Meet Medgar Evers
Introduction to Evers’ Life and Legacy
Introduction
Medgar Wiley Evers was one of Mississippi’s
most impassioned activists, orators, and
visionaries for equality and against brutality.
However many students learn little about his life
and legacy in textbooks. Therefore, Teaching
for Change prepared this lesson to introduce
students to his work and inspire them to learn
more. The lesson is also designed as a prereading activity, providing a scaffold for
students of the people, places, and issues in
Evers’ life.
Brief Bio of Medgar Evers
Born July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi,
Evers was one of four children born to James
and Jesse Evers. Evers spent the most time with
older brother Charles, whom he idolized
because Charles protected him, taught him to
fish, swim, hunt, box, wrestle, and to think
about the world and their segregated schooling.
In addition, Evers saw and witnessed acts of raw violence against Blacks; his parents and
brother could not shield him from the realities of a society built on racial discrimination.
Evers was inducted into the United States Army in 1942. Though typical at the time, racial
segregation in the military only served to anger Evers. By the end of the war, Evers was
among a generation of Black veterans committed “to return [home] fighting” for change.
The initial “fight” for Evers was to register to vote as an affirmation of citizenship. In the
summer of 1946, along with his brother, Charles, and several other Black veterans, Evers
registered to vote at the Decatur city hall. But on Election Day, the veterans were
prevented by angry whites from casting their ballots.
The experience only deepened Evers’s conviction that the status quo in Mississippi had to
change. By 1954, Evers began an 8-year career as the Mississippi state field secretary for
the NAACP, including the creating of youth councils. His organizing and murder
investigations doubled the number of NAACP members who boycotted and agitated for
justice in Mississippi. Murdered in the driveway to his house in 1963, his murderer was
not brought to justice until 1994. Thanks to Medgar Evers, the groundwork was laid for the
Mississippi freedom and voting rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s.
1
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Objective
Students will be introduced to the rich story of Medgar Evers’ life and be motivated to
learn more. The brief lesson presents:
 Medgar Evers in a context of organizations and communities
 Medgar Evers as an organizer and advocate
 The people who influenced Medgar Evers and those whom he influenced
 The legacy of Medgar Evers
Materials


Roles or brief bios. One per student.
Interview sheet. One per student.
Length of Time

Two class periods.
Pre-Reading
We recommend that the teacher learn as much as possible about the life and work of
Medgar Evers prior to using this lesson. Here is a brief bio and links to books and film
clips: http://zinnedproject.org/materials/evers-medgar/
Procedure
1. Cut the roles on the dotted lines.
2. Distribute roles so that each student has one (or two if needed so that each
role is included.)
3. Explain to students: “You will have a chance to meet people connected to the
life of Medgar Evers. Three of you will be Medgar Evers himself at different
periods in his life. You will interview each other, in role, using a set of
questions on an interview sheet.” Ask them to read their role two or three
times so that they can prepare to step into that person’s shoes.
4. Provide each student a copy of the interview questions. Their assignment is to
circulate through the classroom, meeting other individuals from Medgar Evers’
life. They should use the questions on the sheet to talk with others about Evers
and to complete the questions as fully as possible. They must find a different
individual to answer each of the six questions. As Bill Bigelow explains in a
lesson using this format on the U.S. Mexico War, “Remind students that this is
not a race; the aim to spend time hearing each other's stories, not just
hurriedly scribbling down answers to the different questions.”
5. Model a sample interview with a student volunteer to demonstrate an
encounter between two of the individuals.
6. Provide time for students to circulate throughout the class, interview each
other, and fill out responses to the interview questions.
2
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
7. Bring everyone back together.
8. Have students talk in small groups (3-4 students each) about the question:
“Why was Medgar Evers an effective leader?”
9. Have groups summarize their response in two sentences to share with the
group verbally or post on a flip chart.
10. Ask the students some of the following possible questions:

What were some similarities and differences in your responses?

What questions do you still have about Medgar Evers?

How are the efforts and work of Medgar Evers still felt today?
Encourage students to continue learning, discussing, and debating about the
life and legacy of Medgar Evers.
Feedback
This lesson was developed by Teaching for Change for grades 7+ as part of a broader
campaign to promote a deeper understanding about the life and legacy of Medgar
Evers in 2013, the 50th anniversary of his murder. We welcome your feedback,
corrections, edits, and ideas for follow-up activities for this lesson. Please send
comments to info@teachingforchange.org
Roles
Because this is an introductory lesson, the bios are short, reader friendly, and reflect
the range of Evers work and contacts. It is our hope that these short bios interest
students in learning more.
1.
James and Jessie Evers
14.
Ruby Hurley
2.
Medgar Evers as a child
15.
Amzie Moore
3.
Medgar Evers college student
16.
Amos Brown
4.
Medgar Evers in NAACP
17.
Jim Thames
5.
Ernst Borinski
18.
Fannie Lou Hamer
6.
C.C. Bryant
19.
Anne Moody
7.
Youth Councils – (Hattiesburg)
8.
Sovereignty Commission
20.
Theodore Roosevelt Mason
(TRM) Howard
9.
Tougaloo Nine
10.
Mamie Till Mobley
11.
21.
Hollis Watkins
22.
James Meredith
Theron Lynd
23.
Dr. Gilbert Mason
12.
Clyde Kennard
24.
John R. Salter
13.
Dorie and Joyce Ladner
25.
Aaron Henry
26.
Minnie White Watson
3
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
James and Jessie Evers
We have six other children besides Medgar—three girls and three boys. Medgar was born on
July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. We are a large but close-knit family, and one thing we
stress is self-sufficiency. We operate a small farm, growing vegetables to eat and cotton to sell.
We sell lumber, too. We also run a small store that sells hot food to black and white customers.
We never allow our daughters to work for white folks—too dangerous. Instead, they help out
in the store. Decatur is strictly segregated, but we refuse to cower before white people. We
don’t have a lot, but our house is always open to the less fortunate. We have respect from the
community, both white and black. We try to teach all of our kids to stand tall—and to be a true
servant of God.
Medgar Evers (college student)
I attend Alcorn A&M College in Lorman, Mississippi, I first enrolled here as a high school
student in 1946. I completed my requirements for a diploma then enrolled as a freshman
majoring in business administration in 1948. At Alcorn, I am a member of the debate team and
the college choir, and editor of our yearbook, the Alcornite. I am a halfback on the football team
and also run track. I was a WWII veteran by the time I got to Alcorn, so I am older than a lot of
the students, and many say, more serious. I met my girlfriend Myrlie the day she arrived on
campus—her parents had warned her to stay away from veterans! In Europe, I experienced a
lot of things: pride in my military service, a lack of racial discrimination in France, and the
sting of prejudice and segregation within the military itself. The war showed me what racism
and hatred could do on a global scale, and, like a lot of black veterans, I came back a changed
man determined to make change in this country. In fact, when I was first at Alcorn, my brother
Charles, two other friends, and I tried to vote in Decatur in 1946, but were prevented by 15 or
20 armed white men. They were people I had grown up with and had played with. That just
firmed my resolve to keep fighting for equality in Mississippi. Through the Alcorn YMCA, I
participate in a monthly interracial discussion group on world affairs at Millsaps College in
Jackson. Last week, I learned about an organization that I think has a lot of merit, the NAACP.
Medgar Evers (child)
My mother calls me “her special child” because I always look like something is on my mind. I
often go off someplace by myself just to think. I am studious, too; I want to be a lawyer when I
grow up. I like to hunt and fish and tease my sisters. I am kind of a quiet kid, and I resent any
sort of unfair treatment that I see. Mr. Willie Tingle was lynched and dragged through the
town then hung up from a tree and shot, all just for being colored, said my Dad, who was his
close friend. For months I passed by the bloody remains of his clothing while running rabbits
down near the fairgrounds. It’s an image I can’t get out of my mind: I know his death was
wrong. My parents subscribe to the Chicago Defender, and my brother Charles and I managed
to sell it in Decatur for a few months before the white people got wind of it and the black
people got scared. Having to quit selling the papers made us mad. After that, when white boys
would come into our neighborhood to sell the Clarion-Ledger, we would tear up their papers
or run them off. But most times I am more diplomatic and cool-headed than my brother.
4
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Medgar Evers (NAACP)
I have been organizing since 1952, the year T.R.M. Howard hired me to sell insurance for
Magnolia Mutual in the Mississippi Delta. He was president of the Regional Council of Negro
Leadership, a civil rights and self-help group that gave me my first taste of organizing. Under
his guidance, I started organizing NAACP chapters as I traveled around the Delta selling
insurance. The poverty and exploitation that I saw there—in a place where the blacks greatly
outnumbered the whites—made me determined to organize for voting rights and economic
justice. After my application to Ole Miss law school was rejected in 1954, the NAACP took
notice of my leadership skills, and hired me to become the first field secretary for Mississippi.
My job never stops and it is dangerous. There is a lot of hatred in Mississippi right now. I
organize adult chapters and youth chapters of the NAACP and I investigate incidents of racial
violence and discrimination. I send reports to the national office so that they can tell the whole
world what’s really going on in the South, and keep the pressure on Federal authorities to do
something about it. We have been having some success with economic boycotts. But I secretly
like the tactics of some of our youth chapters, and I support them behind the scenes. Their sitins and pickets are getting people’s attention.
Theodore Roosevelt Mason (TRM) Howard, M.D.
I offered Medgar Evers a job as an insurance salesman in 1952. Magnolia Mutual Life
Insurance Company is a new business I started with a group of African American investors.
Medgar and his young bride, Myrlie, moved to Mound Bayou, an all-black town in the
Mississippi Delta, to take the job. I am an active member of the NAACP, and Medgar is learning
the ropes of both organizations at once. He basically is learning to organize while selling
insurance. I went to college in Nebraska and medical school in California and I detest
segregation. As a successful businessman and chief of surgery at Taborian Hospital in Mound
Bayou, I am one of the wealthiest black men in the state and a lot of white Mississippians hate
me for that. I am not arrogant, but I guess my wealth is evident: I have a staff of servants and
chauffeurs, raised pheasants, quails, and hunting dogs, and love horse racing and fast cars. My
financial independence (I own a construction firm, credit union, and restaurant, in addition to
Magnolia Mutual) allow me to challenge Jim Crow segregation with more freedom than the
average black Mississippian. I have the ear of blacks and the attention of whites. I advocate for
full citizenship rights for African Americans and an end to police brutality. I helped create the
Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in 1951 to give influential African Americans a
political base for fighting economic and social inequality in the Delta. In many ways, the RCNL
acted as an advance guard for the NAACP.
5
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
John R. Salter
I am a Sociologist by profession and know Medgar Evers from being on the faculty at Tougaloo
College, outside of Jackson, Mississippi. I serve as coordinator of the NAACP Youth Council at
Tougaloo and Medgar is state field director of the NAACP. In 1960, Medgar helped Jackson
youth organize a successful Easter season boycott against white businesses along Capitol
Street. At the time, the national office of the NAACP did not support direct action as a strategy
for ending segregation. But following the Freedom Riders’ push to desegregate interstate bus
transportation, student-led sit-ins, wade-ins, read-ins, and pray-ins swept the country—
including Jackson—and Medgar quietly supported us. You may have seen my picture. In a
famous photo of the sit-in at the Jackson Woolworth’s lunch counter in 1963, I am the white
guy sitting on the end, next to student activists Anne Moody and Joan Trumpauer.
Dr. Ernst Borinski
I grew up in what is now Poland and got my undergraduate degree at the University of Berlin. I
came to the U.S. as a German-Jewish Holocaust refugee in 1938. After serving in the U.S. Army
during World War II, I got an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University
of Pittsburgh. I went on to become a philosopher and teach at Tougaloo College, outside Jackson,
Mississippi. Medgar Evers is a student at Alcorn A&M who travels up to Jackson to participate in a
monthly interracial discussion group on world affairs I moderate at Millsaps College. My Social
Science Lab is quite the meeting place for Tougaloo students and people in the Jackson area
interested in social/racial change. (I loved Tougaloo so much that I taught there until I died in 1983
at the age of 81 and I am buried in a cemetery on campus.)
James Meredith
A lot of people know me as the African American law student who desegregated the University
of Mississippi in 1962, sparking a riot that killed two people and wounded others. But what
most people don’t know is that Medgar Evers applied to the University long before me, in
January 1954. Evers considered his application to the Ole Miss law school a strategic move in
his overall fight for social and political equality. University and state education officials
stymied Evers’ attempt, but that only strengthened his resolve to see this barrier broken.
Evers’ failed application had a silver lining—it brought him to the attention of national NAACP
officers, who were looking to appoint a state field director for Mississippi. When I decided to
submit my application, Medgar Evers supported me behind the scenes continuously for 20
months as I prepared legally and emotionally.
J. M. “Jim” Thames
I am the postmaster for Decatur, Mississippi. I have known Medgar Evers since he was a child
because his mother did domestic work for my family. They are good people, honest and
hardworking, so I am writing a letter supporting Medgar’s application to attend law school at
Ole Miss. I don’t see why he shouldn’t have that chance. He fought for our country, put his life
on the line. That’s good enough for me.
6
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Gilbert Mason, M.D.
I went to Howard University Medical School, becoming the second practicing African American
physician on the Gulf Coast. I first met Medgar Evers in 1955. Even though he was immersed in
investigating the lynching of Emmett Till, Evers made time to meet me in Jackson to strategize
about fighting segregation in Biloxi. He organized the Biloxi branch of the NAACP, and our
friendship grew from there. Medgar helped us tackle redlining—the practice of denying blacks
the opportunity to live or buy in any neighborhood they chose—and supported the wade-ins
we conducted in 1959 and 1960 to protest the segregation of beaches. When one of the wadeins turned bloody, Evers drove down to investigate and immediately began soliciting NAACP
memberships to strengthen our cause.
The Tougaloo Nine
We are nine students at Tougaloo College who made history on March 27, 1961. On that day,
we staged a read-in at the Jackson Municipal Library on State Street. We wanted to have the
same access to reading materials as everyone else (there was a library for blacks, but it was
inferior). We entered peacefully, sat down at tables, and approached the circulation desk to
check out books. Librarians refused to assist us, and police officers arrived to arrest us. We
were all members of the Tougaloo Chapter of the NAACP, and we became known as the
“Tougaloo Nine.” Our arrest sparked fury in the black community, and people gathered on the
Hinds County Courthouse lawn to show us support. Jackson police chased the supporters, beat
them, and unleashed dogs upon them. Medgar Evers was among those supporters. The next
day, he wrote NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins about the incident, noting “This act of
bravery and concern on the part of these nine young people has seemed to electrify Negroes’
desire for Freedom here in Mississippi.”
Amzie Moore
When I got back to Cleveland, Miss. after fighting in World War II, the whites were worried
that Black soldiers were going to disrupt “the southern way of life” and started a series of
racist killings. I organized the community to fight back and get justice. I wasn’t scared of them
because I had my own money: I worked for the post office, ran a gas and service station with a
restaurant, and had a beauty parlor. Matter of fact, some other fellows and I started the
Regional Council of Negro Leadership to encourage black businesses in the Delta. Now I serve
as President of our local NAACP; I work closely with Medgar Evers on that. I invited Bob Moses
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to bring students to Mississippi to start a
voting rights campaign. We were going to start in the Delta, here in Cleveland, MS, but we
didn’t have any equipment or a place where we could hold meetings. So, when C.C. Bryant
invited us to McComb, we set up a voter registration drive there.
7
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
C. C. Bryant
I am the local president of the McComb NAACP and I invited my buddy Herbert Lee to bring
Bob Moses around to McComb so we could plan a voter registration project. I have been a
crane operator with the Union Pacific Railroad and president of the local railroad union and I
have my own business cutting hair on the weekends, so I am not afraid of speaking out. Plus I
worked with Medgar Evers at the state NAACP so I see the whole picture. It is about time we
got ourselves more political power and started voting and running for elected office so we can
have more control over our own destiny. I am so proud of the young folks who walked out at
Burglund High School; the police arrested me and said I was contributing to the delinquency of
minors, but those kids did that on their own! That Hurst may have killed my friend Herbert in
cold blood, but I am not afraid. We got to keep on with our plans to register Negroes to vote so
we can gain political and economic equity.
Sovereignty Commission State of Mississippi, 1956-1977
We know about it all, we have been knowing about everything that goes on in the state ever
since 1954, since after the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal government decided to try to
change our way of life “with all deliberate speed.” The races need to stay separate and all of us
make sure of it, from the governor, the state senate and house, and the state supreme court, on
down. We use tax dollars to pay spies and informants and to support white Citizen’s Councils.
We are especially careful to keep tabs on people like Medgar Evers and all his NAACP
troublemakers, and Bob Moses and all those outside agitators he brought down here with that
“Snick.” At the local level, we know that Sheriff Daniel Jones’s father is president of the
Americans for the Preservation of the White Race, Liberty chapter, and the deputy sheriff, the
highway patrol, all of them are members. It’s how we keep order and keep people in line. We
have to protect our state’s rights, at all cost, against the federal government.
Fannie Lou Hamer
I am co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Before getting involved with the
Civil Rights movement I was a sharecropper, a wife and a mother. After hearing a sermon in
Ruleville, MS, I became convinced that I should help more Black folks to exercise their
constitutional right to vote. Many Black people had been threatened with violence and even
death when they tried to register to vote. White supremacists who worked as police officers,
lawyers, judges and even local store owners tried to stop us from registering. I had been jailed
and beaten for trying. Some people thought I was crazy because registering Blacks to vote was
a dangerous job. I guess if I’d had any sense, I’d have been scared—but what was the point of
being scared? The only thing white people could do was kill me, and it seemed they’d been
trying to do that a little at a time since I could remember. My hard work paid off as more
people registered to vote. I was being beaten in jail in Winona, Mississippi, when Medgar Evers
was murdered. All on account of we want to register, to become first-class citizens. Eventually
I was elected MFDP vice-chair. The mission of the 68 members who traveled to the 1964
Democratic convention was to gain political power and to have a say in local and national
decisions that affected the daily lives of Black people living throughout the state of Mississippi.
8
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Hollis Watkins
I was born in 1941 and grew up near Summit, Miss., the youngest of 12 children. My parents were
sharecroppers. I met Medgar Evers at some NAACP youth meetings, but I was not particularly
involved politically in high school. In fact, it took me going to California to get inspired by the
Movement. It was 1960 and I was out there when I saw the Freedom Riders on TV. Looking at
them and what they were doing, I said, ‘This is something I want to be a part of.’ When they
announced that they were going through Alabama into Mississippi, that’s when I decided to come
home and try to hook up with them.
Bob Moses started me working on voter registration around McComb. We passed out flyers and
invited people to come by the office or to a mass meeting, where we would sing and talk and
explain in detail how to register. We also formed the Pike County Nonviolent Direct Action
Committee. I was jailed for sitting in at Woolworth’s and following the Burglund High School
walkout in McComb. I worked on voter registration in Hattiesburg with Vernon Dahmer and also
in Greenwood and Holmes County.
Ruby Hurley
After Medgar Evers’ application to the U. of Miss. was turned down, I invited him to come to
Atlanta at the NAACP’s expense so that Gloster Current, the director of branches, could speak with
him about assuming the position of Mississippi field secretary. I was Southeast regional director
of the NAACP at the time. Medgar and I drove together to Belzoni, Mississippi in 1955 to
investigate the murder of the Rev. George Lee, a preacher and businessman who had openly
advocated voting rights for African Americans. Rev. Lee had succeeded in qualifying to vote in
both City and County elections, but been repeatedly denied the right to vote by the sheriff, who
refused his poll tax payments. Before his death, whites had warned him that they would kill him if
he continued to organize for voting rights. On May 7, 1955, several white men in a convertible
pulled alongside Rev. Lee’s car and fired two gun blasts into his automobile. He died en route to
the hospital. Medgar and I also investigated the murder of Emmett Till.
Dorie and Joyce Ladner
We grew up in the 1950s in Palmers Crossing, near Hattiesburg, and were always very raceconscious. We credit this to our mother, who taught us how to carry ourselves in order to
maintain our dignity around white people. We also had a family friend—a “race man”—who
visited once a week. He brought us the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier and Ebony and
Jet. He introduced us to literature about black people, and told us, “You girls are going to have to
change things. It’ll be your generation that’s going to change things when you get older.” Ours was
the Emmett Till generation. He was the same age as us and his death had a profound impact on us.
It galvanized a lot of the people who got involved in SNCC. We were mentored by three black
Mississippi heroes who died for their beliefs: Vernon Dahmer, Medgar Evers, and Clyde Kennard.
Mr. and Mrs. Dahmer and Clyde Kennard used to take us up to Jackson to the NAACP meetings,
and they helped us organize the Hattiesburg NAACP Youth Chapter in the late 1950s. Then, as
students at Jackson State, when most of our friends were spending their Wednesday afternoon
“free time” shopping downtown, we would go to see Medgar Evers in his NAACP office on the
second floor of the Masonic Temple. He encouraged us to organize Jackson State students to
support a sit-in he was planning with some Tougaloo students. When the “Tougaloo Nine” sat in at
the Jackson Public Library, we organized a prayer vigil that night. Medgar Evers was behind all of
that.
9
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Anne Moody
“Before Emmett Till’s murder, I had known the fear of hunger, hell, and the devil. But now there
was a new fear known to me—the fear of being killed just because I was black. This was the worst
of my fears.” I grew up the oldest of nine children, in Wilkinson County, MS in the segregated
South. I went first to Natchez Junior College in 1961 on a basketball scholarship, then on to
Tougaloo College, where I earned a bachelor of science. At Tougaloo, I joined the NAACP and the
Congress for Race Equality (CORE), and later took part in Freedom Summer. That’s how I knew
Medgar Evers; he supported everything that we did at Tougaloo. 1963 was a momentous year for
me: I participated in the sit-in at the Jackson, MS Woolworth’s lunch counter and in the March on
Washington. My autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi was published in 1968.
Clyde Kennard
I served seven years in the military as a paratrooper then went to the University of Chicago. I left
school my senior year after my father died, came home to Hattiesburg to help my mother run the
family farm. That was in the mid-1950s, and I was in my early thirties. I was determined to
complete my college education, so I applied to Mississippi Southern College [now USM] two or
three times, since it was close-by. But the white people who ran things were not having any of
that. They set me up for a robbery, supposedly, of chicken feed, convicted me, and sentenced me
to seven years of hard time. They sent me to Parchman Farm and made me do hard labor, even
after I got cancer. They also denied me proper medical treatment. My protégés, Joyce and Dorie
Ladner, started a campaign for my freedom, which was picked up by SNCC and by Jet. They finally
let me out in 1963, but Governor Barnett never pardoned me. I didn’t live long after that.
Amos Brown
I became the first president of the West Jackson Youth Council of the NAACP in 1956, and
president of the Southeast Region of Youth Councils in 1958. I focused on organizing other young
people around the issue of Mississippi’s unjust educational system. Compared with white schools,
ours were pitiful: we had inadequate classrooms, old textbooks (and not enough of those),
inequitable teacher pay and generally just deplorable conditions. At an NAACP National
Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the Cleveland newspaper interviewed me about the Jackson
Separate School System, and I told it like it was. The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
targeted me after that. They called me a “full-fledged agitator.” When I tried to enroll at Jim Hill
High School, the principal at first tried to keep me out. But then Medgar Evers threatened to file a
petition to integrate Provine High School, which was all white. The school officials let me in after
that, but abolished the student council rather than let me serve as senior class president. They
also wouldn’t let me serve as valedictorian, another honor I had earned. I traveled all the way to
San Francisco with Medgar Evers, for an NAACP convention. He really supported me, and a lot of
other young people, in becoming active in the Movement.
10
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Member, Jackson NACCP Youth Council
The national NAACP office had always been sort of cool on involving youth in the Movement, but
they changed their tune after seeing what the Youth Councils were doing in Jackson. We did a lot of
legwork helping Medgar Evers organize a “Stay Off Capitol Street” boycott of downtown businesses
that he called “The Campaign for Human Dignity.” After an NAACP lawsuit against the city over
segregated public recreational facilities was dismissed, it was Youth Council members who
continued to push the issue in public. We challenged public accommodations in all sorts of venues,
including the library, the zoo, city parks, bus lines, and swimming pools. In 1961, we also launched
a full-scale boycott of the Mississippi State Fair, which was segregated. Medgar supported us on
that, asking the African American community not to attend. And when Lanier High School students
staged a walkout in 1963 to protest their discontent, and wound up at the state fairgrounds in a
makeshift “jail,” Medgar Evers sent a telegram to President John F. Kennedy expressing concern
that we were being mistreated by police. He had our back.
Mamie Till Mobley
After my son Emmett was murdered, Medgar Evers conducted the initial investigation and urged
the NAACP national leadership to get involved. Medgar and NAACP field workers Ruby Hurley and
Amzie Moore conducted a secret search for black witnesses willing to take the serious risk to come
forward. And after they testified, he would help them slip out of town. Medgar supported the idea
of an open casket at the funeral. Jet published photos of that and the outcry was immediate. I just
felt like people needed to see. The sight of his brutalized body pushed many who had been content
to stay on the sidelines directly into the fight.
Theron Lynd
I am the Circuit Clerk of Forrest County, Miss. One of my jobs is to register people to vote. But
nobody votes in this county unless I say so, and as long as I am Clerk, we are not going to have
Negroes voting in Forrest County. The law helps me out on that. We’ve had poll taxes, literacy tests
and a test to read and interpret a section of the Mississippi Constitution. It’s not hard to stump a
Negro. I ask them questions like, “How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?” And when they can’t
answer, I fail them. I get to pick the section of the Constitution, too, and whether or not they have
interpreted it right. The Justice Department has issued injunctions against me for discrimination
but I don’t care. Now I’m on trial for civil contempt because I won’t register 43 people that they say
are “qualified.” That Medgar Evers has been coming to the trial.
Aaron Henry
I was the president of the Mississippi NAACP and the Mississippi board member of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). I am a son of sharecroppers and was drafted into the U.S.
Army in 1943. My experiences of sharecropping and segregation in the military pushed me to work for
racial justice and equity. After I left the military, the G.I. Bill afforded me the opportunity to earn
pharmaceutical degree from Xavier College and then open the only black-owned drugstore in the
Clarksdale, Miss. area. I formed a close friendship with Medgar Evers as we worked toward racial equity
in Miss. Together, we founded the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a civil rights coalition to
coordinate efforts across different civil rights organizations. In 1963, we presented a joint testimony in
support of civil rights legislation. The day before Medgar Evers was murdered, he drove me to the
airport after a community meeting discussing President Kennedy’s address. On the first anniversary of
his murder, I wrote a letter to him entitled “Dear Medgar,” published in the Mississippi Free Press.
11
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Minnie White Watson
I am curator of the Medgar Evers House and Museum in Jackson, Miss. But I met Medgar long ago,
when I was a freshman in college. “He was Field Secretary for the Mississippi NAACP (National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People) at that time. He came to the school I was
attending to talk to the students. He talked about the rights we had as citizens of the United States,
and the importance of education and voting. When talking to us, he posed questions such as, ‘Are
you a registered voter? If not, why aren’t you? Have you ever tried to register? If not, why haven’t
you tried?’ Before we could answer those questions, he asked, ‘Why aren’t you holding some of the
jobs downtown that the whites are holding?’ When we answered, ‘We’re not allowed,’ he asked,
‘Why aren’t you allowed? You should be allowed.’ He wanted to know we were at least trying to
make some changes here. His questions made me see things in a different manner, think in a
different way—outside of the box. He had a profound effect on my life, so much so that I wanted to
become an even more productive person by getting my education, registering to vote, and by
telling my mother, friends, and others about the NAACP and the importance of becoming a
member. Meeting him made me more aware of the injustices in life.”
12
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org
Interview Sheet.
My name (in role) is: ____________________________________________________
1. Find someone who knew Medgar Evers at a different period in his life. For example,
if you knew Evers as a child, find someone who knew him as a college student or
member of the NAACP. Who are they?
2. Find someone who shares your perspective. Name and describe share the views.
3. Find someone who opposes your perspective. Name and describe the opposition.
4. Find someone whom Medgar Evers influenced. Name and describe the influence.
5. Find someone whom Medgar Evers supported. Name and describe the support.
6. Find someone Medgar Evers learned from. Name and say what he learned.
13
Lesson developed by Teaching for Change. Free for use by classroom teachers. Permission to post online or
reproduce elsewhere is required. © Teaching for Change. More info at www.civilrightsteaching.org