On June 12, 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was gunned down in his family’s driveway, the same day as President John F. Kennedy’s televised Civil Rights Address.
Evers was born July 2, 1925, to Jesse and James Evers in Decatur, Mississippi. He was one of five children by the couple. Having grown up in the deep South during the height of Jim Crow, Evers grew accustomed to the omnipresent threat of racism, which materialized at even the most innocuous moments. Nothing demonstrated this unfortunate reality more than when white supremacists lynched his family friend. The perpetrators kept the victim’s clothes strewn along a fence for over a year as a stark reminder of Black Americans’ inferiority. Evers was only 12 years old when he witnessed this.
Evers dropped out of high school when he was 17 to join the army like his older brother. His stint in the military led him to Europe, where he fought in World War II. Evers was honorably discharged three years later. After re-enrolling in high school and receiving his diploma, Edgars attended Alcorn College in Mississippi, where he met his wife, Myrlie Beasly. After college, the couple moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Evers found work selling insurance. The widespread poverty of the city’s Black residents, inspired Evers into civil rights.
According to the NAACP, Evers became president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, where he led a boycott against gas stations that prevented Black people from using their restrooms. The organization shared bumper stickers with the slogan “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Bathroom,” which they distributed to thousands of people at its annual conferences between 1952 and 1953.
Soon after, Evers joined the NAACP in hopes of enacting change. Evers began organizing local NAACP chapters and planning local boycotts. His organizational skills were crucial to his leadership as he could unify isolated groups. Evers decided to go to law school after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling and applied to the University of Mississippi Law School. However, the university denied his application.
According to Biography, Evers pursued legal action against the university with assistance from the NAACP and counsel from Thurgood Marshall. Evers’ attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. However, this rejection drew the attention of the NAACP, who then hired him as the organization’s first field secretary in Mississippi.
Later that same year, Evers and his family relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, where he built an NAACP office. During the early 1960s, Evers organized high-profile boycotts and marches. He also helped bail out arrested individuals. His wife, Myrlie, was also deeply involved with the organization. She acted as Evers’ secretary in the Jackson NAACP office, conducted research for speeches, and was a musician, chauffeur, and hostess. Evers and his family became heavily intertwined with the NAACP, but it was not without risk.
During this time Evers regularly began receiving death threats from white supremacists. His family name was on many assassination lists. Still, his commitment to the movement remained steadfast; he often found himself with 20-hour work days. In 1963, however, the white supremacists’ vitriol grew, eventually culminating in a firebomb attack on the Evers household. While there were no fatalities, the message was clear: stop now or die. That was not an option.
Weeks later, during President Kennedy’s notable Civil Rights Address, Evers attended an NAACP function. Around midnight, Evers returned home. Upon his arrival, a sniper’s bullet struck Evers. He struggled to his front door, where he collapsed, lying in a pool of blood, and found by his wife. Fifty minutes later, Medgar Evers was dead.
His assassination remained unsolved for over 30 years. While a white supremacist named Byron de la Beckwith was suspected, two all-white jury panels failed to convict him in the mid-1960s. In 1994, a now-73-year-old Beckwith was finally found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He died while incarcerated in 2001.
Though Evers’ life was cut short, his actions made lasting change. The Civil Rights Act passed on July 2, 1964, on Evers’ birthday and almost exactly one year after his death. His legacy lives on through his widow and three children. He is also remembered in our everyday acts because, without his hard work, we would not be here now.
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