MEDGAR EVERS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST

What then does the Negro want? He wants to get rid of segregation in Mississippi life because he knows it has not been good for him nor for the State. He knows that segregation is unconstitutional and illegal. The Negro has been here in America since 1619, a total of 344 years. He is not going anywhere else; this country is his home. He wants to do his part to help make his city, state, and nation a better place for everyone, regardless of color and race.

Excerpt from May 20, 1963 “Medgar Evers, Televised Address ‘I Speak as a Native Mississippian’”

Medgar Evers made his “I Speak as a Native Mississippian” speech 54 years ago (May 20, 1963) and he was assassinated approximately three weeks later on June 12, 1963. On June 12, 1963, Evers was shot in the back of his head by a cowardly White supremacist hiding in the bushes outside his home. Evers was 37 years old. His wife Myrlie Evers was at home with their three young children when they heard the shot. Evers had parked his car on his driveway and got out of the car when the shot rang out from across the street. Their home had been attacked twice before and the 3 children had been taught safety drills. At the sound of the shot the children fled to the bathroom to hide in the bathtub. One of their sons, Darrell Kenyatta Evers who was 9 years old when his father was assassinated would later speak of the night of June 12, 1967: "We were ready to greet him, because every time he came home it was special for us. He was traveling a lot at that time. All of a sudden, we heard a shot. We knew what it was."

Evers was assassinated because as field secretary for the Mississippi chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) he encouraged African Americans to exercise their rights as American citizens and register to vote. In Mississippi and other Southern states that was seen as challenge to White authority and challenging White authority meant a death sentence. Not only did Evers encourage African Americans to register to vote, he called for desegregating of schools and encouraged African Americans to boycott White businesses where they were mistreated. African Americans could not sit down in White restaurants, they were served through back doors of stores, they were pushed out of line in grocery stores, spat on by White patrons of businesses, overcharged by White merchants and brutalized if they protested or even seemed annoyed. When African Americans dared open stores of their own, they were lynched by angry and jealous White people and their business places were burnt.

Following his appointment with the NAACP in 1955 Evers began publicizing the rabid racism to which African Americans were subjected in Mississippi. An interview was published in Ebony Magazine in 1958 where he is quoted: “Now, when a Negro is mistreated, we try to tell the world about it.” White Mississippians probably did not read Ebony Magazine but when Evers gave his 17 minute speech which was broadcast on the television station WLBT in Mississippi he was definitely noticed. Evers had been trying for years to get airtime on the White supremacist WLBT television station with no luck. Succeeding in his quest in May 1963 put him in the crosshairs of the White citizens of Mississippi and he was assassinated on June 12, 1963. In “Changing Channels: The Civil Rights Case that Transformed Television” White American author Kay Mills writes that WLBT was a symbol of dominant White rule because African Americans were historically barred from on-and off-camera positions. The Evers’ success in being seen and heard was historic because he was the first African American allowed to appear on the White supremacist and only television station in Jackson, Mississippi.

According to information in the 2005 published “Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches” Evers “wanted to shame all America with the story of Emmet Till” and “worked exhaustively” on bringing the case to trial. The 14 year African American child Emmett Till was accused of whistling at 21 year old White woman Carolyn Bryant and her husband and his half-brother felt that they were justified in lynching the child even though there was no proof of his “crime.” In February 2017 Carolyn Bryant allegedly admitted (https://www.biography.com/news/emmett-till-accuser-lied) that Till never whistled at her. Till was tortured and brutally murdered by the two White men on August 28, 1955.

Evers’ work may not be as well-known as some Civil Rights activists but his work contributed to whatever rights racialized Americans have today. White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was charged with Evers’ murder and during two trials in 1964 the juries were deadlocked. Evers’ widow refused to abandon pursuit of justice for her husband’s assassination and in a 1994 trial De La Beckwith was found guilty. He appealed his conviction but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1997. De La Beckwith died on January 21, 2001.

Today in 2017 African American and African Canadians continue the fight that Civil Rights activists like Evers began in the 1950s with groups like Black Lives Matter front and centre. The members of Black Lives Matter are the targets of White supremacists and even those who would be horrified at being considered White supremacists. The recent furor over the decision refusing to have uniformed police marching in the Toronto Pride Parade put members of the Black Lives Matter squarely in the crosshairs of many so-called “liberals” but Black Lives Matter, like Medgar Evers are doing their part to make our city, province and nation a “better place for everyone.”