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Quick Facts
- NAME: Medgar Evers
- OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist
- BIRTH DATE: July 02, 1925
- DEATH DATE: June 12, 1963
- EDUCATION: Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University)
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Decatur, Mississippi
- PLACE OF DEATH: Jackson, Mississippi
- Full Name: Medgar Wiley Evers
- AKA: Medgar Evers
Best Known For
Medgar Evers was a civil rights activist who organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations and boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination.
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Rosa Parks - Mini Biography (4:30)
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Medgar Evers - Mini Biography
A short biography of Medgar Evers, a Civil Rights activist who fought for racial integration and worked for the NAACP before being murdered in 1963 at the age of 38.
Martin Luther King - Mini Biography
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely considered the most influential leader of the American civil rights movement. He fought to overturn Jim Crow segregation laws and eliminate social and economic differences between blacks and whites.
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Play NowMedgar Evers. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 03:18, May 23, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324.
Medgar Evers. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324 [Accessed 23 May 2013].
"Medgar Evers." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 03:18 http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324.
"Medgar Evers," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Medgar Evers," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Medgar Evers [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324.
Medgar Evers, http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Medgar Evers. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/medgar-evers-9542324. Accessed May 23, 2013.
Synopsis
Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. In 1954, he became the first state field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi. As such, he organized voter-registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination. He also worked to investigate crimes perpetrated against blacks. On June 12, 1963, Evers was assassinated outside of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
Quotes
"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea."
"If we don't like what the Republicans do, we need to get in there and change it."
Early Life
Renowned civil rights activist Medgar Evers was born on July 2, 1925, in Decatur, Mississippi. Growing up in a Mississippi farming family, Evers was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. He fought in both France and Germany during World War II, and received an honorable discharge in 1946. In 1948, he entered Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) in Lorman, Mississippi. During his senior year, Evers married a fellow student, Myrlie Beasley. They later had three children: Darrell, Reena and James.
Upon graduation from college in 1952, Evers began working as an insurance salesman. He became involved in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership. His work with the RCNL was his first experience as a civil rights organizer. He spearheaded the group's boycott against gas stations that refused to let blacks use their restrooms. With his older brother, Charles, Evers also worked on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, organizing local affiliates.
Fighting Against Discrimination
Evers applied to the University of Mississippi Law School in February 1954. After being rejected, he volunteered to help NAACP try to integrate the university with a lawsuit. Thurgood Marshall served as his attorney for this legal challenge to racial discrimination. While he failed to gain admission to the law school, Evers managed to raise his profile with the NAACP. In May 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in the famous Brown v. Board of Education case. This decision legally ended segregation of schools, but it took many years for it to be fully implemented.
Later in 1954, Evers became the first field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He moved with his family to Jackson, Mississippi. As state field secretary, Evers traveled around Mississippi extensively. He recruited new members for the NAACP and organized voter-registration efforts. Evers also led demonstrations and economic boycotts of white-owned companies that practiced discrimination.
While a virtual unknown elsewhere, Evers was one of Mississippi's most prominent civil rights activists. He fought racial injustices in many forms, including how the state and local legal system handled crimes against African Americans. Evers called for a new investigation to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who had allegedly been killed for talking to a white woman. He also protested the conviction of his fellow Mississippi civil rights activist Clyde Kennard on theft charges in 1960.
Tragic Death and Aftermath
Due to his high-profile position with the NAACP, Evers became a target for those who opposed racial equality and desegregation.
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View groupAfrican-Americans have a long history of activism in America, from fighting for the right to vote to pushing for integrated public spaces. Activists like Stokely Carmichael organized freedom rides, James Meredith fought to integrate blacks and whites at the University of Mississippi, and Rosa Parks instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott. These protests were often legal and nonviolent, and made a powerful impact on civil rights in the United States. With the help of activists like these—and many others—the country slowly worked to acknowledge the basic rights and contributions of African-Americans. Activists outisde of the U.S. include Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, who have fought against apartheid in South Africa. Learn more about the many black activists who fought against the odds in order to achieve equality.
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