The First Black Homecoming Queen at Ole Miss

A half century after the initial racial integration of the University of Mississippi, Courtney Roxanne Pearson has been named the first African American homecoming queen. She will be crowned on October 13 during halftime ceremonies at the football game between Auburn University and Ole Miss.

Pearson is a 21-year-old senior from Memphis, Tennessee. She is majoring in English secondary education. Both of her parents are Ole Miss graduates. After graduation in May, she plans to join Teach for America.

Pearson’s milestone comes on the heels of the election last spring of Kimberly Dandridge as the first African American woman to be elected student body president.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Congratulations. A friend called and said you must see the Ole Miss incoming queen. She stated that you sound and look like I did when I received Miss Rust College in Holly Spring, Mississippi, in 1986. Wow, what a grand accomplishment. Give God the glory and let your light continue to shine daily.

  2. CONGRATULATIONS to Ms. Pearson on such an historic event as she is now in the Ole Miss records along with Medgar Wiley Evers who was the first to apply to the Ole Miss Law School and with James Meredith as being the first African-American addmitted to Ole Miss. Her parents as Ole Miss alums should be as proud as she to will be an Ole Miss by keeping their alma mater in the family.

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