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Medgar Evers is one of the giants of
the civil rights movement, but many did not know who he was until
they saw the Whoopi Goldberg movie, "Ghosts of Mississippi."
Medgar is one of those people like Elvis or Madonna or the Pope who
needs no last name--he's that well known across all kinds of
people. But WHO was Medgar Evers? Probably the
one person in early 1960s-Mississippi who posed the most danger to
that old friend of racism, Jim Crow.
Medgar was a veteran of World War II
who served in Normandy and then returned to post-war Mississippi
where he attended college and married Myrlie Evers. Armed with
his new degree from Alcorn College, he became the neighborhood
insurance salesman in Clarksdale, Mississippi for the
African-American-owned Magnolia Mutual Insurance Company.
While selling policies in Crackled for
the insurance company, Medgar became not only aware of, but shocked,
at the abject poverty confronting the African-American
community. When the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) was looking for someone in late 1954
to fill their new Mississippi Field Secretary position,
Medgar seized the opportunity and ran with it. He recruited
new NAACP members, participated in lawsuits to desegregate
elementary schools and investigated racial incidents and
killings.
At this point, by the summer of
1963, Medgar had earned a target on his back from the rabid
segregationists determined to stop his work. On the evening of
June 11, 1963, Medgar came home from an NAACP meeting and
pulled into his driveway. As Medgar walked beside his car,
closing the door as he moved, Byron de la Beckwith, a racist, hiding
behind shrubbery, found his target in a deer rifle scope and killed
Medgar with a single shot. Medgar fell to the ground, with his
house keys in his hands and a handful of "Jim Crow Must Go" shirts
strewn around him. His family raced out of the house to aid
him, but it was too late. Medgar's injuries were massive and
he died from them later that night.
Medgar was buried with full military
honors in Arlington National Cemetery. His grave is one of the
few national notables listed in the visitor's guide provided by the
cemetery. 
On the grounds of the Jackson,
Mississippi Public Library, a few blocks from his home, stands a
statue to Medgar. As I took this picture I noticed the
calm look on his face and thought, "He did the right thing and they
took him out, but Medgar still won in the end."
A few blocks from his statue is
Medgar's old neighborhood. As I entered the area on Missouri
Road, one of those brown "historical" site signs on the side of the
road proclaimed this was the "Medgar Evers Historical
Neighborhood" . Going down the street a half a block, I turned
left onto the old Guynes Street, now renamed Margaret Walker
Alexander Drive. As the car turned, # 2332, Medgar's old
house, appeared on left side. When I realized I was driving in
Medgar's last tracks, an eerie feeling came over
me. Starting a three-point turn, I maneuvered the car to
the left into the driveway's apron. As I spun around in
my seat to check the rear clearance, I looked out the car's
back window, only to see the brushy area where the cowardly
Byron de la Beckwith had knelt in hiding to kill Medgar. The
thought, "you son of a b----", ran through my mind as I backed the
car. Beckwith may have taken Medgar's life, but he couldn't
take his ideals. That feeling swept the temporary anger from
me as I left the area.
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