ATHENS, Ala. — John Meredith is his father’s son — no easy feat when you are directly descended from the civil rights-era icon James Meredith: a man whose life of activism is depicted in books and film, a person who Walter Cronkite erroneously declared dead following a failed assassination attempt and a leader whose shooting injuries spurred the largest civil rights march in Mississippi’s history.

Today, John Meredith is himself actively involved in politics. Considered by some national news sources —and introduced as such by Richard Collie, the director of student inclusion initiatives at Athens State University, during a lunch event in the school’s Sandridge Student Center Ballroom — Meredith is “one of the most influential African American lobbyists in America.”

During his lobbying career, he has been the recipient of two national advocacy awards and is well known on a national stage through his penchant for coalition advocacy. He speaks clearly and with conviction of the power of left-right alliances, especially — and frequently, he admits, only — on the municipal level.

Today, Meredith is the president of the Huntsville City Council — the first person to be elected to that position after only a single year on the local government board — but on Feb. 3 in Athens, Meredith was quick to defer attention from himself and spotlight his father’s life of activism and policy making.

“The legacy of James Meredith, where do I begin,” Meredith said.

Beginning with who James Meredith is today — an 88-year-old man who “considers his family his greatest legacy,” John Meredith said that his father is a man “who routinely holds court at the local (Mississippi) Kroger, at the coffee shop within that Kroger, and everyone in town knows that. … I can’t call him retired because he’s still very active. He travels a lot and he tries to visit every Mississippi county each year, going out to speak to a lot of groups.”

James Meredith is a man “who is still very involved with public policy issues in the state of Mississippi,” John Meredith said.

But Meredith was quick to return to the formation of his father’s legacy.

“Most folks are far more interested in the 30-something, the 40-something-year-old James Meredith,” John Meredith said. “There’s been an awful lot written about him, in books, magazines, YouTube; and most center on two events that propelled him to national attention relating to civil rights: education and voting.”

James Meredith was the first African-American student to be admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi.

In 1962, only after being protected by federal troops at the intervention of the Kennedy administration, and after a day of rioting and protest at the provocation of a segregationist governor, was Meredith allowed to enroll.

“The riot on Ole Miss is called the last battle of the Civil War,” John Meredith said. “You had the state of Mississippi officers, under the order of the governor, engaging with the armed forces of the United States.”

Already a U.S. Air Force veteran with earlier college experience when he enrolled, James Meredith would spend two semesters at the university and graduate from the institution.

John Meredith, senior among his siblings, recalled the experience.

“Being the oldest, I was the only one (of my siblings) alive during the Ole Miss events,” Meredith said. “I remember running around the quad at Ole Miss while he was in the graduation ceremony.”

Yet, Meredith said, most of his childhood memories center on the family’s move to New York City after James Meredith graduated.

“Dad worked on Wall Street,” and he would sometimes take his son to his workplace. But what lingers with John Meredith is the people he was exposed to at a young age.

“Dad provided a constant flow of visitors in and out of the house,” Meredith said. “The ones that visited the more were the ones I had cursory relationships with … a young congressman named Adam Clayton Powell. Harry Belafonte stopped by quite frequently. Dick Gregory was a common visitor at the house, as was one of my favorites, in fact this one I used to call Uncle James, and that’s James Baldwin, the author.”

But there were others visitors who also influenced him, Meredith said.

“The celebrities, the icons that made the most impression on me as a child were when we would go to other people’s home, particularly the overnight stays,” he said. “Among those was James Brown in his South Carolina home. …

“We spent the night with Muhammad Ali in his Cherry Hill (New Jersey) home. The champ was something. He made me feel like I was the only one in the world who mattered to him, (although) when we left, pulling out of the driveway, I said to dad, who is that? He said son, that’s the champ. …

“Then there was Sydney Poitier. We visited his upstate New York home on numerous occasions. That was my favorite place on Earth — that house had turrets.”

But it was a 1966 event that would leave the largest impression on the young Meredith.

“As a child, the March Against Fear meant more to me than Ole Miss,” John Meredith said.

James Meredith had envisioned that this event would be a one-man march from Memphis, Tenn., to Jackson, Miss., to highlight continuing racism and to “demonstrate to minorities in Mississippi that they had nothing to fear in going to register to vote.”

He wanted it to be a one-man march to show that one man could demand his civil rights, John Meredith said.

On the second day of the march, Meredith was shot, and national media outlets wrongfully cited his death before retracting the story.

“My mom first heard (erroneous news of his death) from Walter Cronkite,” John Meredith said.

Although Meredith wanted a one-man march, civil rights organizations rallied after the shooting. By the time he was recovered enough to rejoin the march, the event had swelled.

By most reports, there were an estimated 15,000 marchers entering Jackson on June 26, the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. More than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote during the event.

Now, John Meredith builds on his father’s history by continuing work of his own, and he is quick to share his experience and thoughts when asked about a variety of topics.

Collie, from ASU, wondered how we “inspire young people today, to get involved in community politics,” to which Meredith answered: volunteerism.

“I would suggest they wait until an election year and reach out to a campaign they believe in — and volunteer,” Meredith said. That tack, he said, plants roots for future growth and insider access.

On an Alabama level, Meredith also fielded a question about the current state of education.

“Education throughout America under the COVID years has been a drastic step in the wrong direction,” Meredith said. “There’s a learning gap I’m not sure these kids can make up. Here in Alabama we’re doing away with our own standards because kids can’t meet them.

“I don’t think that’s permanent. Once the nation decides how we’re going to move forward with COVID as an ongoing reality, school systems will come to grips and start advancing again, but unfortunately the kids, particularly those at younger levels, are going to be permanently hurt.”

When asked about the state of coalition building in today’s politics, Meredith said that, unlike the municipal level, “In Washington there is very little will for bipartisanship.”

“We have somehow slipped into an I’m always right and you’re always right mentality,” he said. “And not only that, you’re my enemy. I can’t be seen with you, If I’m seen with you, the rest of my party is going to have a heart attack. … But there are today, even in Washington, problem solvers … it’s a House-only caucus, but they do good work.”

Also doing good work, and highlighting a path for the future based on the efforts of both of the Merediths, were comments from Tina Palacios, John Meredith’s wife.

“John and I are the epitome of left-right,” Palacios said. “He was much further right and I was very much in the middle, then turned into a raging liberal. I have gone back to the center since then, because life shapes you.

“And that’s why John is so good — because he can sit down and talk with you. There’s always a place somewhere in the middle. You’re not going to get everything you want; I’m not going to get everything I want. But there’s a way we can live with it.”