Medgar Evers | |
|---|---|
 Eversc. 1963 | |
| Born | Medgar Wiley Evers (1925-07-02)July 2, 1925 Decatur, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | June 12, 1963(1963-06-12) (aged 37) Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Gunshot wound |
| Burial place | Arlington National Cemetery (withfull military honors) |
| Education | Alcorn State University (BA) |
| Occupation | Civil rights activist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Charles Evers (brother) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States army |
| Years of service | 1943–1946 |
| Rank | Technician fifth grade |
| Unit | 657th Port Company |
| Battles / wars | |
Medgar Wiley Evers (/ˈmɛdɡər/; July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist who was theNAACP's first field secretary inMississippi. Evers, aUnited States Army veteran who served inWorld War II, was engaged in efforts to overturnracial segregation at theUniversity of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities forAfrican Americans, including the enforcement ofvoting rights prior to his assassination.
After college, Evers became active in thecivil rights movement in the 1950s. Following the 1954 ruling of theUnited States Supreme Court inBrown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, he challenged the segregation of the state-supported public University of Mississippi. Evers applied to law school there, as the state had no public law school for African Americans. He also worked for voting rights, economic opportunity, access to public facilities, and other changes in the segregated society. In 1963, Evers was awarded the NAACPSpingarn Medal.
Evers was murdered in 1963 at his home inJackson, Mississippi, now theMedgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, byByron De La Beckwith,[1] a member of theWhite Citizens' Council in Jackson.
Evers' murder and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests. His life and death have inspired numerous works of art, music, and film. Althoughall-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the first two trials of De La Beckwith in the 1960s, he was convicted in 1994 based on new evidence. Evers' widow,Myrlie Evers, became a noted activist in her own right, and served as national chair of the NAACP. In 1969, after passage of civil rights legislation and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medgar's brother,Charles, was elected as mayor ofFayette, Mississippi. He was the first African American to be elected mayor of a Mississippi city in the post-Reconstruction era.
Medgar Wiley Evers was born on July 2, 1925, inDecatur, Mississippi, the third of five children (including elder brotherCharles Evers) of Jesse (Wright) and James Evers.[2] The family included Jesse's two children from a previous marriage.[3][4] The Evers family owned a small farm and James also worked at a sawmill.[5] Evers and his siblings walked 12 miles (19 kilometers) a day to attendracially segregated schools; Medgar eventually earned his high school diploma.[6]
In 1943, Evers enlisted in theUnited States Army at the age of 17; he was prompted to do so by theracism he experienced at home and Charles' prior enlistment in the Army. Evers served in the657th Port Company, asegregated unit of the Army'sTransportation Corps, participating in theNormandy landings in June 1944. In France, Evers' unit was part of theRed Ball Express, which delivered supplies to Allied troops fighting on the frontlines. During his time in the Army, Evers was angered by the segregation and mistreatment endured by African-American troops. Witnessing Black soldiers of theFree French Forces being treated as the equals of white troops, he once told Charles that "When we get out of the Army, we’re going to straighten this thing out!"
In 1946, Evers was discharged from the Army at the rank oftechnician fifth grade, having earned theGood Conduct Medal,European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, andWorld War II Victory Medal.[7] After returning to Decatur, Evers enrolled at thehistorically blackAlcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1948, majoring in business administration.[8][9] He also competed on the debate, football, and track teams, sang in the choir, and was elected as junior class president.[10] Evers earned hisBachelor of Arts in 1952.[9] On December 24, 1951, Evers married classmateMyrlie Beasley.[11] They had three children together: Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke.[12][13]
The couple moved toMound Bayou, Mississippi, a town developed by African Americans after the Civil War. Evers became a salesman forT. R. M. Howard's Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company.[14]
Becoming active in the civil rights movement, he served as president of theRegional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), which began to organize actions to end segregation;[15] Evers helped organize the RCNL's boycott of those gasoline stations that denied blacks the use of the stations' restrooms. He and his brother, Charles, attended the RCNL's annual conferences in Mound Bayou between 1952 and 1954, which drew crowds of 10,000 or more.[16]
In 1954, following theU.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Evers applied to the state-supportedUniversity of Mississippi Law School to challenge that practice in the state. His application was rejected due to his race, as the flagship school had long been segregated.[17] Evers submitted his application as part of atest case by theNAACP.[18]
On November 24, 1954,[19] Evers was named as the NAACP's first field secretary for Mississippi.[5] In this position, he helped organize boycotts and set up new local chapters of the NAACP. Evers was also involved withJames Meredith's efforts to enroll in the University of Mississippi in the early 1960s.[18]
Evers also encouraged Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr. in his organizing of theBiloxi wade-ins from 1959 to 1963, protests against segregation of the city's public beaches on theMississippi Gulf Coast.[20] Evers conducted actions to help integrate Jackson's privately owned buses and tried to integrate the public parks. Evers led voter registration drives and used boycotts to integrate Leake County schools and theMississippi State Fair.[8]
Evers' civil rights leadership, along with his investigative work, made him a target ofwhite supremacists. Following theBrown v. Board of Education decision, local whites founded theWhite Citizens' Council in Mississippi, and numerous local chapters were started, to resist theintegration of schools and facilities. In the weeks before Evers was killed, he encountered new levels of hostility. Evers' public investigations into the 1955lynching of Chicago teenagerEmmett Till in Mississippi, and his vocal support ofClyde Kennard, had made Evers a prominent black leader. On May 28, 1963, aMolotov cocktail was thrown into the carport of his home.[21] Ten days later, Evers was nearly run over by a car after he came out of the NAACP office inJackson, Mississippi.[14]
Evers lived with the constant threat of death. A large white supremacist population and theKu Klux Klan were present inJackson and its suburbs. The risk was so high that before his death, Evers and his wife, Myrlie, had trained their children on what to do in case of a shooting, bombing, or other kind of attack on their lives.[23] Evers, who was regularly followed home by at least two FBI cars and a police car, arrived at his home on the morning of his death without an escort. None of his usual protection was present, for reasons unspecified by the FBI or local police. There has been speculation that many members of the police force at the time were members of the Klan.[24]
In the early morning of Wednesday, June 12, 1963, just hours after PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's nationally televisedCivil Rights Address, Evers pulled into his driveway after returning from a meeting with NAACP lawyers. His family had worried for his safety that day, and Evers himself had warned his wife that he felt in greater danger than usual.
Emerging from his car and carrying NAACP T-shirts that read "Jim Crow Must Go", Evers was struck in the back with a bullet fired from anEddystone Enfield 1917 rifle; the bullet passed through his heart. Initially thrown to the ground by the impact of the shot, Evers rose and staggered 30 feet (10 meters) before collapsing outside his front door. His wife, Myrlie, was the first to find him.[23]
Evers was taken to the local hospital in Jackson, where he was initially refused entry because of his race. Evers' family explained who he was, and he was admitted; Evers died in the hospital 50 minutes later, three weeks before his 38th birthday.[25] Evers was the first black man to be admitted to an all-white hospital in Mississippi.[23] Mourned nationally, Evers was buried on June 19 inArlington National Cemetery, where he receivedfull military honors before a crowd of more than 3,000 people.[15][26][27]
After Evers was assassinated, an estimated 5,000 people marched from the Masonic Temple on Lynch Street to the Collins Funeral Home on North Farish Street in Jackson.Allen Johnson,Martin Luther King Jr., and other civil rights leaders led the procession.[28] The Mississippi police came to the non-violent protest armed with riot gear and rifles. While tensions were initially high in the stand-off between police and marchers, both in Jackson and in many similar marches around the state, leaders of the movement maintained non-violence among their followers.[24]
On June 21, 1963,Byron De La Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and member of the Citizens' Council (and later of the Ku Klux Klan), was arrested for Evers' murder.[29] District Attorney and future governorBill Waller prosecuted De La Beckwith.[30]All-white juries in February and April 1964[31]deadlocked on De La Beckwith's guilt and failed to reach a verdict. At the time, most black people were stilldisenfranchised by Mississippi's constitution and voter registration practices; this meant they were also excluded from juries, which were drawn from the pool of registered voters.
Myrlie Evers did not give up the fight for the conviction of her husband's killer. She waited until a new judge had been assigned in the county to take her case against De La Beckwith back into the courtroom.[23] In 1994, De La Beckwith was prosecuted by the state based on new evidence.Bobby DeLaughter was the prosecutor. During the trial, the body of Evers was exhumed for an autopsy.[32] His body was embalmed, and was in such good condition that his son was allowed to view his father's remains for the first time in 30 years.[33]
On February 5, 1994, De La Beckwith was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, having lived as a free man for much of the three decades following the killing. He had been imprisoned from 1977 to 1980 for conspiring to murderA. I. Botnick. In 1997, De La Beckwith appealed his conviction in the Evers case, but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld it, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it.[34] He died at age 80 in prison on January 21, 2001.[35][36]
Evers was memorialized by leading Mississippi and national authorsJames Baldwin,Margaret Walker,Eudora Welty, andAnne Moody.[37] In 1963, Evers was posthumously awarded theSpingarn Medal by the NAACP.[38] Six years later,Medgar Evers College was established inBrooklyn, New York, as part of theCity University of New York.
Evers' widow, Myrlie, co-wrote the 1967 bookFor Us, the Living with William Peters. In 1983,a television movie was made based on the book. Celebrating Evers's life and career, it starredHoward Rollins Jr. andIrene Cara as Medgar and Myrlie Evers, airing onPBS. The film won theWriters Guild of America award for Best Adapted Drama.[39]
In 1969, a community pool in theCentral District neighborhood ofSeattle, Washington, was named after Evers, honoring his life.[40]
On June 28, 1992, the city of Jackson, Mississippi, erected a statue in honor of Evers. All of Delta Drive (part of U.S. Highway 49) in Jackson was renamed in his honor. In December 2004, the Jackson City Council changed the name of the city's airport toJackson–Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport in Evers' honor.[41]
Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers, became a noted activist in her own right, eventually serving as national chairperson of the NAACP.[42] Myrlie also founded the Medgar Evers Institute in 1998, with the initial goal of preserving and advancing the legacy of her husband's life's work. Anticipating the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers and recognizing the international leadership role of Myrlie Evers, the Institute's board of directors changed the organization's name to the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.
Evers' brother,Charles, returned to Jackson in July 1963, and served briefly with the NAACP in his brother's place. Charles remained involved in Mississippi civil rights activities for many years, and in 1969, was the first African-American mayor elected in the state.[43] He died on July 22, 2020, at age 97, in nearbyBrandon.[44]
On the 40th anniversary of Evers' assassination, hundreds of civil rights veterans, government officials, and students from across the country gathered around his gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery to celebrate his life and legacy. Barry Bradford and three students—Sharmistha Dev, Jajah Wu, and Debra Siegel, formerly of Adlai E. Stevenson High School inLincolnshire, Illinois—planned and hosted the commemoration in his honor.[45] Evers was the subject of the students' research project.[46]
In October 2009,Navy SecretaryRay Mabus, a formerMississippigovernor, announced thatUSNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13), aLewis and Clark-classdry cargo ship, would be named in the activist's honor.[47] The ship was christened by Myrlie Evers-Williams on November 12, 2011.[48]
In June 2013, a statue of Evers was erected at his alma mater, Alcorn State University, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Evers' death.[49] Alumni and guests from around the world gathered to recognize his contributions to American society.
Evers was also honored in a tribute at Arlington National Cemetery on the 50th anniversary of his death.[50] Former PresidentBill Clinton, Attorney GeneralEric Holder, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, SenatorRoger Wicker, and NAACP PresidentBenjamin Jealous all spoke commemorating Evers.[51][52] Evers's widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, spoke of his contributions to the advancement of civil rights:[53]
Medgar was a man who never wanted adoration, who never wanted to be in the limelight. He was a man who saw a job that needed to be done and he answered the call and the fight for freedom, dignity and justice not just for his people but all people.
Evers was identified as a Freedom hero byThe My Hero Project.[6]
In 2017, theMedgar and Myrlie Evers House was named as aNational Historic Landmark.[54] Two years later, the site was designated aNational Monument.
TheRoute 3 Bridge over theHackensack River is dedicated to Evers.
In 2024, Evers was awarded thePresidential Medal of Freedom by PresidentJoe Biden.[55] The following year, as part of a series ofanti-DEI deletions by the U.S. Department of Defense, a profile of Evers was deleted from the Arlington National Cemetery website.[56]
MusicianBob Dylan wrote his song "Only a Pawn in Their Game" about the assassination on July 2, 1963, on what would have been Evers' 38th birthday.Nina Simone wrote and sang "Mississippi Goddam" about the Evers case.Phil Ochs referred to Evers in the song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" and wrote the songs "Another Country" and "Too Many Martyrs" (also titled "The Ballad of Medgar Evers") in response to the killing.Malvina Reynolds referenced Evers's murder in her song, "It Isn't Nice".Matthew Jones and theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating CommitteeFreedom Singers recorded a version of the latter song.[57]Wadada Leo Smith's albumTen Freedom Summers contains a track called "Medgar Evers: A Love-Voice of a Thousand Years' Journey for Liberty and Justice".[58]Jackson C. Frank's self-titleddebut album, released in 1965, also includes a reference to Medgar Evers in the song "Don't Look Back".[59]
Eudora Welty's short story, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?", in which the speaker is the imagined assassin of Medgar Evers, was published inThe New Yorker in July 1963.[60]
AttorneyBobby DeLaughter wrote a first-person narrative article entitled "Mississippi Justice" published inReader's Digest about his experiences as state prosecutor in the murder trial. He added to this account in a book,Never Too Late: A Prosecutor's Story of Justice in the Medgar Evers Case (2001).[61]
InRemembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement,[62]Minrose Gwin, then the Kenan Eminent Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coeditor ofThe Literature of the American South and theSouthern Literary Journal, looked at the body of artistic work inspired by Evers' life and death—fiction, poetry, memoir, drama, and songs from James Baldwin, Margaret Walker, Eudora Welty, Lucille Clifton, Bob Dylan, and Willie Morris, among others.
Evers was portrayed byHoward Rollins in the 1983 television filmFor Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story.[63]
The 1996 filmGhosts of Mississippi, directed byRob Reiner, explores the 1994 trial of De La Beckwith in which prosecutor DeLaughter of the Hinds CountyDistrict Attorney's office secured a conviction in state court. Beckwith and DeLaughter were played byJames Woods andAlec Baldwin, respectively, withWhoopi Goldberg as Myrlie Evers. Medgar was portrayed byJames Pickens Jr. The film was based on a book of the same name.[64][65]
In the documentary filmI Am Not Your Negro (2016), Evers is one of three Black activists (the other two areMartin Luther King Jr. andMalcolm X) who are the focus of reminiscences by authorJames Baldwin, who recounts the circumstances of and his reaction to Evers' assassination.[66]
In the 2011 filmThe Help, a clip of Evers speaking for civil rights is shown on TV, quickly followed by news of his assassination, and a glimpse of an article by his widow published inLife magazine.[67]
The 2020 documentary filmThe Evers features interviews with his surviving family members.[68]
The 2022 filmTill depicts Evers (played byTosin Cole) assistingMamie Till-Bradley (Danielle Deadwyler) seek justice for the murder of her son,Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall).
A 2021 episode of Extra History fromExtra Credits talks about Evers, his activism, and his assassination.[69]
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