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Reverend James "Blind Jim" Ivy
History by Susie Marshall

“This is how the story was told in the words of Blind Jim Ivy. The son of Matilda Ivy, James Ivy, was brought to Oxford, Lafayette County with his mother in early childhood. His mother, Matilda, was one of the eight ex-slave women who formed the nucleus of the first Colored Baptist Church, now Second Baptist in 1869. He was brought up in this church and ordained to preach the gospel. In a whirlwind courtship, he married Blind Rosa Sanders and lived across the street from Second Baptist Church. Blind Jim, as he was called, said that he was blinded while working in tar on the Tallahatchie Bridge when he was a teenager. Being a member of Second Baptist, Rev. Blind Jim would always lead the opening of the worship on Sunday a.m. eleven o'clock services by singing 'Let Heaven's Light Shine on Me.'

Blind Jim became a part of the University of Mississippi in 1896. It is said that while boiling peanuts at one of the athletic events he loudly cheered 'Hey! We're gonna beat 'em.' After that event the students honored him as mascot of the football team and also honored him as dean of the freshmen class...Blind Jim Ivy was thought of as being 'the grace of the Ole Miss campus' for 69 years before his death in 1955. His funeral services were attended at Second Baptist Church, the church which he supported spiritually and financially."

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Reverend "Blind Jim" Ivy in front of the Lyceum on the University of Mississippi campus. Date and Photographer Unknown.

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