Greene County Democrat

Tag: Medgar Evers

  • Newswire: Medgar Evers is one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. We don’t talk about him enough

    Studio portrait of slain American civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1925 – 1963) early 1960s. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    By: Lawrence Ware, the Grio

    On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. in Jackson, Mississippi. 
    Just like April 4, 1968, the date that MLK was assassinated, and February 21, 1965, the day that Malcolm X was assassinated, June 12, 1963 is a date we should remember. Every year, there should be a flood of social media posts honoring Evers and the sacrifices of his wife, Myrlie. We should revere his children Darrell, James and Reena for what they gave for the cause.

    But that doesn’t happen. There is no yearly remembrance. We rarely mention his name. Medgar is never given the appreciation he deserves. We are saddened that he lost his life, and we use his death as proof of how evil white supremacists were in the South, but it ends there. He deserves more.
    I teach a class about the civil rights movement at Oklahoma State University. It centers on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. While we focus on them, I also discuss many other thinkers — Stokely Carmichael, Shirley Chisholm and Ida B. Wells. When we get to Medgar, I am always met with silence. Not because the students revere him — because they know nothing about him.
    We have to do better. We must tell his story. 
    Medgar Evers was born in Decatur, Mississippi on July 2, 1925. After getting his high school diploma, he served in the Army from 1943 to 1945 eventually attaining the rank of sergeant. He is an American hero. A man the country should be proud of, especially since he participated in the Normandy landings in 1944. 
    My grandfather, who was also in the Army at the same time, used to tell me that he knew Evers. That they met in the Army. He was never able to show me pictures of the two of them together, but I do know that my grandfather also participated In the Normandy landings, so I guess it’s possible. As a kid, I chalked it up to an old man telling tall tales about his time at war, but the similarity between their two stories stuck with me. It was a reminder that there were many people who served their country proudly, but the America they found when they returned did not treat them kindly.
    After returning home from his time abroad, Evers found a Mississippi that said he had to drink from water fountains labeled “Coloreds only.” Incensed, he joined the civil rights movement, eventually becoming Mississippi’s first field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) — and they put him to work.
    He was involved in James Meredith’s attempts to integrate the University of Mississippi; he supported Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr.’s “wade-ins “in Biloxi, protests against segregation of the city’s public beaches; and Evers held a public investigation into the lynching of Emmitt Till. These actions angered white folks who did not want things to change, so they resisted him in increasingly violent ways.
     Someone threw a Molotov cocktail in Ever’s carport in May 1963. Then in June of the same year, a car tried to run him down as he left an NAACP office in Jackson. His phone constantly rang with death threats, a tactic that white supremacists would use again with King and Malcolm X a few years later.
    Early on the morning of Wednesday, June 12, 1963, as Evers was returning to his home after a late meeting with NAACP lawyers, he was shot in the back by De La Beckwith with an Eddystone Enfield 1917 rifle — the bullet passed through his heart. His wife found him and rushed him to a hospital in Jackson, which refused to admit him initially, but eventually gave in after they explained who he was — proving that an average Black man’s life was not worth saving in 1960s Mississippi. You had to prove to white folks you were special. 
    He died that night. He was 37. He would have turned 38 in three weeks.
    Everyone knew that De La Beckwith Jr., a fertilizer salesman and member of the racist Citizen’s Council and the infamous Klu Klux Klan, did it. He did not admit to it, but he did not pretend he was innocent either. He was prosecuted twice by the district attorney, but since Black folks were not allowed to vote, and, therefore, could not serve on juries in that state, he had all-white juries. For some reason, they were never able to reach a verdict. But Myrle Evers never gave up on her husband’s case. In 1994, 30 years after the murder, she was finally able to hold Beckwith accountable. After a lengthy legal battle, he was found guilty of killing Evers and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2001 at the age of 80. 
    The story of Evers is the story of the way this country treats people whose skin is kissed by the sun. It teaches us that no matter how much a person sacrifices for America if they inhabit the wrong skin, they can be shot down like a dog in the street — and it will take years to achieve justice.
    Every time there is a Trayvon Martin or James Byrd or Ahmaud Arbery or Sandra Bland, I never expect justice. I think of Emmitt Till. I think of Medgar Ever. Yes, those happened in the 1950s and 1960s, but they taught me that white people can take Black life with impunity. 
    Sometimes I’m wrong. Sometimes we get justice. But when we don’t, I am never shocked. This is, after all, America. 
    But we can at least remember Medgar Evers. He deserves that much.
    Today, we honor him. 

  • Newswire : NAACP Board elects Mississippi’s Derrick Johnson to be its President, will work closely with Black press

    By Stacy M. Brown (NNPA Newswire Contributor)

    Derrick-Johnson-NAACP.png

    Derrick Johnson

     

    The future of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is inextricably linked to the future of African Americans and its incumbent upon the nation’s oldest civil rights organization to work with the Black Press to get that message out, said new NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
    On October 21, the executive committee of the NAACP National Board of Directors announced that the Detroit-born Johnson would lead the organization as the president and CEO.
    Johnson formerly served as vice chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors and the state president for the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP.
    Board members said Johnson was selected to guide the organization through a period of reinvigoration and realignment with the current challenges of today’s civil rights movement.
    To accomplish that mission, Johnson said the NAACP will lean heavily on the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association that represents more than 200 African American-owned newspapers and media companies across the country.
    “We must be successful to ensure that democracy works for all and that individuals of African descent are treated with dignity and afforded equal protections under the law,” Johnson told the NNPA Newswire. “We’ve met with [new NNPA Chairman] Dorothy Leavell and [NNPA President and CEO] Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr., and we see a bright future and we are mutually tied to the same reality, because the NNPA is critical, as the delivery source of information for our community.”
    The fact that the NAACP chose Johnson to lead the organization was music to Leavell’s ears. “I believe he is the right leader for the NAACP at this most important time in our history,” she said. “The NNPA looks forward to working with him and the NAACP.”
    Chavis, a former executive director of the NAACP, said he’s known Johnson for a long time and he’s confident that Johnson’s leadership expertise and experience will take the NAACP to greater heights in terms of membership and civil rights activism.
    “If there was ever a person alive that personifies the living spirit of Medgar Evers, it is Derrick Johnson. Thus, the NAACP will grow and expand under the leadership of Derrick Johnson,” Chavis said. “Johnson personifies the courage and genius of a freedom fighter, who will now lead the NAACP forward with fearless boldness.”
    For his part, Johnson, who received a juris doctorate from the South Texas College of Law, called the Black Press an under appreciated institution.
    “It’s incumbent upon the NAACP to work directly with the NNPA to make sure that, as we get control of our narrative, we’re utilizing our most important tool, which is the Black Press,” Johnson said.
    A veteran activist, Johnson, 49, said it’s also important that the NAACP engage and support young people. “We urge the young ones to keep studying and continue advocating to make sure their voices are not suffocated, because of a lack of knowledge,” Johnson said. “I’m encouraged by the number of young people who have taken to the streets with the tools at their disposal to become more active. If they find that the NAACP is a tool they’d like to use, then it is incumbent upon the NAACP to support their ability to do that, because the young activists of today will be our leaders of tomorrow.”
    A regular guest lecturer at Harvard Law School and an adjunct professor at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., Johnson previously furthered his training through fellowships with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
    As president of the NAACP Mississippi State Conference, he led critical campaigns for voting rights and equitable education, NAACP officials said in a news release. Johnson also successfully managed two bond referendum campaigns in Jackson, which brought $150 million in school building improvements and $65 million toward the construction of a new convention center.
    In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Johnson founded One Voice, Inc., to improve the quality of life for African Americans through civic engagement, training and initiatives, according to Johnson’s bio on the NAACP’s website. One Voice has spawned an annual Black Leadership Summit and the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute, a nine-month training program for community leaders.
    “I really appreciate the support of the chair of the Board of Directors, who invested confidence in me to do this job,” Johnson said. “I think we have to control our narrative and tell our story, because we have units across the country that have been extremely effective in their work, but we haven’t been able to control the narrative.”
    Johnson called controlling that narrative both a challenge and an opportunity. He said the NAACP is working diligently toward the 2018 midterm elections and making sure to tackle voter registration and issues that have worked to deny African Americans the right to cast a ballot.
    “We have to figure out how to maximize the engagement of folks in our community to exercise their right to vote,” Johnson said. “We have a fertile and vibrant pipeline for young people to have a stronger voice in what’s taking place and, at the same time, we can support young people already out there advocating with the understanding that social justice is not a competition, but an opportunity for many individuals to add their voice for progressive change.”