President Kennedy sent federal troops to the University of Alabama and the University of Mississippi.
Racist policies in the south were preventing black citizens from access to education. The governor of Alabama, George Wallace, was supporting the racial policies of the university. President Kennedy forced him to back down by calling out the Alabama National Guard in 1963.
The reference to Mississippi would seem to be to events that occurred actually in October, 1962. President Kennedy ordered 23,000 federal troops be deployed to the University of Mississippi to bring an end to rioting by students who were protesting the admission of a black student.