City of Gulfport hosting Dr. James Meredith Wednesday

The City of Gulfport is hosting Civil Rights activist Dr. James Meredith tomorrow at MGCCC’s Performing Arts Center for a special presentation.

In 1962, Meredith was the first African American to attend the once segregated University of Mississippi. Last month, he met with Gulfport city leaders, wanting to share his goals and values with the youth across the state.

Since the city is working toward a new community action program, they invited Dr. Meredith to share his experiences to help guide the future by understanding the past.

Gulfport police will be updating the community on city initiatives and how to get involved.

One of the new initiatives that will be discussed is the ‘Before the Bullet Campaign,’ the program was created after Gulfport police noticed an uptick in violence among the youth. Gulfport PD Sgt. Jason Ducre said, “We decided to try to reach out and engage these youths and try to get them on a successful path and we realized in order to do that, we had to have education. We had to have career development. We had to have mentorship. One of the important things is that parents have to be involved.”

Doors open at MGCCC’s Performing Arts Wednesday night at 6. The program begins at 6:30.

The event is free, but you are encouraged to register online at Gulfport-ms.gov and press the ‘events’ button.