page_title: Murder of Paul Guihard
section_title: University of Mississippi assignment and death
hierarchical_section_title: Murder of Paul Guihard / University of Mississippi assignment and death
caption_attribution_description: English: A bench outside the Meek School of Journalism and New Media on the Ole Miss campus dedicated to Paul Guihard, a journalist for the Agence France-Presse that was killed during the 1962 riots on campus. Guihard is the only known journalist to have been killed during the Civil Rights Movement
context_page_description: Paul Guihard was a French-British journalist for Agence France-Press. He was murdered in the 1962 riot at the University of Mississippi while covering the events surrounding James Meredith's attempts to enroll at the all-white university. The only journalist known to have been killed in the backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, his murder remains unsolved.
context_section_description: On 30 September 1962, AFP assigned Guihard to cover the developing story of James Meredith's enrollment at the University of Mississippi, the first time an African-American enrolled at the school. As an editor, Guihard infrequently went out on assignment, and did not regularly cover the Civil Rights beat; in fact Guihard had the day off. However, the agency was short staffed and felt the story needed to be covered, and so called in Guihard and photographer Sammy Schulman to go to Mississippi.
  That morning, Guihard and Schulman flew from New York to Jackson, Mississippi via Atlanta. They found a tense atmosphere in which the federal government was prepared to use force to ensure Meredith's enrollment despite the attempts of governor Ross Barnett and local segregationists to keep him out. Guihard and Schulman visited the governor's office, where the Citizens' Council had organized a segregationist rally. They then visited the local Citizens' Council headquarters to interview executive director Louis Hollis. The meeting was friendly and Guihard received Hollis' permission to file a story from the office; this 198-word piece, Guihard's last, called the situation "the gravest Constitutional crisis that the United States has known since the War of Secession" and asserted that the "Civil War never came to an end".
  Guihard and Schulman then drove north to Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi. While en route, they heard President John F. Kennedy's speech indicating that federal agents had already escorted Meredith to campus. Assuming the story was over, they continued on to Oxford to clear up the details. When they arrived, at around 8:40 p.m., however, they learned that rioting had started on campus. Parking near The Grove, Guihard and Shulman split up to avoid being identified as journalists and targeted by the mob, agreeing to meet back up an hour later. Guihard headed toward the riot gathering at the Lyceum and Circle areas of campus, while Shulman circled the Grove. Life photographer Flip Schulke saw Guihard heading toward the riot and tried to stop him, but Guihard refused, saying, "I'm not worried, I was in Cyprus." This may have been the last time anyone spoke to Guihard.
  Guihard was shot in an unlit area at the southeast corner of the Ward Dormitory between 8 and 9 p.m. His body was found by students just east of the dormitory at 9 p.m. The students attempted to revive him and sought help, but were not immediately certain what had happened to him; they initially believed he had suffered cardiac arrest from the tear gas. The riot exacerbated matters, as ambulances could not get through the crowd to assist. Eventually, the students were able to get a car to the area and took Guihard to Oxford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The hospital determined that he had been killed by "a gunshot wound to the back that penetrated the heart". The hospital sent Guihard's body to a nearby funeral home, where Schulman made the identification. He was the only journalist murdered during the Civil Rights Era.
  The Federal Bureau of Investigation handled the initial investigation with assistance from local authorities. Sheriff Joe Ford surmised that the shooter had attacked Guihard either knowing he was a journalist, or mistaking him as a protester, and had certainly intended to kill him. Guihard may have stood out from the crowd due to his large frame, red hair and distinctive red goatee, and potentially his foreign accent. The investigation never identified a suspect and the case remained unsolved.
caption: A bench on the University of Mississippi campus dedicated to Guihard
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