| “Dedicated to everyone who believes in peace, love, and non-violence, let’s keep the torch burning.” inscription on the plaque of the statue of Medgar Evers at The Jackson Library. |
Jackson, Mississippi- With what
would have been Medgar Evers 82nd birthday approaching (July 2)
and with the 44th anniversary of his brother’s murder (June 12),
would have been Medgar Evers 82nd birthday approaching (July 2)
and with the 44th anniversary of his brother’s murder (June 12),
Charles Evers recently took time out for an interview on Medgar’s legacy, the civil
rights movement, and his own role in it, too. He has just finished working the 44th
Medgar Evers Mississippi Homecoming Festival, which he cofounded with B.B. King “to bring
together the races.”
rights movement, and his own role in it, too. He has just finished working the 44th
Medgar Evers Mississippi Homecoming Festival, which he cofounded with B.B. King “to bring
together the races.”
“He gave it all, he gave his whole life so that people could vote,” reflects Charles Evers, from
his office at the blues and gospel radio station that he manages, as he prepares for his weekly
nighttime public affairs show on a rainy night. The six foot tall, 245 pound, sturdily built
Evers speaks in a full deep Delta voice, with passion and a sense of mission. A painting of
Medgar is above him on one part of the wall, a large photo of Fannie Lou Hamer with Charles can
be seen as well as smaller photos throughout the room with Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy
and Presidents Bush (both), Johnson, Reagan, and Nixon.
his office at the blues and gospel radio station that he manages, as he prepares for his weekly
nighttime public affairs show on a rainy night. The six foot tall, 245 pound, sturdily built
Evers speaks in a full deep Delta voice, with passion and a sense of mission. A painting of
Medgar is above him on one part of the wall, a large photo of Fannie Lou Hamer with Charles can
be seen as well as smaller photos throughout the room with Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy
and Presidents Bush (both), Johnson, Reagan, and Nixon.
“We wanted one thing, equality and
that’s all. No superiority and
certainly no inferiority. Just
give us the same chance, give us
the same measures and things that
you give everyone else; and we go
from there. That’s what the fight
was all about… We have a chance to
be somebody if we want to and we
didn’t have that before. When
Medgar was here 44 years ago there
wasn’t a single Black elected
official in the state of
Mississippi, not one. Now we have
the highest number in the
country,” says Evers.
Scholar Manning Marable wrote in
his introduction to the
‘Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A
Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed
Through His Writings, Letters, and
Speeches’ that “Evers dedication
in the face of racist intimidation
made it possible for millions of
Americans to achieve their
constitutional rights.” He has
further stated that “Medgar Evers
was more than a pioneer of the
Black Freedom struggle, he was a
central figure in American history
who has yet to be fully recognized
for the giant that he was.”
‘Autobiography’ was compiled by
Medgar Evers wife Myrlie Evers
Williams—an important figure in
her own right in the civil rights
movement* --and who coedited the
book with Marable.
It was his work bringing together
the races that cost Medgar Evers
his life when he was murdered on
June 12, 1963 by Byron De La
Beckwith. Beckwith was finally
found guilty in 1994 after two
mistrials in 1964. The case was
reopened due to new evidence found
of jury tampering and due to the
persistence of Myrlie. Medgar
Evers was NAACP Field Secretary in
Mississippi from 1954 to 1963 and
was then succeeded by Charles.
The Evers fought tirelessly for
integration, hiring and promotion
of blacks, and the removal of
segregation signs. They began a
movement to register people to
vote in Mississippi and to join
the NAACP. They challenged
discriminatory questions on forms
that had to be answered to the
satisfaction of prejudicial
circuit clerks of the counties
before a person could vote, led
voter registration drives, protest
marches, organized rallies,
boycotts and sit-ins, fought the
Citizens Council’s—militant
supremacists who fought
desegregation--, and the Klu Klux
Klan, and faced death threats
regularly.
In addition, Medgar Evers
investigated violence, jailings,
and murders against the black
community most notably the Emmett
Till case,** introduced James
Meredith, who became the first
black student admitted to the
University of Mississippi to
Thurgood Marshall, who was the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Director
and who took Meredith’s case to
the Supreme Court where Meredith
won in 1962--Medgar had applied to
go to law school there in 1954—
and fought for Meredith too.
Medgar’s murder marked a turning
point in the Civil Rights
movement; it motivated more
people to stand up and adopt a “we’
re not going to take it anymore”
attitude and policy. It served as
a rallying force and helped to
spark the Freedom Summer of 1964,
the Civil Rights Act of 1964--
which barred segregation in public
places, prohibited employers from
discrimination, and allowed the
government to suspend funds to
states that continued to
segregate--, and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965, which barred literacy
tests and provided for federal
registration of voters where the
Attorney General considered it
necessary to enforce rights under
the 15th Amendment which
guaranteed citizens the right to
vote regardless of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
James Charles Evers was born 84
years ago in Decatur,
Mississippi. His Dad, Jim was “a
tough old goat who worked very
hard,” and his Mom, Jessie was “a
very strict religious Mom who we
respected and obeyed no matter
what.”
Their father instilled self
reliance and pride. He taught
that’s all. No superiority and
certainly no inferiority. Just
give us the same chance, give us
the same measures and things that
you give everyone else; and we go
from there. That’s what the fight
was all about… We have a chance to
be somebody if we want to and we
didn’t have that before. When
Medgar was here 44 years ago there
wasn’t a single Black elected
official in the state of
Mississippi, not one. Now we have
the highest number in the
country,” says Evers.
Scholar Manning Marable wrote in
his introduction to the
‘Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A
Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed
Through His Writings, Letters, and
Speeches’ that “Evers dedication
in the face of racist intimidation
made it possible for millions of
Americans to achieve their
constitutional rights.” He has
further stated that “Medgar Evers
was more than a pioneer of the
Black Freedom struggle, he was a
central figure in American history
who has yet to be fully recognized
for the giant that he was.”
‘Autobiography’ was compiled by
Medgar Evers wife Myrlie Evers
Williams—an important figure in
her own right in the civil rights
movement* --and who coedited the
book with Marable.
It was his work bringing together
the races that cost Medgar Evers
his life when he was murdered on
June 12, 1963 by Byron De La
Beckwith. Beckwith was finally
found guilty in 1994 after two
mistrials in 1964. The case was
reopened due to new evidence found
of jury tampering and due to the
persistence of Myrlie. Medgar
Evers was NAACP Field Secretary in
Mississippi from 1954 to 1963 and
was then succeeded by Charles.
The Evers fought tirelessly for
integration, hiring and promotion
of blacks, and the removal of
segregation signs. They began a
movement to register people to
vote in Mississippi and to join
the NAACP. They challenged
discriminatory questions on forms
that had to be answered to the
satisfaction of prejudicial
circuit clerks of the counties
before a person could vote, led
voter registration drives, protest
marches, organized rallies,
boycotts and sit-ins, fought the
Citizens Council’s—militant
supremacists who fought
desegregation--, and the Klu Klux
Klan, and faced death threats
regularly.
In addition, Medgar Evers
investigated violence, jailings,
and murders against the black
community most notably the Emmett
Till case,** introduced James
Meredith, who became the first
black student admitted to the
University of Mississippi to
Thurgood Marshall, who was the
NAACP Legal Defense Fund Director
and who took Meredith’s case to
the Supreme Court where Meredith
won in 1962--Medgar had applied to
go to law school there in 1954—
and fought for Meredith too.
Medgar’s murder marked a turning
point in the Civil Rights
movement; it motivated more
people to stand up and adopt a “we’
re not going to take it anymore”
attitude and policy. It served as
a rallying force and helped to
spark the Freedom Summer of 1964,
the Civil Rights Act of 1964--
which barred segregation in public
places, prohibited employers from
discrimination, and allowed the
government to suspend funds to
states that continued to
segregate--, and the Voting Rights
Act of 1965, which barred literacy
tests and provided for federal
registration of voters where the
Attorney General considered it
necessary to enforce rights under
the 15th Amendment which
guaranteed citizens the right to
vote regardless of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
James Charles Evers was born 84
years ago in Decatur,
Mississippi. His Dad, Jim was “a
tough old goat who worked very
hard,” and his Mom, Jessie was “a
very strict religious Mom who we
respected and obeyed no matter
what.”
Their father instilled self
reliance and pride. He taught
them that those filled with the
most hate were the ones who were
the biggest cowards and could be
defeated. Charles and Medgar
watched him stand up to a racist
storekeeper who tried to
overcharge him, used racial slurs
and tried to pull a gun and yet
prevailed against the grocer.
For school, they walked three
miles each way-- many a time
having to avoid being run off the
road by the school bus for whites
which was jeering them-- to a one
room drafty shack that was filled
with 100 children and two
teachers. “We had to cut wood and
make our own fire in an old stove
he says.” They were only allowed
to attend school for four months
of the year—(due to
discrimination) from fall to mid
winter. In high school, Charles,
played on the football team,
worked in a funeral home, worked
on farms, and got involved with
bootlegging after meeting a
boarder that his Mom took in. To
escape oppression in Mississippi
he volunteered for the Army in
1940 (with the Corps of Engineers)
and served in New Guinea, and the
Philippines during the war.
“When we came back from the Army
(Medgar had volunteered in 1942),
we couldn’t register to vote, we
couldn’t vote, we couldn’t go to
restaurants, we couldn’t do
nothing. We vowed then to never
stop until this country was free
from that,” he says.
After returning in 1945, they went
to Alcorn Agricultural &
Mechanical College (which became
Alcorn State University) on the GI
Bill. They went because “our Dad,
always wanted us to get an
education and do better for
ourselves than he did.”
In 1946, they registered to vote
in spite of threats from the
community and pressure on the
family. The bigger confrontation
came on election day and as Evers
recounts in his biography ‘Have No
Fear’ cowritten with Andy
Szanton, “When we reached the
courthouse, we found 250 rednecks,
dressed in overalls, holding
shotguns, rifles, and pistols…I’d
never seen so many Klukkers (Ku
Klux Klansman), bigots, and
hatemongers, never seen so many
guns in one place, not even in the
army. And mean, silent white men
holding those guns.
“We tried to ignore them, but a
bunch of them were blocking the
courthouse doors. We stood on the
courthouse steps, eyeballing each
other. I had a long-handle .38
with me and switchblade knife in
my pocket.”
The standoff ended after folks
they knew pleaded with them and
Medgar said, “Come on Charlie, let’
s go. We’ll get them next time.”
That time came in 1947 when they
voted for the first time.
Also while at Alcorn, they met
activist—physician, farmer,
businessman Dr. Theodore Roosevelt
Mason Howard (who helped start the
“don’t buy gas if you can’t use
the restrooms” boycott with them),
and who further inspired them to
set up branches of the NAACP and
to pursue civil rights. T.R.M.
Howard emphasized treating poor
people with dignity and gave
Medgar a job selling life
insurance at his company. The job
provided Medgar exposure to the
dire poverty of the Delta and
moved him to want to do as much as
possible to help people who were
suffering. In 1954 he was named
the first field secretary of the
NAACP.
After graduating from Alcorn and
getting married, Charles moved to
Philadelphia, Mississippi where he
started a chapter of the NAACP--
led voter registration drives—was
named its statewide chair of voter
registration, managed a funeral
parlor, sold burial insurance,
bootlegged, formed a cab company,
opened a restaurant and blues
club, and hosted a rhythm and
blues radio show as a deejay. On
the radio show he would make short
comments and encourage voter
registration.
“I never wanted to be free and
broke. I never wanted to fight
and get integrated at a hotel I
most hate were the ones who were
the biggest cowards and could be
defeated. Charles and Medgar
watched him stand up to a racist
storekeeper who tried to
overcharge him, used racial slurs
and tried to pull a gun and yet
prevailed against the grocer.
For school, they walked three
miles each way-- many a time
having to avoid being run off the
road by the school bus for whites
which was jeering them-- to a one
room drafty shack that was filled
with 100 children and two
teachers. “We had to cut wood and
make our own fire in an old stove
he says.” They were only allowed
to attend school for four months
of the year—(due to
discrimination) from fall to mid
winter. In high school, Charles,
played on the football team,
worked in a funeral home, worked
on farms, and got involved with
bootlegging after meeting a
boarder that his Mom took in. To
escape oppression in Mississippi
he volunteered for the Army in
1940 (with the Corps of Engineers)
and served in New Guinea, and the
Philippines during the war.
“When we came back from the Army
(Medgar had volunteered in 1942),
we couldn’t register to vote, we
couldn’t vote, we couldn’t go to
restaurants, we couldn’t do
nothing. We vowed then to never
stop until this country was free
from that,” he says.
After returning in 1945, they went
to Alcorn Agricultural &
Mechanical College (which became
Alcorn State University) on the GI
Bill. They went because “our Dad,
always wanted us to get an
education and do better for
ourselves than he did.”
In 1946, they registered to vote
in spite of threats from the
community and pressure on the
family. The bigger confrontation
came on election day and as Evers
recounts in his biography ‘Have No
Fear’ cowritten with Andy
Szanton, “When we reached the
courthouse, we found 250 rednecks,
dressed in overalls, holding
shotguns, rifles, and pistols…I’d
never seen so many Klukkers (Ku
Klux Klansman), bigots, and
hatemongers, never seen so many
guns in one place, not even in the
army. And mean, silent white men
holding those guns.
“We tried to ignore them, but a
bunch of them were blocking the
courthouse doors. We stood on the
courthouse steps, eyeballing each
other. I had a long-handle .38
with me and switchblade knife in
my pocket.”
The standoff ended after folks
they knew pleaded with them and
Medgar said, “Come on Charlie, let’
s go. We’ll get them next time.”
That time came in 1947 when they
voted for the first time.
Also while at Alcorn, they met
activist—physician, farmer,
businessman Dr. Theodore Roosevelt
Mason Howard (who helped start the
“don’t buy gas if you can’t use
the restrooms” boycott with them),
and who further inspired them to
set up branches of the NAACP and
to pursue civil rights. T.R.M.
Howard emphasized treating poor
people with dignity and gave
Medgar a job selling life
insurance at his company. The job
provided Medgar exposure to the
dire poverty of the Delta and
moved him to want to do as much as
possible to help people who were
suffering. In 1954 he was named
the first field secretary of the
NAACP.
After graduating from Alcorn and
getting married, Charles moved to
Philadelphia, Mississippi where he
started a chapter of the NAACP--
led voter registration drives—was
named its statewide chair of voter
registration, managed a funeral
parlor, sold burial insurance,
bootlegged, formed a cab company,
opened a restaurant and blues
club, and hosted a rhythm and
blues radio show as a deejay. On
the radio show he would make short
comments and encourage voter
registration.
“I never wanted to be free and
broke. I never wanted to fight
and get integrated at a hotel I
couldn’t ever sleep at because I
didn’t have no money. It goes
hand in hand,” says the man who
has always been a strong believer
in economic empowerment.
As his activism increased so did
the pressure by the Citizen’s
Council. His café lease and cab
license were revoked, the windows
in his restaurant were shot out,
his credit was cut and his
customers threatened, as were the
owners of the radio station where
he worked.
“I was a deejay and they kicked me
off the air. The Klu Klux Klan
and Citizens Councils just broke
me. I really didn’t want to leave
Medgar. And I told Medgar ‘Lope
(the nickname he gave to him after
the Deacon of their Church) you
stay here and I’ll go make the
money. And I’ll keep sending you
money back. Don’t you worry about
nothing,’ and I did whatever I
could do.’”
It would all lead to him leaving
Mississippi and winding up in
Chicago, in 1956—he had been
heading to Flint, Michigan but his
money and gas ran out.-- It was
in Chicago and the Chicago area
that he ran numbers for the Mob
and opened several taverns which
had gambling and prostitution.
While he wouldn't go into his
Chicago days too much this night,
he did say, “I did what I did
because I thought it was the thing
to do to make sure that my family
could live good and I don’t deny
it.” At his speaking engagements
he has been known to tell
audiences ‘don’t do what I did’,
and in his first book ‘Evers’ co-
written with Grace Halsell, he
says “ “Folk said, ‘You did what?
Ran girls up in Chicago? Charles
Evers ran a numbers game?’ I’d
say, “Yeah, and you heard it from
me. I challenged my opponents
(when he ran for Governor of
Mississippi) to tell on
themselves, too. They ducked my
challenge… It cleansed my soul to
confess my sins and move on.”
During his Chicago years, he would
send Medgar money and still go
back home to see him. One time,
he was in Mississippi when Medgar
was punched in the face by a cab
driver for refusing to leave his
seat and move to the back of a
bus. The cab driver had been near
the bus as the protest was going
on. After he got word of what
had happened to Medgar, Charles
threatened a group of cab drivers
near the bus station with a
rifle. An upset Medgar
reprimanded him for his tactics.
He would return to Chicago and
continue operating his businesses
though he was still torn about
being away from Medgar.
They would talk for the last time
by telephone two nights before
Medgar was murdered. The death
threats had continued to increase
to Medgar whose house had been
firebombed several weeks before
the murder. Charles had already
planned to go down to Jackson the
following week and volunteered to
come right away instead, but
Medgar talked him out of it.
Following the murder, Charles
immediately returned to
Mississippi in a state of numbness
and disbelief. He was greatly
conflicted about how to carry on
and seriously reconsidered
becoming militant, like the Mau
Mau insurgency movement had in
Kenya, led by Jomo Kenyatta. The
Mau Mau’s objective was to cleanse
Africa by murdering whites and
overthrowing British rule there in
the process. Charles and to a
lesser degree Medgar had thought
about starting their own Mau Mau
in Mississippi. But it was
Medgar’s deeper belief in non-
violence that transcended the hate
back then and would set a powerful
example after his death, too.
Subsequently, Charles would meet
many people whose lives had been
touched by Medgar’s non-violent
approach and it inspired him to
try to follow Medgar’s lead, too.
“We agreed that if something ever
happened to either one of us--
because we were fighting this
before I left—that the other one
would carry on,” he says.
didn’t have no money. It goes
hand in hand,” says the man who
has always been a strong believer
in economic empowerment.
As his activism increased so did
the pressure by the Citizen’s
Council. His café lease and cab
license were revoked, the windows
in his restaurant were shot out,
his credit was cut and his
customers threatened, as were the
owners of the radio station where
he worked.
“I was a deejay and they kicked me
off the air. The Klu Klux Klan
and Citizens Councils just broke
me. I really didn’t want to leave
Medgar. And I told Medgar ‘Lope
(the nickname he gave to him after
the Deacon of their Church) you
stay here and I’ll go make the
money. And I’ll keep sending you
money back. Don’t you worry about
nothing,’ and I did whatever I
could do.’”
It would all lead to him leaving
Mississippi and winding up in
Chicago, in 1956—he had been
heading to Flint, Michigan but his
money and gas ran out.-- It was
in Chicago and the Chicago area
that he ran numbers for the Mob
and opened several taverns which
had gambling and prostitution.
While he wouldn't go into his
Chicago days too much this night,
he did say, “I did what I did
because I thought it was the thing
to do to make sure that my family
could live good and I don’t deny
it.” At his speaking engagements
he has been known to tell
audiences ‘don’t do what I did’,
and in his first book ‘Evers’ co-
written with Grace Halsell, he
says “ “Folk said, ‘You did what?
Ran girls up in Chicago? Charles
Evers ran a numbers game?’ I’d
say, “Yeah, and you heard it from
me. I challenged my opponents
(when he ran for Governor of
Mississippi) to tell on
themselves, too. They ducked my
challenge… It cleansed my soul to
confess my sins and move on.”
During his Chicago years, he would
send Medgar money and still go
back home to see him. One time,
he was in Mississippi when Medgar
was punched in the face by a cab
driver for refusing to leave his
seat and move to the back of a
bus. The cab driver had been near
the bus as the protest was going
on. After he got word of what
had happened to Medgar, Charles
threatened a group of cab drivers
near the bus station with a
rifle. An upset Medgar
reprimanded him for his tactics.
He would return to Chicago and
continue operating his businesses
though he was still torn about
being away from Medgar.
They would talk for the last time
by telephone two nights before
Medgar was murdered. The death
threats had continued to increase
to Medgar whose house had been
firebombed several weeks before
the murder. Charles had already
planned to go down to Jackson the
following week and volunteered to
come right away instead, but
Medgar talked him out of it.
Following the murder, Charles
immediately returned to
Mississippi in a state of numbness
and disbelief. He was greatly
conflicted about how to carry on
and seriously reconsidered
becoming militant, like the Mau
Mau insurgency movement had in
Kenya, led by Jomo Kenyatta. The
Mau Mau’s objective was to cleanse
Africa by murdering whites and
overthrowing British rule there in
the process. Charles and to a
lesser degree Medgar had thought
about starting their own Mau Mau
in Mississippi. But it was
Medgar’s deeper belief in non-
violence that transcended the hate
back then and would set a powerful
example after his death, too.
Subsequently, Charles would meet
many people whose lives had been
touched by Medgar’s non-violent
approach and it inspired him to
try to follow Medgar’s lead, too.
“We agreed that if something ever
happened to either one of us--
because we were fighting this
before I left—that the other one
would carry on,” he says.
| by David Koppel © 2007 |
Medgar, the Movement & More
an interview with Charles Evers
by David Koppel
an interview with Charles Evers
by David Koppel
