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This file is copyright of Jens Schriver (c) It originates from the Evil House of Cheat More essays can always be found at: > web and contact can always be made to: Essay Name: p 3967. txt Uploader: John Friedman Email Address: Language: English Subject: History Title: Medgar Evers Grade: B+School System: Hall High School, American Studies 10 th grade Country: United States Author Comments: Not a bad essay it took a lot of my time Teacher Comments: Work on the conclusion Date: 12 / 15 / 96 Site found at: Websearch Medgar Evers was born in 1925 in Decatur, Miss. His father operated a tiny farm and he also worked in a sawmill. His mother worked as a domestic and was extremely religious.
His early schooling was in a one room schoolhouse. The older he got the farther he had to travel to school, at one point he had to walk 12 miles each way to school. (Nossiter 28) Having grown up in a segregated town, city, state, and country Medgar Evers learned most things the hard way. Decatur was home to a new junior college, and was the center for all of the farmers and planters in the area. Medgar was said by his civil rights colleagues to have self-discipline and Spartan ways.
These traits were instilled in him at a young age. Medgar s mother, Jessie, a deeply religious woman allowed no tobacco or alcohol in her house. They attended church on Sundays and revivals three months of the year. He grew up in a poor household, Medgar s brother, Charles, remembers having only two pairs of shoes every two years, and the clothes they had hardly ever changed.
As a young boy Medgar was responsible for milking the cow, and slaughtering the hogs for bacon. Medgar also had many goals in the civil rights movement. Medgar often said he wanted to be instrumental in accomplishing a place were blacks and whites were equal. He simply wanted blacks and whites to be equal. (Nossiter 33) His major contribution and goal was to enforce the supreme court law in 1954 that declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Medgar Evers was a successful symbol of leadership for the protection and institution of civil rights.
While he was alive Medgar made many contributions to the civil rights movement, yet after his death many more contributions were made because of him and what he stood for to his people. Even today his death is remembered, in the movie, Ghosts of Mississippi. His death and the aftermath are displayed in a horrific manner. He made many small contributions dealing with civil rights, mainly as a member of the NAACP where he recruited many members and collected dues.
He also advocated the boycotting of white merchants who discriminated against blacks, and gave many speeches on the doctrine separate but equal. These speeches were not only directed towards blacks, but to whites as well. As Salter (Medgar s long time friend) wrote three years after his death, He wasn t really an organizer, he was sort of a lone wolf who traveled lonely and mighty dangerous trails. He was simply and in every sense of the word, a hell of a brave pioneer deep in the wilderness. (Nossiter 55) Going through High School, Medgar had an especially hard time. He was often remembered by friends as a goody-two-shoes, or a press. Yet he was still managed to become a figure of respect among his peers.
His friends remember him as a studious young man who liked to shoot pool and impress girls on the dance floor. Ever s father was one generation removed from slavery and therefore had an Uncle Tom view on reality. He often taught his boys to be patient and accept the reality in which they lived in. The reality being that blacks were less than whites in all aspects. It was impossible for Charles and Medgar to go along with these ideals and thus committed many boyish pranks. These pranks started off as small minuscule things such as throwing rocks at the white school bus, and slowly grew into a hatred for all whites.
Medgar and his brother formed a half-serious pact to go into the army and learn to kill white people. (Nossiter 34) The most remarkable part of Evers childhood was what he had. Medgar had an unusually deep appreciation of the humiliations that white supremacy inflicted on blacks, an extremely strong desire to do something about it. When he saw any black man being disgraced it was as if he himself felt it. Therefore he was hurt many times by the horrible things he saw. One time Medgar viewed the beating of an elderly black woman. Yet remarkably he was not a violent man.
He kept all his anger inside, and vented it through his work. When he was mad about something that happened it would only make him work harder. Medgar would often put in late nights even to midnight to prove that he was better than most. He had to work twice as hard to keep up with the white men in this segregated time. It was this desire that led him to become the great civil rights leader, and hero he turned out to be. (Vollers 47) At age seventeen Medgar dropped out of school, and joined a segregated unit of the army. He joined the Transportation Corps in England and, after the Normandy invasion returned to the United States.
He was a true American in every respect. Most of the officers were white and racist, therefore the worst jobs such as cleaning latrines were left for the blacks. These racist acts only increased Medgar Evers hatred towards whites, and motivated him even more to become a distinguished civil rights leader. Medgar s college career was in Alcorn A&# 038; M. He majored in Business Administration. He was even mentioned in Who s Who in American Colleges.
When Medgar was ready to graduate from college it was thought by his friends that he would go North and depart from Mississippi. Medgar s wife Myrlie wanted more than anything to move North but Medgar often said, There s land here, where a man can raise cattle, and I m going to do that someday. There are lakes where a man can sink a hook and fight bass. He was also able to build his own business. (Nossiter 3 Medgar spent two years after graduation working for a small black owned business. He sold life insurance. The man who recruited Evers to the NAACP was Aaron Henry, the company s secretary.
Henry had been a member of the NAACP for years. Evers was inspired by what he saw and began to sell memberships to the NAACP with all of his insurance sales skills. He saw that people could make a difference, blacks and whites. He was an excellent salesman for the NAACP and encouraged many people to join the organization.
The NAACP was a dangerous group to belong to in the south during those years. Teachers, Medgar's main targets for NAACP often donated money only if their names would be kept strictly confidential. This confidentiality was most likely due to the threats of whites. Due to physical threats by white southerners and increasing economic difficulties (the one dollar a year fee was hard to pay for some blacks) the NAACP had only 377 members in 1940 in all of Mississippi. (World Book 217) During the summer of 1953 Medgar Evers made one of his first major stands against discrimination. He took pictures of the conditions in black schools and went to bring this proof to the superintendent in a small school district in Mississippi. This happened just before the Brown vs.
Board of Education court case. While Medgar was speaking to the superintendent, he kept his back toward Medgar and his colleagues. That was the superintendent s way of showing them that they had nothing important to say, and were insignificant to him. One of Medgar s accomplishments was his ability to convince people to fight the war against racism and join the NAACP, he used his sales skills to persuade people into joining.
On the evening of Tuesday, June 11, while Myrlie was watching President Kennedy s breakthrough civil rights speech, something horribly wrong was about to happen. At the time of the incident (the first black students attending the school) involving Governor George Wallace at the University of Alabama and the riots in Jackson, Medgar Evers was about to make his final stand. Medgar was away at the rally at the University of Alabama. His three children were allowed to wait up for him until he came home. Myrlie drifted off into sleep while the children fought over the television. Somewhere around midnight she heard tires pull in the driveway, and the car door slam shut.
Immediately following that a much larger sound was heard, a sound so loud it awakened the neighborhood. The children dove to the ground as they had been taught many times at school and at home. By the time she had ran to the door and turned on the light there was Medgar lying face down. As the police began to arrive Medgar was loaded onto a mattress and into a station wagon. Sit me up, Turn me loose. Those were Medgar's last words. (Nossiter 42) Unfortunately Medgar's death seemed to have more of an effect, and make more of a dent on the civil rights issues than his life did.
Medgar s death caused outbreaks of new demonstrations and violence, this was one of the factors that led President Kennedy to ask Congress to put in place a comprehensive civil rights law. Dead or alive, Medgar Evers was a great civil rights leader who played his part and put in more effort than most. He was a man of great integrity who died for the greater purpose: equal rights for all. MEDGAR WILEY Eversnovember 22, 1996 John Friedman Period 1 American Studies Vollers, Maryanne.
Ghosts of Mississippi. Toronto, Canada: Little, Brown and Company, 1995. Medgar Evers World Book Encyclopedia. 1995 Ed. MEDGAR WILEY Eversnovember 22, 1996 Jay WolfbergPeriod 1 American Studies Works Cited Vollers, Maryanne. Ghosts of Mississippi.
Toronto, Canada: Little, Brown and Company, 1995. Medgar Evers World Book Encyclopedia. 1995 Ed.
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