JACKSON, Miss. - Cleveland Donald Jr., the second Black graduate of the University of Mississippi who started a Black studies program at the college, has died. He was 65.

Donald died Jan. 26 of natural causes at his home in New Milford, Conn., said his brother, retired Army Maj. Gen. James Donald.

Born in Newton, Miss., Donald attended Tougaloo College in Jackson for a year, then enrolled at Ole Miss in 1964 and graduated in 1966 with a history degree. He later earned a doctorate from Cornell University.

Along with James Meredith and another student, Donald entered Ole Miss under a federal protection order. In 1962, Meredith was the first Black to enroll and, later, the first to graduate.

"When I first went to Ole Miss, John Doar was then (an assistant) U.S. attorney general. He told me only James Meredith could've put up with this tremendous explosion that took place at Ole Miss and to be as unflappable as he was to events taking place around him," Donald said in a 2010 interview with The Associated Press.

"He (Meredith) went, I think, to break down the barriers, and I sort of saw as my goal, my purpose was to show that we could succeed after the doors had been opened and that some kinds of fellowship could be established to just keep the doors open and to make sure that we were moving at another level."

Donald returned to Ole Miss in 1978 to help the university establish a Black studies program.

During his career, Donald was a professor at the University of Texas, the State University of New York, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut, where he also served as director of its Waterbury campus.

James Donald said his brother, the eldest of five, had an "extraordinarily strong personality" that came naturally. James Donald, who also graduated from Ole Miss and served 33 years in the military, said their family started an organization after World War II to push for military benefits for Black veterans when the Veterans of Foreign Wars refused to let Blacks join.