June 1993 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Medgar Evers. He was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi, to James and Jessie Wright Evers. His father was a stacker in the local sawmill, owned his own land, and was active in the Baptist church. His mother, who had Black and Indian ancestry, did laundry for white families and took in ironing. A devout Christian and leader in the Church of God in Christ, she used her small savings to buy land and build a church. This strong community-building orientation had a profound impact on Medgar.

Evers was educated in the public schools of Decatur and Newton. He had to walk twelve miles to school and, like many Black people, developed a deep resentment at seeing white children riding to a nearby segregated school on a bus. He also saw one of his father's friends lynched.

During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army in a segregated field battalion in England and France. Like many other Black veterans, he returned to fight racism at home. After a racial incident, he vowed to his brother, Charles: "When we get out of the Army, we're going to straighten this out."

In 1952, Evers graduated from Alcorn A&M College (now University). He had married Myrlie Beasley of Vicksburg a year earlier, and went to work for Dr. T.R.M. Howard and the Magnolia Life Insurance Company in Mound Bayou. Following the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, he became the first known Black student to seek admission to the University of Mississippi, applying to the law school in 1954. He became a civil rights leader and the first field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi during the very difficult times between 1954 and 1963.

With Aaron Henry, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amzie Moore, E.J. Stringer, Winsome Hudson, Susie Ruffin, and others, Evers organized and educated Black Mississippians, especially in the Delta, about their constitutional rights and responsibilities. He investigated countless cases of harassment and brutality, including the murders of George Lee, Lamar Smith, and Emmett Till, all in 1955. He spearheaded campaigns for voting rights, for equal educational opportunity, against brutality, and for desegregation. He counseled James Meredith in his successful bid to enter the University in 1962.

Medgar Evers paid the ultimate price for his steadfastness to justice and equality for all Americans, regardless of color: he was murdered outside his Jackson home on June 12, 1963. He and Myrlie had three children-Darrell Kenyatta, Reena and James.

Byron De la Beckwith, an avowed racist, was charged and later acquitted by an all-white jury. He was recently retried for the third time and is now serving a life sentence. Evers is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.

Ronald W. Bailey
Northeastern University

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