Medgar Evers 1925 – 1963
American civil rights activist and the NAACP’s FIRST field secretary in Mississippi.
Cause of death: Gunshot wound, Jackson, Missi…
Service/branch: United States Army Years of service: 1943–1945
Assassinated: June 12, 1963, Jackson, MS
Children: Darrell Kenyatta Evers, Reena Denise Evers, James Van Evers
Spouse: Myrlie Evers-Williams (m. 1951–1963)
Siblings: Charles Evers, Elizabeth Evers, Ruth Evers, Eva Lee, Gene
Buried: June 19, 1963, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Medgar Evers was born July 2, 1925 in Decatur, Mississippi, he was the third of five children. His parents James and Jesse Evers owned a small farm and his father worked at a saw mill. He would get to his school by walking 12 miles a day. He received his high school diploma.
From 1943 to 1945 he fought in the war the battle of Normandy with the United States Army during World War II and was discharged honorably as a sergeant. In 1948 he enrolled at Alcorn College which he majored in business administration through the benefit of the GI bill. In December 1951 he married his class mate Myrlie Beasley. He was very involved in all activities within the college. He completed his academic studies and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952.
Medgar and Myrlie had three children, Darrel Kenyatta, Reena Denise and James Van Dyke.. They moved to Mound Bayou Mississippi where he worked as a salesman for T.R.M. Howard’s Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company. Medgar left that position to fight for civil rights with the NAACP.
He joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP as the first Mississippi and became the FIRST STREET SECRETARY for that state. He led and organized the RCNL’s boycott of filling stations which denied blacks their rights for it was unconstitutional. He traveled through his home state encouraging poor African American to Vote and register. For without the vote of everyone the change will not come. At the same time he was recruiting them in the civil rights movement. He was instrumental in getting the witnesses and evidence for the Emmett Till murder case, which brought national attention to the plight of African Americans in the South. And which was the key turning point in the civil rights movement.
On the day of June 12, 1963 leaving home after watching John F. Kennedy speech he went to a mass rally and then to a NAACP meeting. Her arrived back home as his wife and children were in the family room waiting for him. He pulled into the drive way behind his wife care and exited from the driver’s side which he normally do not. As he was out in his hands was a hand full of T-Shirts that read Jim Crow must go. He was then shot in the back where the bullet exited his chest and went through a window and into the kitchen wall. He had enough strength to make it to the door of his home where his wife met him and he fell into her arms.
Home of Medgar Evers and Family home museum where he was shot Jackson, Mississippi
He was immediately taken to the hospital. At that time the medical staff did not know what to do and how to treat him because he was black. Finally they did. Medgar Evers lasted 35minutes after he was shot and was pronounced dead at the hospital at the age of 37. He is laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery
. He will always be remembered for his courage and perseverance for equality for all and for a change to come
After that moment which Mrs. Evers became a widow and changed to become the FIRST WOMAN to lead the NAACP.She also help with the election for President Obama.
#MedgarEvers college
Mr. Medgar Evers wanted to bring about a CHANGE and believed it would happen. Thirty years later his assailant was arrested and imprisoned and the continuous change our first black president BARAK .H. Obama and First Lady Michele Obama and their two daughters.