This Monday, Feb. 17, 2014 file photo shows the James Meredith statue on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss. Graeme Phillip Harris of Alpharetta, Ga. has been indicted on federal civil rights charges connected to a noose being put on the statue of the student who integrated the university, the Justice Department said Friday, March 27, 2015.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — James Meredith, who integrated the University of Mississippi under federal protection a half century ago, says it's a shame that state authorities deferred to the federal government to bring charges after a noose was left on a campus statue of him.
The Justice Department said Friday that a former Ole Miss student, Graeme Phillip Harris of Alpharetta, Georgia, has been indicted on one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students because of their race or color.
The indictment is connected to a February 2014 incident in which a noose and a former Georgia flag that prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem were placed on a Meredith statue near the main administration building at Ole Miss.
