- Medgar was the love of my life And the father of our children.

And I challenged him on his work.

- We'll be demonstrating here until freedom comes to Negroes here in Jackson, Mississippi.

- And I said to him, “I don't think you love us.” It was one of those tense moments.

I never shall forget the look that he gave me when I said that.

It wasn't pleasant.

And he asked me, “Don't you understand that “I am doing this for you “and my children “and all the other women and children of our race?” That stopped me in my tracks.

And I truly began to understand what he meant and why he was doing what he was doing.

- He was a brilliant guy, very smart, very compassionate.

Loved people, hard worker and caring.

But at the same time is he was strong enough to stand up to anybody.

And when you talk about his dealing with death and stuff, he stared death in the face every day.

- Who his parents were.

I mean, that's that's important to understand because it defines who Medgar Evers becomes.

But his father is James Evers.

Independent.

You know, he has a series of businesses, but he wants for his children not to have to depend on white folks, because if you depend on them, ultimately something tragic is going to happen.

He wants his family to be able to stand on their own feet and not be afraid of that.

His mother is a humanitarian bar none who believes in serving the community.

She believes in the goodness of bringing to people, of taking care of people.

And so the family grows up watching this.

A father who's fearless, who doesn't subscribe to the laws written and unwritten of white supremacy.

He doesn't get off the sidewalk when he walks downtown.

He doesn't get out of the way for white people.

He doesn't kowtow to them.

And he's bringing his boys with him.

They see this.

The mother goes out and helps every single body.

Everybody knows that if you're hungry and this is-- think about this.

If you're hungry, you need to go down to the Evers' home and talk to Ms.

Jesse Evers.

And she's going to feed you no matter what time it is.

And so she's doing this sometimes at 2a.m.

when somebody knocks on the door and says, “I'm hungry.

And they told me you'd give me something to eat.” She gets out the bed and fixes dinner at 2 a.m.. The family sees that.

And so that's the dynamic.

One, you cannot be afraid living in this society as a man, as a woman to do what needs to be done.

- My Uncle Charles and my dad had a very, very special, strong relationship.

Uncle Charlie is a couple years older than my dad, and he was-- he took care and kind of helped raise Dad up because Uncle Charlie would tell me, “Lope, And that was his nickname for him.

“Lope didn't like to be cold.

He didn't like to be cold.” So Uncle Charlie would make sure that he'd go by the potbelly stove and get warm and heat up his clothes without catching on fire, of course and then slide into the bed.

As he told me, at one point, kind of wiggle, wiggle, wiggle to get all the warmth in.

And then he said, “Lope, come on, get in!” So then Dad would go ahead and slide in and he'd be warm and not cold.

So, I mean, it's that type of love that's genuine, that's deep.

You know that I don't have to tell you.

I show you that I love you, you know?

And that's how they were always.

And he was always there-- they were there for each other.

Whatever they got into and they got into stuff.

So.

But they were always supportive.

Granddaddy Jim just really poured a lot of his beliefs and his training into them.

Granddaddy Jim, he was very independent because he had a farm.

The farm was developed not only for their family, but for the community.

And when you look at pictures of them, you see the strength that they have within the determination to survive and the fortitude to always go forward.

- In Decatur, because they lived in Decatur, Mississippi, in Decatur there is, particularly during the time that Evers is coming up Jim Crow segregation, white supremacy, oppression, violence.

All of that was designed to ensure that black people held an inferior position in society.

And so how do you resist that?

First of all, particularly for Medgar Evers, it was the family dynamic, his mother and father, who laid the foundation of one never being afraid to do what's right.

And two, that you had a responsibility to the community to challenge injustice as you saw it.

There's an instance in which James Evers goes to the commissary to pay what he owes, and the person that tries to make him pay more than he does, and he refuses to do so.

Now, this is important because that goes back to this sharecropping circle of debt that's going on at that point.

But he refuses to do that.

And he says.

“I know what I owe you “because Jesse--” his wife, “told me what I owe you.” Now, how important is that?

He's a black man standing up against a white man about a debt.

But he's saying, “You are not the one who I trust with it.

My wife told me what I owe and that's what I'm going to pay.” - Said “No sir.” Said, “No sir.

This is all I owe you right here.

“Jesse done told me.

This is what I owe you right here.

“Are you calling me a liar, nigger?” Dad said, “No.

“This is what I owe you.

And that's what I'm going to pay you.” And when he said that, we all knew that Jimmy kept a gun in the drawer, you know, and there standing by the counter was 4 or 5 more whites in there.

And Medgar and I were there with And when Jimmy started toward the drawer, there was a Coke-Cola bottle sitting there on the back of the-- a old rough Coke-Cola bottle.

Daddy grabbed and broke it like that.

Broke it and just left the neck.

He said, “Mr.

Bogan, I bet I could kill you.” And Jimmy-- And the fear that you can see in Jimmy's face and the other whites in there, it did something to Medgar and I Here my one daddy here with nothing but a Coke-Cola bottle got all these white folks scared of him.

It did something to me.

It just made me proud.

Dad said, “Come on, boys, let's get out of here.” He said, “Mr.

Jimmy, I'm going to pay you what I owe but I'm not going to pay you no more.” Jimmy said, “I'm gonna get you, nigga.” And so Dad said, “Let's back on out, boys.” So I start to run, then Dad said, “Don't run.

“If you run, they kill you.

Just back on out.” So we backed on out the store.

- The lynching of Willie Tingle was intense for the Evers family because Willie Tingle was somebody that Medgar Evers knew.

He was a friend of James Evers.

And what happened was whites grabbed Willie Tingle They drug him down the street to the fairgrounds.

They lynched him.

Then eventually they just riddled his body with bullets.

And then they left him there.

Now this was somebody whose children Medgar Evers played with.

And so this is a person he knows up close and personal.

And to have him be paraded down the street and killed by whites where all black people could see this as some kind of message was disturbing on a variety of levels.

And what we have to understand is this wasn't some isolated incident.

What was more disturbing for Medgar Evers was the fact that the whole community knew what had happened.

But he recalled that nobody said a word.

Nobody said anything.

Nobody did anything.

“It was as if,” he said, that this man just dissolved.” Except for the bloody clothes that they left on a fence for about a year that Medgar Evers had to walk past - A state of war between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

- If you left Mississippi and joined the armed forces at that time, you traveled.

You were in environments that you had never been in before.

You met people that you've never obviously met before.

So it was clearly an education.

And then to talk to white folk as equals if you were in France or Germany or someplace, that was quite, was quite an experience.

- Before the great ports of France and Belgium were opened up, before the railroads were serviceable, the problem of supply was perhaps the greatest problem Allied commanders had to face.

The only available means of bringing food to the liberated areas, equipment and supplies to the battle zones was by a highway, by a highway which came to be called the Red Ball Highway.

- Being with the Red Ball Expres actually on the front lines, giving ammunition.

Giving assistance to all the soldiers on the front line.

I think about Normandy I think about him on the front lines, and it, and it hurts because he was dedicated to freedom.

- The reason why they were there fighting against what?

Tyranny.

Fighting for the preservation of what?

Democracy.

Fighting on behalf of the United States was supposed to be the premier purveyor of equality and justice.

And so you go overseas and you lay down your life.

Many people lose their lives, and then you come back and-- in your uniform going home when you get into the Deep South, you have to go back to the colored section of the bus.

- See, if you can imagine that you've been to all these different places in the world and you've gotten an idea of how the world functions outside of Mississippi.

You you have gotten a taste of freedom.

You have seen people living their lives in ways that people don't live in Mississippi.

I mean, you had lived in a society in places where segregation was not the order of the day.

- My mom grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

My grandfather's mother, Annie Beasley, said, “I'm going to take care of this child,” and took my mother and took care of her, along with my aunt, whose name is Myrlie, and that's who my mother's named after.

And they both were professionals, teachers, and held very high up in the, Negro society.

There was always music in the house, and so my mother was trained to be a concert pianist because of the wonderful women who raised her.

- There has not been a day in my life when I have not known or felt love.

How blessed can I be?

Hmm?

Everybody can't say that, you know.

And that's very sad.

It's very sad.

But I am blessed to have had love in my life each and every day.

And always the words of my grandmother: “Baby, “yes you can.

Yes you can.” Whatever it was.

I was a freshman, just enrolled at Alcorn A&M College in Lorman, Mississippi.

What was I?

16, 17 years of age.

You know, you go on campus and you're new.

Everybody else is new.

The freshmen all huddled together, looking around, afraid.

Upperclassmen coming around and sizing each one of us up.

And I believe Medgar was in that first crowd, studious looking, serious-minded person.

Came over, began to talk.

I was questioned, but I was impressed by his presence and what a gentleman he was.

And the questions that he asked, which were questions about local political things and national items.

I hadn't been accustomed to that, I hadn't been accustomed to young men and young boys and flirting.

He was all serious.

And I was like, “What is this?

Who is he?” Medgar was eight years older than I. A veteran, I was 18 when I married him.

Maybe had dated two boys.

And I do mean boys.

My grandmother was so upset when I told her I was in love with him.

He told her he wanted to marry me.

She said, “My poor baby.

“My child.

What is she getting herself into?” I was so fortunate, so fortunate to have Medgar in my life.

- They got married at Alcorn and moved up to Mound Bayou, Mississippi.

All-Negro town.

That has so much important history alone.

Founded by slaves.

- It was an all-black town started by Isaac Montgomery, who had been enslaved by Jefferson Davis' brother, I believe, anyway.

But anyway, he was, that's how that town began.

And there were just incredible people associated with Mound Bayou over that period of time.

- Well you had these, places in the country whereby you really saw these emerging where black people controlled and also govern themselves, you know?

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Talking about Mound Bayou, places where-- economic development, people just be-- just striving.

- How much did I love living in Mound Bayou?

I did not love living in Mound Bayou.

But Medgar saw a chance to build something there.

I loved him, so I followed.

- Mound Bayou is extremely important.

It's an all-black town, self-sufficient.

People come from all over the country to study Mound Bayou as of how you organize a city.

It's full of people who are professionals.

There is a hospital there T.R.M.

Howard is there.

He's head surgeon in the hospital there.

He's extremely wealthy as well.

He's also a mentor to Medgar Evers.

And he's the owner of Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company that hires Medgar Evers.

But he's also a Civil Rights Activist.

His organization of Regional Council of Negro Leadership organized in 1951.

So the Regional Council of Negro Leadership is really Medgar Evers' first introduction to how an organization can impact change in a society.

The RCNL is going to be responsible in 1952 for carrying out an economic boycott against local gas station owners who didn't mind taking black money but would not allow black people to use the restroom.

And so they produced this campaign: “Don't buy gas where you can't use the restroom”, and you start to see these bumper stickers on these cars riding through Mound Bayou.

What's also important is you start to see these stickers on cars that are not from Mississippi, cars from Tennessee who are coming through, too.

So it tells it's a multi-state type of thing and it's successful.

- I have tremendous respect for Doctor Howard.

He had a wonderful sense of humor and he knew how to grab the essence of a situation that were serious, make you think, make you laugh.

And make you angry because of your lack of intelligence of what was going on around you.

Challenge you to learn more, to do more, to step out there and be brave.

- My father came up and as he was going around to different plantations and talking to the sharecroppers, and asking if they want insurance... what he came upon was devastating to him.

And my mom said he came home all the time just not depressed, but very down because he said, “Myrlie, “how can I “sell and ask for them “to give money for insurance “when, one, they don't know what it's for, “but more importantly, they don't have money to feed “themselves and their families.

I've got to do more.” - He's actually, in 1953, at a Regional Council Negro Leadership sponsored meeting in which Emmett Stringer, as head of the NAACP, Mississippi chapters talks about now is the time, they believe, to challenge segregation at, and it was called Ole Miss.

The University of Mississippi.

And so he was looking at people who had volunteered for that.

Evers had always wanted to be a lawyer.

That was something that he had talked about, and this was an opportunity to move in that direction.

But it was also an opportunity to tackle white supremacy at its seat.

The University of Mississippi is seen as the premier institution in the state and represented what segregation looked like.

You topple that... that's going to be extremely important.

And so he actually applies in January 1954.

The NAACP is watching this because, remember, they have desegregation suits going on and Brown vs Board is coming up in this decision.

So they're watching this as well.

They're eventually going to deny him on a technicality, saying that you didn't have the right letters from the right place where you stayed.

They're from Decatur You're living in Mound Bayou.

We promise to take it up later.

Nothing ever comes.

Because he's not successful in that, the NAACP comes back around.

- And our national office, naturally, learned about this.

And they said that this would be a good man, it'd be a good person for us to hire.

We need a presence.

They brought him to New York for a full, in-depth interview and to meet the supervisor and the board of directors.

This was a big deal.

He was hired by acclamation and then sent back to Jackson, so that they could get-- He and his wife was hired as the office secretary, and she started work immediately organizing the office.

- And so he became the first field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP.

And so he literally put, like, more than 40,000 miles a year on his Oldsmobile just driving it around, meeting with people, starting branches or adding to those memberships and investigating violence.

- He had these little NAACP chapters across the state.

They weren't very public.

I mean, it's really almost like an underground movement, you know, in a sense, that people carry their little cards at that time it was it was radical, revolutionary, you know, for black people to carry an NAACP card, that's all.

So they hit him round.

I mean, I remember people talking about, they're very proud of being in the NAACP.

That was the identification to the movement.

And they would talk about it, you know, I don't know.

I remember one old guy took me to the backyard.

And he dug up a can.

And in that can was an NAACP card.

And that's how he kept his card.

Then he put it in there and he buried it in the backyard, you know.

- It was very dangerous.

It was dangerous to show, to be seen with you in NAACP card.

I mean, the NAACP was primarily subterranean, in so many of these towns and cities, I mean, they didn't people didn't know in general that there was in NAACP chapter, or you had NAACP memberships in a lot of these places because it was so dangerous.

So many people lost their lives.

- Medgar Evers' job was to grow the membership.

It was also to report on any and all brutalities and get that out to the national office in New York.

Emmett Till's murder was extremely important because this is a child, first and foremost.

He's not from Mississippi, doesn't understand the culture But to be brutally murdered and killed like that, people begin to look at and say, well, what won't Mississippi do?

You know, if they're willing to murder a child like this in that brutal fashion and then be tried, found not guilty, and then do an interview where they say they're guilty of what they did but can't be tried again because of double jeopardy, what is possible?

When you have to go in and investigate the murder of 14 year old Emmett Louis Till and you see that broken body.

And you talk to his mother and you see the pain that's there.

When you investigate the brutal murder of Reverend George Lee, who Evers knew, but who was advocating that black people had the right to vote.

Went out to investigate the murder of Mr.

Lamar Smith down in Brookhaven, Mississippi, who was shot in broad daylight on the courthouse lawn because he's advocating black people use the absentee ballot.

When you investigate the murder of Clinton Melton, who is shotgunned to death because he filled up a patron's car with gas, who he said told him to, but that person said, I only wanted $2 worth.

But he filled it up.

And so he kills him.

Then he has four small children and a wife, and you sitting there looking at those children and what's going to happen next.

And you're explaining to them what the NAACP is going to try to do.

And it's weighing on you heavily because you have children.

Well, he's internalizing all of this when he's in the office and a man comes terrified and tells him, with his wife in tow, that while she's working in the white home, the white home owner raped her.

So the weight of it, of activisim is extremely heavy when your job is to chronicle every abuse, every brutality any act of discrimination, and you have to report that in detail so that the NAACP can catalog it and provide assistance, and you have to get that out and stay alive while you're doing it.

And at the same time that you're carrying this weight your children, when you get home cannot see it.

You've got to sit in your car and you got to breathe heavily.

You got to make sure your eyes are clear.

Then you got to practice your smile.

Then you got to get up and say, “Hey, children, I'm home.

Let's play.” - I'm a firm believer, ladies and gentlemen, of the separation of the races as the only sensible basis for racial integrity.

- Segregation has been considered legal.

And now it's illegal.

Highly gratified at such a decision, especially because of the fact it was a unanimous decision.

And has the broadest possible language which should set for rest once and for all the problem as to whether or not second-class citizenship segregation could be consistent any longer with the law of the country.

- After the Brown v. Board decision, now we're trying to desegregate the school systems.

We're not talking about universities anymore.

We talking about grade school.

And that's a whole different beast that Medgar Evers has to deal with.

- I thank God I'm an American, a Southerner, a Mississippian, and a charter member of the Citizens Council.

- You had the Citizens Council, which came into fruition in 1954, in direct response to the Brown v Board of Education decision.

- The only way we can win this fight is to defeat the enemy, to destroy the enemy before the enemy destroys us.

We must separate the men from the boys.

We must identify the traitors in our midst.

- This is the bankers, the lawyers, the white collar folks.

This was them.

I mean, they had the Klan out there doing violence and all that kind of stuff.

But this was, again, as Hodding Carter put it, the Uptown Klan, they we all about being proper and, “ Why, no!

We would never do any violence.” But then, of course, they would run, you know, black Mississippians out of town if they dared to sign a petition that schools should be integrated.

That's what they did in Yazoo City.

And so different places like that, that that would put the economic squeeze on, on those who dare to get involved in The Civil Rights Movement.

They'll get them fired from their jobs.

- In 1956, you had the development of the Sovereignty Commission, which was really a spy agency and propaganda arm of the state.

And so its job was to chronicle anybody who was resisting or was a threat to white supremacy and segregation in the state of Mississippi.

- The Sovereignty Commission was essentially had two main arms.

One was this propaganda arm, which was kind of they sent white and black speakers up north, of course paying the black speakers, and they went up there and they're like, “Oh, we love segregation.

We love the way things are in Mississippi.” And then they had kind of a spy arm where they infiltrated civil rights groups and organizations and things like that.

And then and it would again, get people fired from their jobs or discredited, run them out of the state or whatever the situation was.

- For several weeks now, we, the Negro citizens of Montgomery have been involved in a nonviolent protest against the injustices that we have experienced on the buses for a number of years.

- Medgar Evers looked at Martin Luther King Jr and what he's able to bring.

So he's following Martin Luther King very closely.

And so with the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC in 1957, Medgar Evers is in attendance at one of his first meetings.

And so at this meeting, he's actually elected as assistant secretary for T.J.

Jemison down in Louisiana And so he's excited about this opportunity.

And so he's in the position for several months before he starts to get pushback from the NAACP that he shouldn't be a part of another organization.

And so Gloster Current talks to him about it.

Roy Wilkins, later on, asked him that maybe he needs to ease out of this and tell Doctor King that this is in conflict with some of the duties that he has to do.

And so, in essence, they pretty much force him to resign.

King writes back that he understands.

They hate to lose him from the conference, because everything he had brought.

Personally, he was furious that they had forced him, actually, to resign from this position, because he saw it as a strategy that he can move forward with.

And so that kind of goes back to this whole idea of the NAACP, looking at Mississippi, as somewhat territorial, and the fear that the NAACP leaders had that other organizations were going to build up their organization at the expense of the NAACP through using their staff.

- In 1958, as I came from a regional meeting, in North Carolina, I boarded the bus and in Meridian, Mississippi, on the front seat where I sat, I refused to move to the back of the bus after being ordered to do so by the driver.

And after I refused, of course, he got off the bus and went and called police and they asked, what was I trying to do, stir up trouble?

I told them, no, I was merely going home to my wife and children.

Of course, I had two children at the time.

And they said, “Well, you know how things are down here.” I said, “Yes, I was born 30 miles from here.” So I went and got back on the bus.

And of course, I sat back on the front seat and having refused to move again, the bus driver pulled off.

- So he decides he wants to sit up front and a cab driver stops the bus, jumps on, hits Evers in the face, and he wards off the blows and he doesn't fight back, and he tells the fact that he doesn't he says, “Because I could have fought back, “but I thought at that time, if I do, I'm destroying “what I'm trying to do, and it's better that I not fight back for me and everybody on the bus as well.” He says, “If you become violent, that gives them “something to point to, and it dilutes what you're trying to do in the movement.” - I realized that just as the Africans followed Kenyatta, Negroes might have to successfully follow someone like him.

It didn't take much reading of the Bible, though, to convince me that two wrongs would not make the situation any different and that I couldn't hate the white man and at the same time hope to convert him.

- The article that Ebony does on Medgar Evers in 1958, “Why I Live in Mississippi,” is really an exposé of him and the work that he's doing.

Medgar Evers was born in Mississippi of course, so he sees Mississippi as home.

And so he in that sees what Mississippi can be, the importance of it.

- Look at him.

He's free.

They taught him that he owns the world.

That's what I want for my kids.

Freedom right here in Mississippi.

And as long as God gives me 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.

This is home.

Mississippi is a part of the United States, and whether the whites like it or not, I don't plan to live here as a parasite.

The things that I don't like, I will try to change.

And in the long run, I hope to make a positive contribution to the overall productivity of the South.

- My father set up the family culture to make sure that you understood what you need to do to survive and to be safe, and to be loved.

- In the late 1950s, I think one of the seminal moments for Medgar and his activism, especially now that he was the first full time field secretary for the NAACP, was his interaction with Clyde Kennard, who had attempted to, desegregate Mississippi Southern College.

And, of course, he was simply targeted by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission for wanting to get an education, a higher education in his home state.

- Clyde was involved in the NAACP with my dad.

He was the youth group mentor.

My dad, Clyde, and Medgar Evers organized the youth chapter back in the late 1950s I believe And basically, Clyde ends up being railroaded by the judicial system in Mississippi, law enforcement and the judicial system end up arresting Clyde.

Clyde is convicted on trumped up charges that he received stolen chicken feed based upon the statement of a coerced eye witness.

Okay, under stress, duress to make that statement.

Ends up in Parchman Prison, ends up in solitary confinement.

This guy had no criminal record.

Nothing criminal about him.

Didn't even drink.

Didn't even smoke.

My mother said he didn't even curse.

Okay?

He just a decent guy who wanted that everybody had the same opportunity.

- The ongoing relationship that developed between he and Medgar, was one that meant a lot to Medgar, who continued to advocate for his freedom.

And during that time, he was diagnosed, Clyde Kennard was diagnosed with cancer.

And despite this diagnosis, he was still forced to work at Parchman.

And this was something that deeply impacted Medgar, but I think it gave him the impetus to move forward with this fight for civil rights and freedom here in the state of Mississippi.

- That's one person's story that is so painful that it transfers to me, through my mom because it broke my father.

I'm sorry.

- In the 1950s, what we see is the NAACP using the legal avenue as a strategic measure to be able to make significant social gains for African Americans during this particular time in American history.

And, as a result, you have a lot of African Americans who are simply frustrated with this gradualist approach, and they are looking for something that is more immediate and direct.

And Medgar Evers is paying attention to what's going on all across the state of Mississippi, especially in the late 1950s with the wade-ins that took place in Biloxi, Mississippi.

The following year, 1960, here with the Easter boycotts that were taking place of downtown businesses in Jackson, Mississippi.

And of course, in March of 1961, Medgar Evers was fully supportive of the Tougaloo College students, the nine young people who, attempted to integrate the downtown Jackson Library.

And as a result of their actions, they were arrested and spent approximately 30 hours in jail.

And Medgar Evers petitioned the national NAACP to bail those young people out, which did happen.

But at this particular point, what we see is a turning point in the Jackson movement itself.

And there is a lot of momentum that has gained where young people are taking their place in the movement itself.

But young people are also demanding a voice to be heard so they can change the world in which they live.

- First came was the Freedom Riders.

So that brought a whole different light into Mississippi and across the country where these young people coming in and being arrested.

When I first came to Mississippi, which was in April of 1962, when I got there, first thing I did was look up Medgar Evers and I want to talk to him.

What was amazing to me is the amount of work he was doing.

One of my questions was, “Who goes with you when you go on these trips?” He said, “Nobody.

I go by myself.” So to think about it, Mississipp at that time is, you know, you got this guy traveling around, you know, knocking on doors and organizing people to get ready to promote it.

So he had set a pathway.

So when we came into Mississippi, they brought a different type of energy, especially for CORE and SNCC for the young people.

So we were able to do something that the elders could not do, but the elders had done something that made it possible for us to do what we did.

- Aaron Henry and Medgar Evers worked with those organizations.

But it was at the dissatisfaction of Roy Wilkins, who was the head man of the NAACP in New York City.

Aaron was not on the payroll, you know, he was the volunteer state-wide president of the NAACP.

So Roy Wilkins couldn't fire Aaron Henry, but he could fire Medgar because Medgar was on the payroll.

But on the other hand, obviously, that didn't faze Medgar Evers because he worked out a way to work with these new civil rights organizations and the formation of COFO: The Council of Federated Organizations.

COFO was the coordinated civil rights activities throughout the state of Mississippi.

So it provided-- it was an umbrella.

It was an umbrella.

It provided the opportunity for these civil rights organizations to work together.

So so it helped to develop these relationships.

The NAACP and SCLC, SNCC, and CORE, it developed the relationship.

So the leaders of these organizations knew each other.

The leaders of these organizations worked with each other so they knew what was going on throughout the state.

But it was the collaborative heart of Medgar Evers that made that possible.

- “They protest and we pay the bills.” That's what the NAACP is looking at saying okay.

They're not necessarily consulting with us before they have these engaged protests that leads to beatings and arrests.

All right.

But once they arrested, then they look for us to get them out with bail moneys.

And so they're protesting.

But then the NAACP is paying.

And so that's what Medgar Evers has to grapple with because what he is not willing to do is to allow people to stay in jail, longer than they have to, because he understands that when a civil rights activist is arrested for these NAACP or SNCC or CORE, or SCLC, whenever they are arrested, they run the risk of being beaten and killed in jail.

And so he's petitioned to the NAACP to use monies to get people out.

And that's a tension that he has to navigate.

- Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, copies will be available shortly after he has finished.

- Morning, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm very sorry we were late.

But, uh... Mr.

Evers' secretary didn't come to work this morning, and we had to type up the, uh... statement ourselves.

- James Meredith and his attempt to enroll at the University of Mississippi is extremely important.

Meredith comes to the NAACP to talk to Medgar Evers about it and this is exciting to Evers.

He had attempted to enroll himself, and now he saw it as an opportunity again to go after the University of Mississippi.

And so that was the importance between Medgar Evers, James Meredith as being veterans but also as reflections of their fight abroad for the very things that they were denied here at home.

So you cannot send me abroad as an American and then bring me back as a second-class citizen.

And he promises him the help of the NAACP and the NAACP resources, before he gets the okay from NAACP officials.

Once the NAACP becomes aware that this is what's going on, Thurgood Marshall and others decide that they need to test James Meredith to see, one, was he qualified to do it.

And two, was he sane.

You know, he's somebody that we're going to be working with, and so they want to talk to Meredith and Medgar Evers decides rather than the NAACP office, we should take Meredith to my house and we'll call them from there.

And he does.

And there's a big blow up.

All right, Thurgood Marshall is asking specific questions about his qualifications.

You know, does he know what's going to come?

And Meredith gets furious because he believes that the NAACP is challenging his ability.

You know, they're putting him down.

So he hangs up mid-conversation.

Medgar Evers sees this, and he realizes that this is going in a way that it cannot go.

And so he sits down, and he talks to Meredith a lot about what this entails, about the importance of going forward, about the importance of not reacting out of emotions.

That this is much bigger than you and I alone.

And that you have got to come back to the table.

It takes him a lot of time to convince Meredith to do this.

Meredith himself, after he decides to go back, talks to Thurgood Marshall, they hash it all out and the NAACP realizes that he is a viable person that they can work with, and they provide him with resources and attorneys.

He's going to eventually attempt to integrate.

In 1961, he's going to be denied He's going to take it all the way forward.

The NAACP is going to get him enrolled in 1962.

Riots break out on the campus.

People lose their lives.

Military has to be brought in.

All this.

And this is what Medgar Evers points to.

And he's pointing to this to everybody who's saying look at what the system is doing.

It's brutality upon people who are asking for nothing outrageous, but their rights as citizens and as human beings.

- I have concluded that the Negro should not return to the University of Mississippi The prospects for him are too unpromising.

However, I have decided that I, J. H. Meredith, will register for the second semester now.

(applause and cheers) - Not only was Medgar developing these, you know, chapters, adult chapters of the NAACP, but he was developing these youth chapters of the NAACP.

When he installed us as leaders of the Rust College NAACP, seed chapter in 1962, Medgar Evers had the firmest hand grip that I have experienced in my life.

Ha, ha, ha!

I didn't have any idea that anybody shook your hand like that.

- When I first met Mr.

Evers, he was quite an impressive person, I guess because of his stillness, his quietness.

He didn't show any sign of fear.

And he just seemed like a person that we said was comfortable in his skin.

Matter of fact, I think if I realized who he was actually, I'd probably been more intimidated looking back.

Yeah, I see, well, how blessed I was to, you know, be in the presence of someone like that.

- I would do typing for SNCC and CORE.

We had a joint office on Lynch Street, just a couple blocks down from Medgar's office at the Masonic Temple.

So if we had all our work cut out-- uh, caught up, we might go-- I might go down to Medgar's office and see if they had any typing and stuff they wanted to do.

- To explain Medgar's impact on young people, I can explain his impact on me because I was young.

I met Medgar when I was 21 years old And I'd watch Medgar talk to the students that came t They were actually being trained and preparing for their demonstrations at the Masonic Temple.

You've got these kids coming out of middle school and kids out of high school, you know, to participate in these demonstrations and to go up against dogs.

And be put in these wire pens, you know, at the fairgrounds and stuff like that.

His ability to motivate at that time was extraordinary But I think it had a lot to do with a commitment, you know, and he took time is and he embraced them as people, you know, as if they were his own children.

- It was in August of 1962, where he and his wife, along with eight other families, filed a petition to desegregate Jackson's public schools.

Medgar Evers submitted a letter stating that, “Our greatest concern “is making sure that our childre “receive a quality education, and until this happens, we are going to stand our ground.” And that is exactly what they did.

But all of the families who participated in this lawsuit, their names were made public to others.

And of course, that did put them at great risk.

And as a result of their action in trying to desegregate the schools.

- Integration, to me was necessary.

I'm glad that it happened.

But the definition of integration means you integrate, you come together.

We meet and we come together.

That did not happen.

Everything of value that was black shut out.

You go to all of their schools.

Your principal, fired.

Your football coaches, fired.

Your band directors, fired.

Your faculty integrated into these schools.

Okay?

But no black principals going in to be principal of white schools.

Best you could hope for is maybe assistant principal.

Probably no job at all.

So there was never no coming together meeting.

It was all one-sided, stilted advantage of the group that always had been in charge.

Boom.

- All children ought to have an opportunity for excellent education.

They should have the books.

Not pages torn out of them.

If you didn't have that, we wouldn't be where we are today.

- He would often say, “If I don't, who will?

This is something I must do.” And I would say to him, “But Medgar, why you?” Finally he told me, “Don't ask me that anymore.

“I've already answered that.

“I'm doing what I'm doing for my children.

“And all the other children.

“I'm doing it for you.

And all of my people.” I didn't ask that question again because his answer the first time said it all for me.

“Because I love you and my children.

“But I love my people.

“And I'll fight to the end for that Because you are included.” My feeling was I don't want to be included, I want to be at the top of the list.

I later came to understand what he meant, and I supported him in that.

I respected him, and I loved it, and I loved him, and I was by his side every step of the way.

- On the national level, you've gotten all this publicity, the COFO was getting a lot of publicity.

You know, the SNCC and CORE and the work they're doing here and throughout the state.

And so the national office of the NAACP had to get in.

So they then came into this state in full force I mean, Roy Wilkins.

And so Roy Wilkins goes for the first time, you know, he gets arrested, he and Medgar are marching on, you know, picketing on, uh.... on Capitol Street.

This was something that Medgar, he and I, had discussions about.

Medgar said, “This stuff is going to get me killed,” because he felt that what Medar knew and understood is that you don't want to put the center around any one person, because that person becomes a target.

- As he's working to challenge the system, he's understanding that the system is also working to challenge anybody like him and to snuff it out.

Any type of resistance, to snuff it out quickly, and in Mississippi, that could mean anything.

- I told him... tears flowing... I don't know what I would do.

I can't make it without you.

Medgar was holding me and he was quiet.

He said, ‘Baby, “you are stronger than you think you are.

You take care of my children.” Was just like that.

“Of course I will take care of your children,” I said.

“They are my children, too.

Never forget that.” Both of us were boo-hooing.

Not just crying.

Boo-hooing.

And holding on to each other.

Because we knew what was going to happen.

It was written in the sky, It was written in our hearts.

We knew.

We knew that we had a very short time together.

There was no need to say it.

We knew it.

- Now, I've had a number of threatening calls, people calling me, saying that they were going to kill me, saying they were going to blow my home up and saying that I only had a few hours to live.

I remember distinctly one individual calling with a pistol on the other end, and he hit the cylinder.

And, of course, you could hear that it was a revolver.

He said, “This is for you.” I said, “Well, whenever my time comes, I'm ready.” - There was Medgar in the South life in danger.

The national NAACP, they knew he was in danger.

His life could be snuffed out.

There was no secret about that.

But it was his choice.

He made the choice.

As Mrs.

Evers said, even with her saying to him, you know, “Youre jeopardizing your family We got children here.” But it was his mission to make, not Mississippi, but the United States of America better than what it had been for him as a person going, fighting for this country, returning home to his beloved state that he wanted to see that generations after him would have the opportunity that our Constitution said it should be.

- Now, for many of us who have gone overseas, and fought for this country and fought for Mississippi, we fought for Alabama.

We fought for North Carolina.

We fought for Illinois and we fought for every state in this union.

- He is sort of written out of history.

I mean, he's just not included as Malcolm and Martin, but to me, it's it's The Three Ms and Medgars right up there at the lead.

He was working in the most dangerous situations for years.

I mean, the Mississippi Delta and Jackson back then?

And he was all over the state and that was the most dangerous.

It was just -- everyone knew he would get killed, was just the question of when.

- A number of conversations were being held with black civil rights leaders, as well as city officials, about the direction of the Jackson movement, since it had intensified so much over the course of a few months.

And on May 13th, of 1963, Mayor Allen Thompson made a televised speech in which he stated without hesitation that Jackson, Mississippi, did not have a race problem.

But Medgar Evers, of course, in taking advantage of FCC policy at the time which gave time to opposing views, was able to get 17 minutes of time.

Unfortunately, the television station did not preserve Evers speech.

However, there was a transcript of what was stated that evening.

- “I speak as a native Mississippian.

“I was educated in Mississippi schools “and served overseas in our nation's armed forces “in the war against Hitler and fascism.

“At least one half of the NAACP membership is in the South.

“There have been branches in Mississippi since 1918.

“Therefore, when we talk of the NAACP, “we are also talking about fellow Mississippians.

“They have worked and bought homes.

“Some owned businesses “belong to churches and lodges.

“Reared their families and tried “to educate their children.

“Never in its history “has the South as a region, without outside pressure, “granted the Negro citizenship rights.

“It is also in the American tradition “to demonstrate, to assemble peacefully, “and to petition the government for redress of grievances.

“Although in Jackson, Negroes “are immediately arrested “when they attempt to exercise “this constitutional right.

“The NAACP believes that Jackson can change “if it wills to do so.

“But whether Jackson “and the state choose change or not, “the years of change are upon us “History has reached a turning point.

“Negro citizens want to help all other good citizens “bring about a meaningful improvement.

“The Negro has been in America since 1690.

“He's not going anywhere else.

“This country is his home.

“Let me appeal to the consciousness “of many silent, responsible “citizens of the white community “who know that a victory for democracy “in Jackson will be a victory for democracy everywhere.” Music was important in our house, and it went from classical music, because my mother was a trained classical pianist.

It went from that to Chubby Checker, which was my favorite, because my dad and I would get get down and do the twist and do a variety of the twist.

You know, you don't just twist one way, you could twist another way, twist another way, until you fall down in laughter, which is what we did all the tim But then it was sounds of the movement that came not only from my mom and my dad, but this home was always filled with people, with the mission and the vision of equality.

And so, you know, I've said before to my own children, I said this was a house that was a home for many, but it was a meeting place for most.

And so it was the pre meeting place.

It was the post meeting place of the mass meetings.

I remember phone calls coming in to my mother and say-- and my mother getting upset because I would hear her say, “Medgar!” because that means that she's going to have to go and go to the grocery store, and get some more food, and make a special meal because we're having visitors that night.

- May 28th, 1963, is when the Woolworth sit-in took place in downtown Jackson.

And in the days subsequent to that, there were an increase in demonstrations.

And of course, there was also an increase in the number of Jackson police officers who were on detail to control the crowds and the masses.

- Well, the picket line was arrested right away.

I was one of the spotters for that.

One of the people that was watching what was happening.

And if violence broke out or there were arrests, we had money to call back to Medgars office.

Well, we did that, me and Lois Chaffee.

So we decided we'd go check it out.

And just when we got in, that is when the mob was forming And Benny Oliver, a former policeman who had been dismissed for being so violent, had pulled Memphis off the stool and was kicking him everywhere till he was bleeding out of every hole in his head.

And finally an undercover cop, arrested both of them.

It was the most violent sit-in that ever took place.

- More than 650 young people were arrested and taken and detained in the livestock pens at the state fairgrounds near downtown.

At the same time, Medgar Evers engaged with city officials to try to get them released.

About a week later, he was nearly run down by a car.

And of course, his appearance on television had made him much more recognizable.

So he was now in much greater danger.

- They were firebombed not long after this.

A firebomb was thrown at their station wagon.

And he was not there at the time.

And so Myrlie Evers was able to take the hose and actually extinguish it.

- Dad was up in the Delta, about 2.5 hours or so away from Jackson.

And, so when he came in, it was in the morning, early morning.

And that morning when my father was there, I felt him standing over me, and just looking at me.

So I was happy to see him and we just hugged.

And I told him, “Daddy, Daddy, do all white people hate us?” He waited for a moment.

And he said, “Sunshine,” which is his nickname for me, “There's good and bad in every race.

Always look for the good.” - The last few days of Medgar Evers life is full of pressure.

I mean, he has children who are being arrested left and right.

He needs bail money to get them out.

They're being housed in pens down at the fairground.

You have police who are beating them, who are spitting in the food, who are urinating in the water.

You have people who are asking him for help.

So he stressed out there.

There's pressure between him and the NAACP who want to slow down the movement here, and he wants to speed it up.

Toward the end of his life, he's at this situation where he believes that it's only a matter of time before the NAACP fires him.

He wants to escalate this movement.

Toward the end of his life, he's thinking about starting an organization of his own.

So he's under a whole lot of pressure.

There's infighting between the older groups who want to do things one way, and these younger people who want to kick the doors off the hinge.

And then he's a mediator between the two.

Theres disruption in his community, because the more noticed he becomes, the more danger the community is in.

And so people are concerned about the potential violence in the community as well.

He has to deal with that.

So the last few days is filled with pressure for him, and he looks physically haggard and tired, so much so that people notice it and ask him, “Are you okay?” And his response is “Yes, I'm just tired.” - Medgar Evers and his family got these horrible phone calls, you know, threatening to kill him.

You know, threatening his family, I mean, all these kinds of things.

Interesting thing, from what the Evers family has told me about that is he would try to reason with people, like, he wouldn't-- just if someone's cussing him out, He wouldn't just cuss them right back.

He would actually wait for them to calm down and try to have a reasonable discussion with them.

And a certain amount of time, it actually worked.

So he, he never he never responded to that hate with hate.

He was always responding with love and trying to get people help to move from where they were to a better understanding.

- He would take us around to different parts of the house, and he would say why we could not sit or stand in front of windows.

But my father taught us how to drop, and make sure that my younger brother, who was three at the time, get to a safe place, and the game was to find out where's the safest place in the house.

And it was the bathroom in the bathtub.

I never felt that it was a game that we had to do for survival, where I would have to use it.

To be honest with you, at that time, I did not, because I always felt that Dad would-- Daddy would protect us.

- He was, in the the last days of his life, he was training his children almost like military.

I mean, what kind of life is that, you know, with your children?

You know, how to get on the floor and stuff.

Lifes challenge is how to lay on the floor and sleep on the floor at night sometimes.

So that whole training stuff, I cant imagine you having to go to that, you know, with your children, you know, at night before you go to bed.

But at the same time, get up the next morning and continue doing what youre doing to make a change and make a difference.

- So the evening of June 11th, 1963, Medgar Evers spoke at a mass meeting at New Jerusalem Church here in Jackson, Mississippi.

And at the close of that meeting, he gathered with some of his colleagues to watch the highly-anticipated speech from President John F. Kennedy that was surroun the civil rights legislation that had been proposed.

- It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants, theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street.

And it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference for fear of reprisal.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.

- Dad had wanted us to come to the mass meeting, and he said, we can stay up until he got home.

And we were all happy about that.

And it was close to midnight because he wanted to stay up to listen to President Kennedys speech about civil rights and voting rights.

And we did.

And there was a TV right here.

And my brother Darrell and I were on the floor already listening to everything.

My mother was up on the bed with my younger brother, Van because he was only three at the time, Darrell was almost ten.

And, it was way past the speech.

Dad was not home yet and so we still got to watch TV.

And so we were watching “The Untouchables” with Eliot Ne and watching that, and then we heard Dad's car pull up and we all kind of were alerted, except for my younger brother, Van.

He was asleep.

And then we heard the shot, and Darrell and I immediately dropped, even though we were on the floor, dropped in the position.

My mom did not do what my dad told us to do.

She jumped up and started screaming and screaming his name and running down the hall.

And I heard other shots.

She ran out, opened up the door and saw Dad had pulled himself with the t-shirts that say “Jim Crow must go!” almost to the front at the porch.

And she was screaming, screaming.

My neighbors came out and did a warning shot.

Darrell and I went and did what we were taught.

We pulled our brother Van down and went for the bathroom, but we knew that Mom kept running and screaming and screaming, and Darrell and I both bolted out to the front door.

And that's where we... we saw Dad.

Right here, is where we saw him, because my mother was on the porch, the top step screaming his name.

And when we ran out, we ran.

I remember coming down the steps, not getting into the pool of blood.

Was asking Daddy to get up.

There were t-shirts, white t-shirts spread all around this path.

His car was here.

My mother's car was here.

He had just dragged himself from where he was shot at the driver's door, all around my mother's car and into the carport.

The thing that I knew he was trying to do that because he wanted to protect his family, too, because the shooter was in that direction.

Basically, between those trees.

It's kind of hard to see here, but this is where he parked over on Medgar Evers Boulevard in a shop parking lot, and he positioned himself in these bushes, in this... not only the trees, but they were blackberry bushes.

And he positioned himself to see our driveway.

And my father was not supposed to get out on the driver's side.

He promised my mom that he would always get out on the passengers side, and he didn't that night.

I don't know if he was just too tired, Or if he was just heeding what he heard with the threats that you're going to die.

And you're going to die today.

- The neighbors come out and they see what's happening, and there's blood everywhere.

And his children are there, his wife is screaming, theyre screaming, neighbors are screaming.

They load him up on a mattress that they get out of his daughter Reena's room.

So she sees her father on her mattress, loaded up, put in a wagon.

And they can't go with him.

Myrlie Evers wants to go with them, too.

And they said, “No, youve got to stay here with the children.

We'll go with him.” And in the back of this station wagon, he makes two statements.

He says, “Sit me up.” And then he says, “Turn me loose These are the last words he speaks.

- A special report from CBS news - Medgar Evers had dedicated nine years of his life to the war against racism.

Now he is dead in battle, killed from ambush on Wednesday, June 12th, 1963.

- Oh, you know, I just get these, these, these flashes and stuff and just having been at that church and, just, just had been at that meeting and just had been there, you know, with him speaking that night.

just making sure that, that we all got home safely.

And I do remember him asking if I had a ride home.

And it was shortly after I had gotten dropped off at my house I think before I could get in the house and stuff, she called me and said, “They-- they shot Medgar!” And I just, I really did, I think this was the first time I just purely remember just kind of losing it.

the sheer shock.

All I could say was that they killed Medgar.

They killed Medgar.

- It was like I was just dead inside.

I didn't-- I just went back into the bedroom, you know, with my wife and so the-- And everybody else was up, you know, crying and stuff like that.

I just closed the door.

It was like, you know, thing over my head.

A shadow.

You think youre prepared for something, but youre definitely not prepared for that, you know?

- I was working for Sacred Heart Southern Mission, the Catholic Church here in Walls.

And I was painting one of the classrooms, and I heard over the radio that Medgar had been assassinated.

God, I broke down.

I just.... First of all, I didn't want to believe it.

I didn't want to believe what I had heard.

But then, you know, it was repeated on the radio.

I just couldn't.

I went home for lunch, and I couldn't work the rest of the day.

I just couldn't go back.

I just couldn't.

I just, you know, cause, you know, I... I knew Medgar, and he knew me.

- That assassination, it was the bullet that made a turning point in our life.

Medgar was our down home right down here in Mississippi.

our shining prince of peace, sitting up the broadness in his face, the passion that you felt in his spirit, you know?

It gave you hope.

And it was as if-- and it felt-- that bullet felt like they had, kind of, ripped away our prince of peace.

- I think every inch of me was full of hatred.

And I want to tell you, that's a sick way to be.

I couldn't sleep at night without fantasizing how to repay Mississippi for taking the love of my life, father of my children.

I became obsessed with it.

Hate is a powerful thing.

- To see everybody out there in Jackson, there for my father and for us.

Over 3000 people.

And the chanting of “After Medgar, no more fear.” That impacted me.

But flying to Washington, D.C.

was the first flight my brother and I had ever had.

There was mixed feelings.

We were excited about being on a plane.

It was exciting.

And then when we realized that we were going to Dad's funeral, it was emotionally overwhelming.

We went to go see President Kennedy.

And I look at the picture now, and I've talked to my mother about this.

I look at the picture now of all of us, my uncle, my brother Darryl and I, my mother with President Kennedy.

I'm the only one there, this half smiling.

And my mother asked me what what what were you thinking about?

I said that I was-- that I had gone on a plane ride and that coming to the White House.

I didn't associate it with my dad until Arlington.

Going into Arlington, being at the funeral site.

“Taps”.

The folding of the flag.

Presenting it to my mother plays over in my head all the time.

- Now, after his assassination, they quickly round up Byron De La Beckwith.

who's responsible for his murder.

He drops his weapon.

Jackson police get it.

There's a latent fingerprint on the scope.

They send it to the FBI.

The FBI identify him.

He's a veteran as well.

He's going to be tried twice in 1964.

Hung juries both times.

So he's free.

- Medgar was the love of my life The father of my children.

And for me to sit back and do nothing?

I couldn't do that.

Not knowing him as the man he was.

He knew what I was doing.

And he was smiling.

And he was saying to me, “I told you you were stronger than you thought you were.” It was like working with him and God overseeing.

I didn't have to see Medgar, I felt him.

He never left me.

What I was looking for was a good institution of higher learning, which was Pomona College, where I could return to college and finish the work to get my degree.

I had had two years of college in Mississippi before Medgars death.

I knew that I needed to complete that four-year... get the degree because I'm single.

I need a good job.

I had those three children who were counting on me to take care of them.

Pomona college was where I found myself.

- After her husband's assassination, one would assume that Mrs.

Evers will retreat to a life of privacy, to continue to protect her children, to create a sense of normalcy as she lived without her helpmate, her soulmate.

But, when she moved to California, this was really when she began to blossom, and come into her own.

- We must not be so overwhelmed by some changes that we see that we forget what we are after.

The ultimate goal of freedom for all.

I say that here and in California, where I now reside, in New York, in Boston, and Memphis, in Tallahassee, all of the things that we see taking place now, all of the things that we have worked hard for.

All of the things that we have died for, all of the things that we have been beatenn for were things that were ours from the beginning.

(applause) - She continued to have these requests to speak publicly, especially for the NAACP during this particular time.

She published the first of her memoirs: “For Us, The Living” and she also worked in several years in corporate America.

She worked as a journalist.

She even ran for Congress.

And Mrs.

Evers became the first black woman to serve on the Board of Public Works in Los Angeles.

- I sensed a sincerity in him that I had not found in other people.

He was so dedicated to Medgar until it brought tears to my eye Walter was very much his own man.

He had fought battles with the longshoremen's union, so he had fought his own battles.

Yes, I remarried, and I was fortunate in that second marriage because that man understood the relationship that Medgar and I had and that it could never be replaced.

He knew that with me.

He knew that with my children.

But Walter Williams took that stance and we loved him, too.

Not like Medgar.

No one could replace him, but he stood by our side and helped us to move on and keep living.

- This is my mother's first book and her first sentence is so impactful.

“Somewhere in Mississippi lives the man who murdered my husband.

- I was obsessed with doing everything that I could to see that Medgars killer, his assassin, would be found and would pay.

There were times I could do nothing but pray for that.

Ask for guidance.

And when I wasn't so sure... what I was asking for all the work I was doing there were times I just said, “God, its in Your hands.” And remembering the words of my grandmother.

I don't know if this is Biblical or not... She would tell me at times, “Baby, “Let go and let God.” - Jerry Mitchell, investigative reporter writes a series of articles.

The evidence Jerry Mitchell presents is that the Sovereignty Commission had been very active in Beckwiths defense.

They had investigated jurors, they had told Beckwiths lawyers which jurors to get off.

Jury intimidation.

So they had played a very key role in that.

That's going to pave the way for this case to be reopened.

Because one thing with a hung jury, he could always be retried.

They just didn't decide to retry him a third time in 1964.

But new evidence is there.

The rifle is also located also at this point.

And so with this new evidence, 1 they opened the case again.

And so this starts 1963, kicking back up in 1989, Beckwiths going to be indicted in 1990.

He's going to go to trial in 1994.

- The jury looks like it might be hung up in that case This was before the verdict came And it was a horrible storm that And we could tell the jurors had been arguing.

You can see one of the jurors especially she was red-faced, you know.

So you could tell there was a split in the jury.

And I was worried that it was going to be a hung jury.

I didn't sleep a wink that night Anyway, but I was talking to Myrlie Evers, and she just consistently said to us, “No matter what happens, Jerry, weve won.” - Beckwith has been convicted of the murder of black activist Medgar Evers in Mississippi.

His widow, Myrlie Evers, says she waited 30 years for this day.

Two previous juries had deadlocked.

- How did it make me feel?

My answer to that is thank You, God.

Thank You.

- Medgar, I guess, one of the smartest things he did, obviously, was to marry Myrlie.

(laughing) because she provided, you know, the wherewithal and was working there with him side by side.

And we are a better nation because of, because of Myrlie.

Just think, all the years later, she really rescued the NAACP.

It was on its last leg.

You know, she was able to step in and provide uncommon leadership.

- The NAACP had gotten in a hole Its leaders had, misused some funds.

And then a couple of other things which, caused the association to totter on the brink of bankruptcy.

And the association's board was scurrying, desperately trying to get money in a short period of time, to meet the obligations, which had been incurred by bad management.

After much persuasion, she agreed that she would run for chairmanship of the board.

- At the urging of many of my friends, and with the support of countless NAACP faithful, I am seeking the chairship of the National Board of Directors of the NAACP at one of the most, if not the most critical period of the NAACP's 86 years.

- Doctor Dukes had invited me to be the security person for that meeting.

So we're sitting in the room and the men are getting I mean, just outrageous.

They, “Can't no woman become chairman.

“We don't want you.

“You can't do this.

“You can't be the chairman of this organization.

I'm not going to take orders from a wo--,” I mean, just downright disrespectful.

And I remember the vote came down and she won by one vote.

One vote.

And that outer corridor room erupted into cheers and clapping and singing.

And I'm like, okay, what in the world did I just witness?

Some of the men were talking about resigning from the board.

She was like, “Fine.

“Do what you gotta do.

“Do what you gotta do.

“But in order for this organization “to get back on the platform that it needs to, changes need to be made.” And that's what she did.

She was working through grief because right after she was elected, she got on a plane, flew back to Bend, Oregon, because her husband was dying, and he died within ten days of her being elected.

So she was working through grief.

She was using that work to help her get through her grief with his death.

- You might think the rearing of our children would be the toughest.

Heading the NAACP was the toughest assignment I have ever had.

I don't know how many times I was told, “Who do you think you are?

You just Medgar Evers wife.” Those men fought me tooth and nail.

“No woman should hold this position,” they would say.

Well, sorry.

One woman is holding this position.

Now what are you going to do about it?

- When she came in, we were at rock bottom.

The men, the men who had who had been in charge was not raising money.

And if they raised it, they were spending it in the wrong direction.

And so when she came in, there was a deficit that she had to get us out of so we could continue the work.

- We had events, fundraising events, and also the list of major donors.

We worked that list.

- She sat down with corporations She sat down with Fortune 500.

She sat down with politicians.

She sat down with banks.

She sat down with everybody.

- And so it was her as chairman of the board, she had to give direction, policies, resolutions, what issues we were going to work on.

We call it the strategic plan.

What was going to be the strategic plan?

You can't do everything.

So what are we really going to focus on now?

- And then she sat down and she spoke to Kweisi Mfume about coming on and being the president of the organization.

And between the two of them, the organization came back to being in its full power.

Everybody, we got respect again because we had lost a lot of respect.

- We must, without equivocation or timidity, reclaim our rightful place as the voice of African Americans and others who believe in the power and the premise that all people are, in fact created equal.

- The gift that she gives, in making room for other people that's what the first does.

The first makes room for others to come after them.

Not knowing who those others will ever be.

And so, when done properly, the trailblazer is making space for other people.

We now stand beneath the shadow of the nation's capitol, whose golden dome reflects the unity and democracy of one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Approximately four miles from where we are assembled, the hallowed remains of men and women rest in Arlington Cemetery.

They who believed, fought, and died for this country.

- Her being able to give that speech at his inauguration was a high point.

It was just so moving is the journey was long and difficult, but she was able to see some of the results of that, to elect a black man, and to be part of that historical moment, I think, was very significant.

And it had to stir her.

I'm sure it did for so many people.

- I mean, she was so proud.

She was so proud.

She was proud.

She was happy.

I got to talk to her.

And she was like, “Who would have thought that “I would be giving the invocatio at a presidential inauguration?” She said, “Never.” I said, “Well, your grandmother “and your aunt raised you for that moment.

“They trained you for that moment, and I know you're going to be phenomenal.” And she was.

(laughing) - (whispering) Jerry... - Jerry and Susan did talk.

- Who?

- Jerry and Susan talked together.

I got Jerry to speak to her.

He sent it to him first, and then this morning... (sharp exhale) - Could you buy 50 copies?

(laughing) - (whispering) We bought a lot.

(continued laughter) - My mother has never, ever wanted my father's legacy to be forgotten.

And so she's gone around the country speaking, but also building.

And then she built the Medgar Evers Institute.

And it's about the legacy, the social justice, youth empowerment, the vote, understanding, and working together.

And now it's called The Medgar Myrlie Evers Institute because I pushed it.

(laughing) I said, “It cannot just be Dad's “because you are so powerful.

“You worked together from the very beginning.” They worked hand in hand all the time.

They worked hand in hand and heart in heart.

- Have you ever forgiven Mississippi for what they took from you?

- No.

That was quick, wasn't it?

It was easy to give you that answer.

But what I did do was pray that I would release the anger and the unadulterated hatred that I had for the state of my birth.

Hatred destroys the one who hates.

Yeah.

The others that you hated, go on about their business.

Couldnt care less.

I did not want to live a poisoned life by my hatred of what had been done to my husband and to me.

Darrell, unfortunately, our oldest, our eldest child, passed away with a lot of hurt, still, within his being.

I wish so much that he could have lived long enough to have overcome the pain, but he never did.

So I do pray that he's at rest and at peace.

Our daughter, Reena, I think is doing quite well with her life.

She's still so dedicated to her dad's memory.

She works hard with that.

Our youngest son, James Van Dyke, is doing extremely well.

He's a photographer.

Been all over Europe this last six months.

I have grandsons that are very, very aware of their grandfather, who he was and what he did, and they have been influenced by that.

And to see that influence move from Medgars life, death into these young men who have his blood flowing through their veins.

It's a very good thing to see.

- It's a family.

It's a family that, even though it was shattered for a minute, it's somehow found its way back to being.

There are issues that go on in their life, just like everyone else's life, you know?

Because for some reason, people seem to think because, you know, you're an icon or this, that, or the other thin that you don't have family issues going on and that your life is all perfect and roses and that you're living this high life and that everything is just great.

But in the shadows, you get to see the heartbreak.

You get to see the laughter.

You get to see where the broken pieces are and you get to see how they tried to fix some of the broken pieces, and how they tried to keep things together.

America has slipped considerably in terms of who we are as a country.

Who we are as we represent to the world.

A country of freedom.

Its not so anymore.

We're still a country of freedom, but we're being fought at every side to negate that.

At this point in my life, 90 years of age, I'm a little on the tired side.

A little on the weary side.

Then I see things on the news channels.

I read things in the newspapers and I say to myself, “Myrlie May!” That's not really my name.

But I say, “Myrlie May!

“What can you do?

“Physically, not much of anything.

“Financially?

(chuckles) Minus zero.

I do believe in prayer and I can pray.

And there are times I can get my weary body up, demonstrate and do whatever else I can do, but not to sit still and say nothing.

My mouth is still in good shape.

My vision is not what it should be.

My mind is not as sharp as it used to be.

But the spirit is.

And as long as it's there, I'm there.

And I will speak what I feel.

I may get booed.

I may get shoved out of the room It doesn't matter.

I am who I am.

I'm far from perfect.

But Im who I am.

And may I always be.

Until I take my last breath.

- Myrlie's story and Medgars st absolutely need to be told right now.

We have a country that is, in some places, willfully hiding from history.

We all, as human beings, are flawed and weak and do terrible things.

But when we turn away from trauma, pretend it doesn't exist, politicize it, demonize those who would speak of it, we're doing a disservice to humanity.

The reason that so-called divisive concepts are divisive is because they're about things that are horrifying.

No one wants to talk about lynching.

No one wants to see those pictures.

No one wants to imagine that that was sanctioned by anyone.

The cost of knowledge sometimes can be painful.

When you learn about a history that is as ugly as parts of all of human history are, there's a pain that comes from that.

Myrlie's story is having gone through the blood and the trauma and the horror, but coming out whole as a human.

- The legacy of Medgar Evers is an understanding of our own importance, of our own Godliness, of our own humanity, and of our own responsibility of seeing that in other people and being willing to stand up and say, “You can't do that, “because that's incorrect.

“You can't treat them like that “because that's wrong.

“You can't run over them “because I'm standing here “and I'm going to be standing here as long as that's happening.” - These are people who, while they cared about themselves, they saw themselves in other people, and they wanted to make sure that everybody was taken care of, treated fairly and treated with dignity.

So that's what their legacy is, is the love that they have for one another and their family and for community.

- Medgar is still with me.

I don't know how to put this, but he's still with me.

I am proud of so many things.

My children.

My husband, Medgar.

Of how we, as a people of color, have been able to come together and work in a way that we haven't before.

With more peace and understanding between us, more determination to correct the ills of the society and to move forward.

How people of other races have had their eyes, ears, hearts opened to say, “You're right.” and who come and join in this fight for equality in America.

Oh, freedom!

Oh, freedom.

Oh, freedom Over me And before Id be a slave Id be buried in my grave.

And go home to my Lord And be free.

No more moaning.

No more moaning.

No more moaning Over me.

And before Id be a slave Ill be buried in my grave.

And go home to my Lord And be free.

Therell be singing.

Therell be singing.

Therell be singing Over me And before Id be a slave Ill be buried in my grave.

And go home to my Lord And be free.