Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr

8. Mississippi, Murder, and Medgar: OUR DOMESTIC KILLING FIELDS

8. Mississippi, Murder, and Medgar OUR DOMESTIC KILLING FIELDS One day we will not have to hang our heads in shame or hold our breath when the name Mississippi is mentioned, fearing the worst. But, instead, we will be anticipating the best. —Medgar Evers I may be going to heaven or hell. . . . But I’ll be going from Jackson. —Medgar Evers As you can see, I do not plan to leave. I am anchoring myself here for better or for worse (I hope better), but if worse comes I’ll be in the middle of it. —Medgar Evers For when I fall I shall rise in deathless dedication. When I stagger under the wound of your paid assassins I shall be whole again in deathless triumph! —Margaret Walker Alexander Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality. —John F. Kennedy 267 Williams2RevisedPages:Layout 1 9/7/11 9:53 AM Page 267 FOR MEDGAR EVERS, June 11, 1963, proved to be just as busy a day as every other day had been during the whirlwind that would be the last two weeks of his life. As usual, he spent time at his office preparing for the mass meeting scheduled for later that evening. Gloster Current was also in town and Evers felt the added responsibility of ensuring that Current had access to whatever he needed to make his trip to Mississippi a successful one. African Americans who worked with Evers were used to his seemingly boundless energy, but by June he appeared extremely tired, haggard, and rundown. His lack of energy could be attributed to the fact that there had been mass meetings in Jackson on a daily basis since May 21, an organized regiment that had continued until June 11 when, according to police reports, they were scaled down to three per week: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.1 Despite lessening the number of official meetings, there was still so much to do and as usual not much time in which to do it. Added to everything he had to deal with on the eleventh, an earlier near-violent incident required that Evers notify the proper authorities in hopes of preventing future occurrences. On June 8, Evers encountered two police officers parked along the street as he attempted to cross. He reported that after parking his car, he “got out, locked the car, and stepped off the curb between the two cars, and they jammed the police car into reverse and tried to back into me. I jumped away just in time.” When speaking to Myrlie about the incident, he expressed his astonishment that this blatant disregard for human life had occurred in broad daylight and in the presence of several witnesses.2 He took time on June 11 to contact FBI agents in New Orleans to report the incident. He also included the officers’ resounding laughter as he jumped from behind the patrol car. The agents assured him they would pass along his report to the Justice Department.3 As the day progressed, Evers could not have known that only a few hours away, the actions of two white men would offer him and the movement for equality a glimmer of hope and a measure of devastation . While the June 11 televised speech of President John F. Kennedy would offer Evers the former, the actions of Byron De La Beckwith during the early morning hours of June 12 would deliver a devastating blow with reverberating consequences. In 1960, however, no one could have predicted either of these outcomes. In 1960, Americans prepared for the rigors of another presidential election year. African Americans, in particular, paid close attention to each candidate to determine who would best support the growing movement for equality. The Republicans chose Richard Milhous Nixon as their presidential candidate and, based on his political experience, which included a vice presidency in the Eisenhower administration, their choice appeared a strong 268 Medgar Evers Williams2RevisedPages:Layout 1 9/7/11 9:53 AM Page 268 one. Nixon was a powerful politician who had a long and influential career as both a senator and a Washington insider. The Democrats, chose John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a young politically ambitious senator who, during World War II, served with honor and distinction in the U.S. Navy. Both political parties understood the prominent role that African Americans would...