Medgar Evers: his death wasn't the only important thing

One of the sad things about the death of Medgar Evers is that it made him famous. Considered a martyr for the cause of civil rights, his work in the movement went all but unnoticed until he was shot in the back going to his home on June 12, 1963.

Medgar was born in a rural community near Decatur, Miss. to Jesse and James Evers. He and his older brother grew up in a religious household. His father, though unable to read and write, was a respected land owner.

As a child, Medgar experienced race-based hatred and violence. White children spit or pelted him and his brother Charles with rocks as they walked to and from school. This mistreatment did not sit well with the boys and they were very resentful.

Although Medgar was a studious child, he dropped out of school in the 11th grade and went to fight in World War II. He was part of the 325th Port Company and found, like many other Blacks in the military, that Europeans treated him as an equal. At that time he also began to make comparison between the Nazi attitudes and the White supremacy found in America.

He returned to Mississippi and found nothing had changed. He worked in construction for a while, then decided to return to school. He finished high school and attended Alcorn A&M College, majoring in business administration. In his senior year, on Christmas Eve, he married Myrlie Beasley.

In 1952, he and his wife moved to Mound Bayou, where Medgar went to work for a Black-owned insurance company and joined the local NAACP. By November 1954, he was the NAACP's first state field secretary for Mississippi. The Evers family moved to Jackson.

In his new position, Medgar traveled all over the state, increasing NAACP membership and registering Blacks to vote. He was involved in the investigation of the murder of Emmett Till and gained notice for his efforts. He also investigated the deaths of several civil rights workers.

Around this time, Medgar began to receive death threats and experienced severe harassment from the police. His response was to become bolder in his efforts for civil rights.

He helped John Doar, assistant attorney general, prepare the first voting rights case in Mississippi. He kept the case of
Clyde Kennard, a man wrongfully sentences to seven years of hard labor for a theft he did not commit, in front of the public. Evers also shared it with Dick Gregory, who managed to generate, on a national level, enough negative press for Mississippi that Kennard received a pardon.

He was involved in the boycotts of Capital Street, a main business street in Jackson, Miss. These resulted in a televised statement from Mayor Thompson indicating that the boycott wouldn't force him to negotiate and telling Blacks to ignore the outside agitators. Medgar Evers managed to get equal air time and made an eloquent speech, pointing out the lack of freedoms for Blacks in America and appealing to Whites to follow the tenets of their religion and do the right thing.

After the May 1963 sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter, Evers' carport was firebombed and phone threats on his life increased.

With the mounting racial tensions in Mississippi, the politics between civil rights groups and the constant threats to his person and life, Medgar was under a lot of pressure. But he felt that if he didn't do the work, it might not get done. He continued to forge ahead, even though he believed he would be killed.

On June 7, there was a rally in the Masonic Temple. This event represented a big night for the Jackson civil rights movement. Lena Horne performed and spoke, as did Dick Gregory. The night ended with Medgar's final speech. In it he said, "Freedom has never been free, ... I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them."

At the end of the night, Dick Gregory told Medgar he probably wouldn't see him anymore.

In the early morning hours of June 12, Medgar pulled into his driveway. As his wife and children listened, Byron De La Beckwith shot him in the back, just below the right shoulder blade, as he walked to the house.

He didn't die right away. He pulled himself along the ground for about 40 feet after being shot, and though delirious, spoke during the ride to the hospital.

His death is what we remember, but his life is what was important. Without the diligence of Medgar Evers, working relentlessly at laying the groundwork and keeping the Blacks in Mississippi believing in the dream, it would not have been possible for many in the movement to demonstrate there and move the effort forward.