What are you doing for others?

The legacy of Medgar Evers.

Home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, Polaroid Land Camera with Fuji FP-100c (2016)

I first came to Mississippi to go to school, but I stayed here because of Medgar Evers.

I was an undeclared freshman at Mississippi State when I took a class with Dr. Steve Shaffer. I cannot recall which one—it is over twenty years in the past now—but he had us read an astonishing variety of texts that encompassed radically different ways of seeing the United States. Among the books was The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, Rush Limbaugh’s The Way Things Ought to Be, and For Us, the Living, by Myrlie Evers.

I knew Malcolm X because of Spike Lee’s grand film, and Rush Limbaugh was perhaps the most famous conservative voice in the nation at the time, but I had never heard of Medgar Evers.

What can I say about For Us, the Living now? How do I even begin to recognize the immensity of the actions of a person who crusaded for America to become herself, to finally honor the founding principle of equality among all? How can you describe an encounter which changes the very way you think and see?

Home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, Polaroid SX-70 (2020)

That’s what I want for my kids—freedom—right here in Mississippi. And as long as God gives me the strength to work and try to make things real for my children, I’m going to work for it—even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

--Medgar Evers, “Why I Live in Mississippi,” Ebony magazine (November 1958)

* * *

Although the battles took different forms—enrolling in segregated schools, breaking Jim Crow travel bans, fighting police brutality—Medgar was fighting a war for Black Mississippians to be treated just the same as white ones. Just as the invasion of Normandy was the decisive event leading to Victory in Europe, achieving the right to vote in Mississippi would shatter the forces of segregation.

He was not alone in this war, but backed by his stalwart partner Myrlie Evers, whom he had met while they were attending Alcorn; the NAACP, a group dedicated to equality for Black citizens, whom he served as Field Secretary; a United States Supreme Court which had recently declared segregation in schools unconstitutional; a young President who likewise believed all Americans should be equal; and a growing legion of Black Mississippians who were willing to take a stand for full equality.

Medgar recognized that the struggle for the ballot would ultimately benefit all, proclaiming “We’re not just interested in voting so that conditions will be improved for Negroes. We want conditions improved for everybody.”

Home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, Polaroid 600 (ca. 2015)

Just recently, down in Forrest County, it was mentioned that one fellow was asked how many bubbles in a bar of soap, which was most difficult for anybody to answer.

These are some of the questions that are asked Negroes when they go in [to register to vote] . . . some of the problems that we face in trying to register to vote here in Mississippi.

--Medgar Evers, interviewed by CBS reporter Bill Peters (Summer 1962)

* * *

I often think of Apollo 11’s perfect arc towards the moon, achieved all those decades ago with far less computing power then we all carry in our pockets today. Three people, snug in a metal pyramid, hurtling 238,900 miles away from our planet. The pilot of the mission, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Collins, had been in space once before, but nobody had ever done what they were doing; nobody had ever gone that far. It was just a theory that you even could.

Tumbling through eternity, the pilot used the best tools he had: a sextant and a slide rule.

* * *

We, as men, owe it to our fellow man and to our children to stand firm and stand out for those things that we are entitled to. I count it as a blessing from God that I am able to withstand ridicule and abuse because I am willing to stand for my fellow man.

Christian friends, we are in a righteous struggle . . . let us vow to treat our fellow man as we would like him to treat us.

--Medgar Evers, address to Mr. Heron Baptist Church, Vicksburg, Mississippi (August 11, 1957)

Home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, Polaroid SX-70 (2020)

Dear Mr. Evers . . . It was a real pleasure having you in Montgomery yesterday . . . You have my prayers and best wishes for continued success as you continue your struggle against the forces of evil and injustice in the state of Mississippi.

--Letter from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to Medgar Evers (December 11, 1956)

* * *

While Lt. Col. Collins had a sextant, Medgar did not have anything so reliable. Because pilots can reckon based off stars, but Medgar lived in Mississippi.

It is still beyond my belief what he endured, in a time when the horrors of our State-imposed and society-enforced apartheid were full in force. In 1946, after having served in World War II in France, he was threatened by a gang of 15 to 20 armed white men after having registered to vote and daring to try to cast a ballot. The threats were made as he stood within the courthouse.

In 1954, after applying to the University of Mississippi Law School, he was summoned to give a series of “interviews” in which he was expected to justify why to school administrators why he would desire that type of higher education. One of the interviewers was the Attorney General.

This is to say nothing of the way it ended—in the driveway of his own home. With his wife and his children inside, the babies huddled in a bathtub, the way they had practiced, if and when the terrorists attacked the house directly.

Listen: no one ever held a gun on me when I went to vote for the first time, walking with my mother through a little patch of woods to the Concord Baptist Church. And when I went to visit State, they had two students drive me around and show me Starkville and brag about the new Arby’s and ask me if I needed anything at all.

When I grew up, we did not have plans for what we would do if men came to the house to murder my father on account of him believing that all men were created equal and ought to be treated as such.

* * *

June 13, 1963

Mrs. Medgar Evers

2332 Gynes Street

Jackson 3, Mississippi

Dear Ms. Evers,

I extend to you and your children my sincerest condolences . . . Although comforting thoughts are difficult at a time like this, surely there can be some solace in the realization of the justice of the cause for which your husband gave his life.

Achievement of the goals he did so much to promote will enable his children and the generations to follow to share fully and equally in the benefits and advantages our nation has to offer.

John F. Kennedy

[handwritten at bottom:] Mrs. Kennedy joins me in extending her deepest sympathy.

* * *

Medgar Evers loved Mississippi, and his love transformed the State into a better, more equal place. He did not have a slide rule that would give him precise and reliable angles to safeguard his journey, or a rulebook that explained what steps he had to take before a court would grant relief.

Instead, Medgar transformed himself into a guide for others so they could find equality, the true promise of America. His life itself became a method of spreading democracy: first as a soldier for the United States in the war to free France, and then as a soldier for the United States in the war to free Mississippi.

Medgar’s faith in the Constitution and love for Mississippi guided him and shaped how he dealt with others. When he met people, he would ask them—“Are you a registered voter, sir? Would you mind saying why you haven’t registered?” and then giving way to “Are you an NAACP member?”

This is just an equation to achieve democracy. Distilled, Medgar was asking: are you a citizen, and are you exercising the power given you by the Constitution? If you’re not, can I help you find a pathway towards that? Because he knew how to get there.

We should ask ourselves these same questions, and ask them of all those we meet. And as Medgar did, we should take it upon ourselves to help guide others to achieve their rights as Americans.

Home of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, Polaroid SX-70 (2020)

Mississippi has changed—a little. But it was the rest of the country that forced that change. It was not done willingly.

One thing I know: it is not over, the struggle of Negroes in Mississippi and everywhere to be free, to be equal, to exercise their God-given rights as human beings. It took me years to learn what Medgar felt instinctively: that freedom has to be won, that it is worth fighting for.

It was the lesson of his life. It was the lesson, if there was one, in his death.

--Myrlie Evers, For Us, the Living (1967)

* * *

Medgar Evers died 58 years ago yesterday. He lived just down the street from you; fought just down the street from you; died just down the street from you. He transformed himself into a guide to help folks achieve the promise of America.

"What are you doing for others?"