Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers
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Name	Medgar Evers
Caption	Medgar Evers, c. 1963
Birth date	02 July 1925
Birth place	Decatur, Mississippi, U.S.
Death date	12 June 1963
Death place	Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Death cause	Assassination by gunshot
Occupation	Civil rights activist
Spouse	Myrlie Evers-Williams (m. 1951)
Organization	NAACP

Medgar Evers. Medgar Wiley Evers was an American civil rights activist and the first field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He is a pivotal figure in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, known for organizing voter registration drives, economic boycotts, and investigations into racially motivated crimes in one of the nation's most violently segregated states. His assassination in 1963 galvanized the movement and helped spur the passage of landmark federal civil rights legislation.

Early life and education

Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi, to James and Jessie Evers. He grew up in a farming family in Newton County, experiencing the harsh realities of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in the rural South. Evers walked twelve miles each way to attend the segregated schools available to Black students, graduating from Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University) in 1952 with a degree in business administration. During his college years, he was active in sports and student organizations, which helped develop his leadership skills.

Military service

Evers served in the United States Army during World War II. He was drafted in 1943 and served with the 325th Port Company in the European Theater, participating in the D-Day invasion and the subsequent campaigns across France and Germany. Despite fighting for freedom abroad, he returned to Mississippi in 1946 to face the same pervasive racial discrimination he had left behind. His military service, for which he received an honorable discharge, profoundly shaped his commitment to fighting for democracy and equality at home.

NAACP field secretary in Mississippi

In 1954, following the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, Evers applied to the segregated University of Mississippi Law School. His application was rejected solely on the basis of race. This high-profile rejection brought him to the attention of the NAACP, which appointed him as its first field secretary for Mississippi in December 1954. In this role, based in Jackson, Evers traveled extensively across the state, organizing local NAACP chapters, leading voter registration efforts, and documenting cases of racial violence and economic intimidation for the national office.

Investigation of the Emmett Till murder

The 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago, in Money, Mississippi, became a national catalyst for the civil rights movement. Evers played a crucial behind-the-scenes role, assisting journalists and NAACP officials, including Ruby Hurley and Amzie Moore, in navigating the hostile local environment. He helped locate witnesses and provided critical local intelligence. His dangerous work on this case, which resulted in the acquittal of the accused white murderers by an all-white jury, underscored the extreme peril faced by civil rights workers in Mississippi and solidified his resolve to challenge the state's white supremacist power structure.

Advocacy and activism

Evers's activism was multifaceted and relentless. He organized and supported boycotts of white-owned businesses that refused to hire Black employees, most notably the Jackson Boycott. He investigated violent crimes against Black citizens, such as the murder of Mack Charles Parker. Evers also worked to desegregate public facilities, including the University of Mississippi, by assisting James Meredith during his contentious enrollment in 1962. His advocacy extended to economic justice, as he fought for fair employment and challenged the White Citizens' Councils. His work made him a constant target of threats, harassment, and violence from white segregationists.

Assassination and aftermath

On June 12, 1963, just hours after President John F. Kennedy delivered a nationally televised speech on civil rights, Medgar Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his home in Jackson. He was shot in the back with a high-powered rifle by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan. Evers was rushed to the nearby University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. His murder sparked national outrage and massive protests. Beckwith was tried twice in 1964 by all-white juries, resulting in hung juries and his release. It was not until 1994, after a renewed investigation led by Evers's widow Myrlie Evers-Williams, then the District Attorney Ed Peters, and new evidence, that Beckwith was finally convicted of murder.

Legacy and honors

Medgar Evers's legacy is profound. His death was a pivotal moment that helped build public support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He is memorialized across the United States; his Jackson home is a National Historic Landmark and part of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Medgar Evers College, a senior college of the City University of New York, is named in his honor. He was posthumously awarded the 1963 NAACP Spingarn Medal. In 2017, he was honored with the United States Navy naming a ship, USNS Medgar Evers. His life and sacrifice continue to symbolize the courage and high cost of the struggle for racial equality in America.