Jack Thornell, AP photographer who captured assassination attempt on James Meredith, dies at 86

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Former Associated Press photographer Jack Thornell, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of a shotgun-felled James Meredith looking back toward his would-be assassin on a Mississippi highway in 1966 became an enduring image of the Civil Rights Movement, has died. He was 86.

Thornell died Thursday at a hospital in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie from complications from kidney disease, his son, Jay Thornell said Friday.

He worked for the AP from 1964 to 2004 and had a variety of assignments over the years, photographing politicians, natural disasters, crime scenes. But the struggle for racial justice punctuated Thornell’s wire service career from the beginning. He covered the integration of a Mississippi Gulf Coast school on his first day of work for the AP New Orleans bureau.

In June 1966, Thornell, then 26, was assigned to cover a civil rights march led by Meredith, who had already made history by integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962, and was mounting a “March Against Fear” through the state encouraging Black residents to register and vote.

Meredith was walking on U.S. Highway 51 near Hernando, Mississippi, and Thornell and a rival photographer were in a car parked roadside, when the sound of the first shotgun blast sent them scrambling.

One resulting Thornell image remains a sobering photographic reminder of the violent resistance to desegregation. It shows a wounded Meredith grimacing in agony as he dragged himself to the road’s edge. Along with it was the Pulitzer-winning photo Thornell didn’t initially realize he had captured: Meredith is on the ground at the edge of the highway with arms extended and hands on the pavement — it’s unclear if he is still falling or pushing himself up after the fall. His head is turned and he appears to be looking at his would-be assassin, visible at the extreme left of the picture in a weedy ditch.

Meredith was hospitalized and recovered. Aubrey James Norvell, who was apprehended at the scene, pleaded guilty and served 18 months of a five-year prison sentence.

Until he developed the film and pored over the negatives, Thornell believed he might be fired. He feared his competitor had an image of the gunman and he didn’t. Instead of dismissal, Thornell won the Pulitzer in 1967.

Jay Thornell remembered his father as a loving dad, but said he could be “regimented” and “stubborn,” saying that the stress of covering the Civil Rights Movement could sometimes kept Jack Thornell from realizing his own achievements at the time.

“He never really enjoyed or appreciated what he was accomplishing and doing,” Jay Thornell said. “Through his pictures, he was serving the world and exposing things that were going on in places that other parts of the world and country didn’t know about during the Civil Rights era.”

In 1964, Jack Thornell photographed the burned-out station wagon in Neshoba County, Mississippi, that belonged to civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, whose bodies were found buried in an earthen dam weeks after Ku Klux Klansmen abducted and killed them. And Thornell would hurriedly snap a photo of the local sheriff being arrested by federal agents on conspiracy charges in connection with their deaths. Thornell got the shot while backing away as a supporter of the sheriff threatened him with a knife.

Thornell chronicled violence leading up to the integration of schools in Grenada, Mississippi, in 1966. One of his photos showed a Black man covering his ears as he moved away from a cherry bomb tossed by angry white people.

Thornell photographed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. multiple times, including during the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965, and demonstrations in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, the week before King was assassinated there.

Thornell had returned to his home base in New Orleans before King was assassinated, but later was dispatched to Atlanta, where he photographed King’s family viewing the body at Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel.

He was late for that assignment. He said in the 2018 interview that he dashed around another photographer and climbed atop a pew, clambering toward the casket by stepping over pew after pew to get in position to make the picture.

“I was shaken when I left there. I had my eyes on the floor because I knew everyone was looking at me for my despicable behavior,” Thornell said in the interview at his home in Kenner, Louisiana. “But I didn’t leave without the picture.”

Years later, in 1977, King’s assassin, James Earl Ray, escaped from a Tennessee prison. Thornell was on hand when Ray, muddy and haggard, was recaptured.

Thornell was born and raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi. His career as a photographer might not have happened but for an Army snafu in the late 1950s, according to a 1967 account in the AP World corporate magazine.

“The U.S. Army had decided to make a radio repairman of him. But at Fort Monmouth, his name got mixed up with that of a camera bug who wanted to attend photographic school. So Thornell, who didn’t know an aperture from a back focus, took the short course in picture-taking while the camera bug learned to fix radios.”

After leaving the Army, Thornell got a job with the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News before he was hired by the AP in New Orleans.

Hired during a turbulent time in the South, Thornell recalled the fear he sometimes felt amid violence and threats. But there was a greater fear than physical harm.

“The greatest fear for me was coming back without the photograph,” he said. “The things that were happening there, you just kind of dealt with it and tried to photograph what was happening, because that was your bread and butter, that was your career. And your success depended on how well you did that day. Because tomorrow there’s always another newspaper coming out.”

But Jay Thornell said that later in life, his father got to survey his achievements without that deadline pressure, enjoying autographing his photos sent to him by others. Jay Thornell said a recent cherished memory is Jack Thornell telling the stories behind some of his famous photos to his granddaughter.

Thornell is survived by his son Jay, his daughter Candy Gros, and a granddaughter.

Amy reported from Atlanta.

FILE - James Meredith looks at Aubrey James Norvell, background left partially hidden behind foliage, after being shot on a road near Hernando, Miss., June 6, 1966. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter speaks to reporters on his arrival at Hobby International Airport in Houston Sept. 24, 1976. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - A prisoner lights a cigarette in the maximum security section of the Louisiana State prison at Angola, in December 1975. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - New York Mets general manager Robert Scheffing, right, chats with stadium official Bill Connick under the roof of the dome stadium that is under construction in New Orleans, April 2, 1973. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu denounces his country's apartheid policy of racial separation in New Orleans, Sept. 7, 1982. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - Coretta Scott King, third right, is accompanied by her children, Yolanda, Bernice, Martin III, and Dexter at Sisters Chapel on the campus of Spellman College in Atlanta, April 8, 1968. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - Former Associated Press staff photographer Jack Thornell speaks during an interview in Harahan, La., Feb. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

ENID, Okla. (AP) — Raeann Hunt scrambled to her cellar as a tornado bore down on her Oklahoma community.

“It is headed right for us,” she recalled thinking, as she peeked outside, unable to contain her curiosity.

Huddled inside the dark 8-by-8 foot (2.44-by-2.44 meters) concrete shelter with her husband, brother-in-law, son and a neighbor, she heard roaring, metal slapping on the door and glass breaking.

Afterward, they emerged unscathed, but found the windows smashed out of the one-story brick home in Enid and the roof badly damaged.

The scene was repeated late Thursday across the city of about 50,000 people about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City. At least 40 homes were damaged, and light damage to a nearby Air Force base was reported. The tornado that hit the city was on the ground for between 30 and 40 minutes, said Rick Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Despite throwing buildings off their foundations, no one was killed in the storm, and only minor injuries were reported.

“People around here have a plan,” Hunt explained, noting that residents of this tornado-alley state are trained to either take shelter in a room near the center of their home or get underground.

Basements aren’t common in Oklahoma because of the red clay soil and elevated water tables that make it difficult and expensive to install them, but many homes — like Hunt's — have storm cellars or safe rooms with reinforced concrete walls where people can take cover.

People here also know to flip on the TV and set up weather alerts on their phones — particularly in the springtime, when the risk of violent twisters is highest.

“Especially in Oklahoma, we have great meteorologists,” said Justin Hunt of Enid, who described the storm's aftermath as a “disaster.”

Commercial buildings just south of the city were turned into a pile of twisted metal, splintered wood and insulation by powerful winds that pushed the buildings completely off the concrete foundations.

“Please join me in praying for the Enid community, which has been severely impacted by tonight’s tornado,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt posted on social media.

The tornado knocked down utility poles and left power lines wrapped with huge chunks of debris. A home had part of its metal roof torn off and trees were left stripped of bark and limbs. At another home, a section of one wall had peeled away to reveal the interior of the home with some furniture still in place.

Police and fire departments and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol conducted multiple home searches, rescuing some trapped residents, Enid Mayor David Mason said Friday.

“Supplies have poured in already,” Mason posted online. “This is who Enid is in challenging moments — we continue to show up for one another.”

Dave Lamerton of Enid spent Friday morning salvaging what was left of his son Joseph’s woodworking shop just south of the city, along with some family members and a group of volunteers who traveled from Kansas to help with cleanup.

“The tornado just swung right through here and just hit us directly,” Lamerton said, pointing to a giant mess of splintered wood beams, furniture, debris and heavy machinery that was pushed into a massive pile at the edge of the building’s foundation. “We’ve got stuff on the property we can’t even find.”

One striking image from Thursday’s storms shows a tornado in the Enid area with a dark clouds of debris extending in V-shape on either side. That is typical of higher-end tornadoes, according to Mark Fox, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s office in Norman.

It has such a violent motion as winds pick up dirt, debris and things like parts of people’s houses.

“If you start seeing things like this, you know it’s a violent tornado,” he said.

Neighboring counties also reported some flooded roads and barn damage. The National Weather Service was sending two crews out Friday to do damage surveys related to six potential tornadoes in the Enid and Braman areas of north-central Oklahoma, meteorologist John Pike said.

Fences and some equipment were knocked down at nearby Vance Air Force Base, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. The base was closed until further notice “due to ongoing power and water restoration efforts,” it posted online Friday.

Everyone assigned to the base has been accounted for and no injuries were reported, 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs Chief Ashley D. Hendricks said in an email Friday.

More storms are possible through Friday night across south-central and southeast Oklahoma, the weather service said. Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop Saturday, including in the Enid area.

It was a stormy night in other states, too. In Kearney, Missouri, north of Kansas City, officials reported downed trees, debris blocking roadways and damage to homes on Thursday night after storms passed through the area. Officials said in a social media post that no injuries had been reported. Crews worked to make roads passable by early Friday and were expected to continue cleanup efforts during the day.

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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.

Lightning lights up the sky behind a television tower as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Buildings lie in shreds in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A man clears debris at a commercial woodworking shop in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A view of a damaged home in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A view of a damaged home in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)

A man walks in the rain as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

People walk in the rain as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Lightning is reflected in the glass exterior of an apartment building as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Lightning lights up the sky behind an AT&T building as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this image taken from video from KWTV/KOTV, a tornado crosses a highway in Enid, Okla., Thursday, April 23, 2026. (KWTV/KOTV via AP)