One Who Died For Our
Rights
When it comes to the progress of the civil
rights movement, many people died for the un- going cause for equal
rights. Many died for a change to come
as they self-sacrificed themselves so others could have a better way of life to
live. Yet many of those brave people
never received fame, credit, or mention for what they died for. There are so many of those who died for
cause of racial equality but there is one brave man to not only mention but
honor. His name was Mr. Medgar
Evers.
Medgar Wiley Evers was born July
1925. He was born in town of Decatur
Mississippi, as a young man Evers served his country honorably in World War
II. After Evers military service he
graduated from college. He attained a
degree in business administration in 1952 from Alcorn State University. For Evers education was always important
even as a young boy Evers would walk twelve miles to school to and from
everyday just attain his high school diploma. It was at Alcorn State
University, that Evers would meet his wife Myrlie and they would go on to have
three children.
After Evers graduated from college he and his
wife Myrlie then moved to a town called Mound Bayou Mississippi. It was in the town of Mound Bayou that Evers
started working for Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company. The life insurance company was owned by T.R.M
Howard who also was a civil rights activist.
Together Evers and Howard began to start and organize boycotts of gas
stations that would let African Americans use their bathrooms. Evers and Howard’s efforts would continue to
grow as they organized and protested.
Their organization was called the Regional Council of Negro
Leadership. This organization was also
known as the R.C.N.L. As they fought
for the cause for racial equality their organization drew crowds of ten
thousand or more in the years of 1952 through 1954. Evers also played an enormous part in the desegregation of
Mississippi’s Gulf coast beaches. These
organized series of protest became known as the Biloxi Wade Ins. It was Evers who joined forces with Dr.
Gilbert Mason Sr. to put together a plan of action to stop the discrimination
of blacks from being able to occupy the beaches of Mississippi’s gulf coast.
By late 1954, Megar Evers became
Mississippi’s first field secretary of the N.A.A.C.P. Evers job was to start
other local chapters of the N.A.A.C.P. in Mississippi and also to continue to
organize protest to continue the fight for equal rights for African
Americans. With Evers new position as
field secretary of the N.A.A.C.P. he would use his leverage to help support
James Meredith. James Meredith with the
help of Evers became the first African American to not only attend Ole Miss but
to also graduate. As Evers made steady
progress for the fight for the civil rights for African Americans in state of
Mississippi, he was a man who was very brave and looked death in eye. There were many death treats targeted at
Evers and multiple attempts at taking his life still Evers would continue his
calling. In which was to be a man who
died for others so they could have a life of freedom that Evers himself never
knew.
On the morning of June 12 1963,
Medgar Evers was gun down in his own drive way. He had just finished a meeting with N.A.A.C.P. lawyers and was
holding t-shirts that said “Jim Crow must go”.
Evers was killed by a man named Byron De La Beckwith who was a known
member of the White Citizens’ Council that later be called the Ku Klux
Klan. De La Beckwith was arrested for
the murder of Evers but was not found guilty until a third trial 30 years later
found him guilty. Byron De La Beckwith
would later die in prison for murder and conspiracy to commit murder. De La
Beckwith tried to appeal the verdict but was unsuccessful and died at the age
of 80 while still incarnated.
Medgar
Evers, will go down in history as man unafraid of death. He lived for cause and died for cause. Its Evers brave civil rights work that
helped so many people gain liberties that Evers never had himself. He gave his life for the struggle for
African Americans to have equal rights.
Which today is still is a struggle and will always be. Although great men such Medgar Evers died
for the progress that African Americans have today. After all of his work as a civil rights leader still today many
do not his name. Even though he is a
hero who was even buried at Arlington National Cemetery as a World War II
veteran the legend of Evers too many is unknown. So Medgar Evers was a man who was so brave and great yet in many
ways his legacy is lost history. For
example you do not you do not hear his name much when discuss other civil
rights leaders that were active at the of Evers. Those such as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. have a fame
that is very iconic. Where at the same
Medgar Evers was one of their associates’ who died like King by being
assassinated yet Evers does not receive the well-deserved fame that he should
receive. So it’s a shame that a great
man who defied all odds to protect, love, and defend his people to the point death
it is not honored the way he should be.
Due the fact that after all Mr. Medgar Evers is one of the courageous
great men who died for our rights.
