MEDGAR EVERS SHOT AND KILLED
Jackson, Mississippi (JFK+50) On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers*, president of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, was shot and killed. In his role as Field Secretary, Medgar Evers had the responsibility of...
"registering blacks to vote, fighting the white store owners who...discriminated against blacks, and ending the barriers that denied blacks in Mississippi equality in education."
Evers, having attended a long meeting on June 11th, pulled into the driveway of his home in Jackson just after midnight June 12, 1963. As he was carrying T- shirts which read "JIM CROW MUST GO," he was shot in the back with a rifle. The bullet entered below the right shoulder blade, passed through the body and entered the house .
Medgar's wife, Myrtle, and their children hit the floor at the sound of the shot.
To her horror, Myrtle Evers opened her front door to find her husband dying at her feet. He had crawled from the driveway to the front door.
Medgar was rushed to University Hospital in Jackson where he was pronounced dead less than an hour after the shooting. The day after her husband was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Myrtle and the children were invited to the White House to meet JFK.
"Today Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun.
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain
Only a pawn in their game."
*Medgar Wiley Evers (1925-1963) was born in Decatur, Mississippi. He served in the US Army during WWII and graduated from Alcorn A&M College in 1952. MWE became Field Secretary of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP in 1954.
SOURCE
"We Shall Overcome," by Herb Boyd, Sourcebooks, Inc, Naperville, Illinois, 2004.
Jackson, Mississippi (JFK+50) On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers*, president of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, was shot and killed. In his role as Field Secretary, Medgar Evers had the responsibility of...
"registering blacks to vote, fighting the white store owners who...discriminated against blacks, and ending the barriers that denied blacks in Mississippi equality in education."
Evers, having attended a long meeting on June 11th, pulled into the driveway of his home in Jackson just after midnight June 12, 1963. As he was carrying T- shirts which read "JIM CROW MUST GO," he was shot in the back with a rifle. The bullet entered below the right shoulder blade, passed through the body and entered the house .
Medgar's wife, Myrtle, and their children hit the floor at the sound of the shot.
To her horror, Myrtle Evers opened her front door to find her husband dying at her feet. He had crawled from the driveway to the front door.
Medgar was rushed to University Hospital in Jackson where he was pronounced dead less than an hour after the shooting. The day after her husband was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Myrtle and the children were invited to the White House to meet JFK.
Folk singer/songwriter BOB DYLAN memorialized Medgar Evers in his song "Only a Pawn in Their Game"...
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun.
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain
Only a pawn in their game."
*Medgar Wiley Evers (1925-1963) was born in Decatur, Mississippi. He served in the US Army during WWII and graduated from Alcorn A&M College in 1952. MWE became Field Secretary of the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP in 1954.
SOURCE
"We Shall Overcome," by Herb Boyd, Sourcebooks, Inc, Naperville, Illinois, 2004.
Grave of Medgar Evers
Arlington National Cemetery
Photo by Willjay (2008)
