will be no impediments from any source during my stay at State.”
Looking back, Holmes said he was glad that his enrollment went so smoothly and received relatively little media coverage.
“I’m thankful that it was no more of a news item than it was,” Holmes said. “I remember an anchor on NBC saying, ‘Richard Holmes has peacefully integrated Mississippi State,’ and that was rewarding that there were no incidents there like there were at Ole Miss.”
Holmes said that although there were catcalls from some of students and other verbal abuse, he still thinks of his experience at MSU as positive. He summed up his years at MSU as “challenging, but rewarding.”
Holmes said the administration, the faculty and the majority of the students seemed to “bend over backwards” to make his experience at MSU a pleasant one.
“I think the faculty and staff realized that it was probably a good thing, and it was time for a change. It was really only a small fragment or portion of the people there making those catcalls. They weren’t representative of the student body,” he said.
Holmes said he did not come to Mississippi State at the request of any civil rights organization or because he had any grand plan to integrate it, but rather because it fit his academic needs at the time.
“Many people assume that I planned to go there to integrate Mississippi State, but in truth, I just wanted to take some summer courses and then go back to Wiley,” he said.
Holmes said Wiley College was a small, church-affiliated school in Henderson, Texas, where Holmes had taken pre-med courses the two years he attended. He planned to take psychology and American government at MSU then continued his education at Wiley, but he said his godfather, Douglas Conner, convinced him to stay.
Conner took Holmes as his foster son after the grandmother who raised him died of cancer in 1956. Upon learning that she was going to die, Eliza Hunter asked Conner, her physician, to take care of Holmes, who was 12 years old at the time. Holmes said the lessons he learned both from his grandmother and Conner inspired him and helped him to face many difficulties at MSU.
“I knew I was going against the grain, so I expected to meet some resistance-things like the catcalls and whatnot,” Holmes said. “The way I was raised helped me to stay focused. With my grandmother, there were three things that were important: working hard, school and church. Those weren’t negotiable. That was what my grandmother taught me. Dr. Conner and my grandmother had instilled in me that hard work was important,” he added.
Holmes said Conner and other black members of the community asked him to stay. He found out another young black man was considering going to MSU, but said he wouldn’t enroll if Holmes left.
Holmes said that besides this fact, he felt it was a matter of pride that he stay.
“It would have been letting down my family and my race if I had chosen to leave, so I had to keep working hard,” he said.
Holmes said he has no regrets about not going back to Wiley College, although he does wish he could have continued in the extracurricular activities he was involved in.
“I was active in the fraternity and the football program, and there was a lot I liked there,” he said. “Looking back, I get sort of nostalgic, and wish I could have continued in that, but I have no regrets.”
After completing his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at MSU, Holmes went on to earn his medical degree at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. After that, he took several internships in Alabama and set up his residency in Ohio.
Now, at age 58, he has been working at the Medical Center East in Birmingham as an emergency room physician for 22 years.
Although he now lives in Alabama, Holmes has kept a close relationship with his home state of Mississippi and MSU in particular. In 1991, the university moved it’s office of minority affairs to a new location, and rededicated it as the Holmes Center for Cultural Diversity in his honor. Holmes said he still displays his two MSU degrees on the wall.
“I’m proud to have both of them,” he said. “So I keep them right there next to my medical degree.
Furthermore, Holmes said even though he lives in Birmingham near the heart of Alabama football, he still avidly supports MSU when the two teams play.
“I remember back in ’67 when we just hoped we could score against Alabama, and now we’ve beaten Alabama,” he said. “Here in Birmingham, like many Alabama communities, it’s Alabama (football) first and religion second for a lot of people. They’re always telling me I’m cheering for the wrong team, and I tell them that I am from Mississippi, and I went to Mississippi State. Why would I change my allegiance just because I’ve moved over here? Maroon and White are in my blood.”
And as much as MSU is a part of Holmes, MSU can be proud to have Holmes as a part of its legacy as well.<</p>