History of Oxford MS

William T. Sherman in 1862; in 1864 Major General Andrew Jackson Smith burned the buildings in the town square, including the county courthouse. In the postwar Reconstruction Era, the town recovered slowly, aided by federal judge Robert Andrews Hill, who secured funds to build a new courthouse in 1872. During this period many African American freedmen moved from farms into town and established a neighborhood known as "Freedmen Town", where they built houses, businesses, churches and schools, and exercised all the rights of citizenship. Even after Mississippi disfranchised most African Americans in the Constitution of 1890, they continued to build their lives in the face of discrimination.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Oxford gained national attention in 1962 as state officials attempted to prevent James Meredith, an African American, from enrolling at the University of Mississippi after being admitted by a federal court. After President John F. Kennedy, following negotiations with Governor Ross Barnett, ordered United States Marshals to protect him, Meredith traveled to Oxford under armed guard to register in late September 1962, and riots broke out in protest of his admittance. Thousands of armed "volunteers" flowed into the Oxford area to prevent Meredith's admittance. During a night of riots by segregationists, cars were burned, federal marshals were pelted with rocks, bricks, small arms fire and university property was damaged; two men were killed by gunshot wounds. The riot spread into adjacent areas of the city of Oxford. Order was restored to the campus with the early morning arrival of nationalized Mississippi National Guard and regular U.S. Army units, who camped in the City.

More than 3000 journalists came to Oxford on September 26, 2008 to cover the first presidential debate of 2008, which was held at the University of Mississippi