twist of fait accomplis

Thursday marks the 40-year anniversary of civil rights leader Medgar Evers' death at the hands of white supremist Byron de la Beckwith. De la Beckwith lived as a free man for 30 years before being convicted in 1994, just seven years before his own death.

Medgar Evers' story isn't one told at the same level as that of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, but Evers' efforts were no less influential. Evers helped Mississippi, a staunchly segregationalist state, to integrate and give more power and responsibility to its significant black population. Evers, like other civil rights leaders, was well aware that not only was he working against the status quo favored by the racists of the state, he was working against the federal government, who gave help to the civil rights movement only when things got frighteningly out-of-control.

Evers was murdered outside of his home on June 12, 1963 in front of his wife and children as he exited his car.

Further Reading...

CNN has some good coverage of the anniversary, as does Newsday. Ole Miss has some biographical information worth reading.

Ghosts of Mississippi is a moving biography of Medgar Evers (the book is much better than the movie) and Myrlie Evers' 1967 book For Us, The Living provides us with a view of her husband just a few years after his death (I haven't seen the TV movie adaptation of this book).

Other books about Medgar Evers that I haven't read include Of Long Memory, Never Too Late, and The Ghosts of Medgar Evers.

12:31 PM

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