In two days, as of the writing of this, on September 22, a relatively forgotten anniversary will take place. It will be the 148th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of the manner in which Abraham Lincoln addressed the slavery issue, few know what it actually accomplished outside the obvious. President Lincoln outspokenly said slavery was wrong, not just by saying it, but also by executive order.
The order was brilliant on several levels, but its motives, although wonderful in its ends, were politically oriented. Basically it freed slaves only in the Confederate States. Don’t get me wrong, Lincoln’s antislavery motives had been in public view for quite some time, and in part incited the Civil War, and led to the eventual state of racial freedom we enjoy.
Lincoln wanted to force the hand of any state which had seceded by freeing all slaves of those states. In doing so he relieved them of considerable manpower to fight against the north. Additionally, roughly 186,000 freed slaves joined the Union Army to fight against the south.
In the end four million slaves would thankfully be freed, but some reports sadly state that over 620,000 people died in the war, 38,000 of them black, making it far and away the U.S’s most deadly conflict. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report the statistics below. No matter what number you believe we all know the war took an incredibly heavy toll on the then population of approximately 35 million. The deaths were an extraordinary number for a four year war, and it took place on our own soil. It’s sad to think that so many died over an obvious moral choice people refused to make.
Civil War (1861-1865)
Total Service Members (Union)…………………2,213,363
Battle Deaths (Union)………………………………140,414
Other Deaths in Service (Union)………………….224,097
Non-mortal Woundings (Union)…………………..281,881
Total Service Members (Conf.)………………….1,050,000
Battle Deaths (Confederate)………………………..74,524
Other Deaths in Service (Confed.)………………..59,297
Even sadder is the knowledge that a hundred years later the battle was being fought, loss of life was still taking place, and still today prejudice is alive and well in many parts of the country. In some cases it still exists at an unprecedented level. Because of political correctness, and society in general we now fight a cold war.
In 1963 the battle wasn’t so cold. It was red hot in fact. People were dying across the U.S. over racism. Mississippi had become racism central. I lived there at the time, and although young, I remember the hatred displayed throughout Jackson.
Everyone remembers the warriors of the civil rights movement such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but there’s a name often forgotten as much as the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. It is the name of a man who valiantly died at 37 for the movement.
It was a hot June day in Mississippi. President Kennedy had addressed the nation earlier stating “the white resistance to civil rights for blacks a moral crisis.” He assured the nation federal action and that integration would become a reality.
Just after midnight that night a high powered bullet entered Medgar Evers’ back and ripped through his lung as he walked from his car. He held in his hand t-shirts with the logo “Jim Crow Must Go,” (referring to the “separate but equal” laws that led to surreptitious discrimination) and had just returned from the coast where he represented the NAACP at a number of functions.
Myrlie Evers recalled the night in an interview with “People” magazine. She and her children had been waiting up for his return.
“I opened the door, and there was Medgar at the steps, face down in blood. The children ran out and were shouting, ‘Daddy get up!”
In less than an hour, the light that was Medgar Evers faded to black. His funeral was more a display of anger against the police and bigots than a true funeral. The justifiable anger was tangible throughout the city. Medgar Evers was immediately hailed as a hero and a martyr for civil rights. His life had made a statement for civil morality, but his death had delivered a speech for equality and against racism.
Oh yeah there was an uproar. The all – white newspapers offered substantial rewards, as did the governor of the grand ol’ state, but little was forthcoming. I don’t know if the papers wanted information just for a news story or if they just wanted news, but like everyone else I have my suspicions they weren’t particularly altruistic, just as I doubt governor Ross Barnett’s motives, but the money was out there. Nonetheless few were talking.
The Life of Medgar Evers
Medgar Evers wasn’t born into nobility. He earned it because he lived it. It was built into his makeup and he let it show with every action of his life.
He was however born in backwoods Mississippi on July 2, 1925 in a small town called Decatur. In 1943 he went to war in both France and Germany. While fighting along whites from all over the world he realized just what a closed society from which he had come.
His military time provided him a college education from Alcorn where he met his wife and married her his senior year. In 1952 they moved to Philadelphia, Ms. and took up insurance sales. But there was a sideline that would forever change his life.
Medgar and his brother, Charles, began working for the NAACP organizing locals and educating them about the programs. 1954 changed his life even further when the U.S. Supreme court decided the Brown vs. Board of Education. This decision made huge strides toward ending segregation of schools. With that in mind Medgar decided he would take advantage of the decision, and as a result he applied for and denied admission to the University of Mississippi Law School. Even though he was denied admission this went a long ways toward garnering the eye of the NAACP’s national office. Medgar was suddenly swept away to Jackson and became the first state field secretary in Mississippi.
Medgar became tireless in his work. He did everything from organizing voter registration efforts to fighting for full investigations into crimes against blacks. Emmett Till, a 14 year had been lynched simply for talking to a white woman and his cause is one which is still remembered as a huge mountain Medgar climbed.
By 1955 Medgar’s efforts had become an increasing source of irritation for many whites in Mississippi, and also a source of many violent threats against Medgar and his family. It didn’t slow him down however, even when their house was firebombed in May of 1963. A month later he was dead at the hand of a sniper just short of his birthday. Byron de la Beckwith took his life but the NAACP wasted no time installing his brother Charles, who in 1969 became the first mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, a racially mixed southern town.
So I can hear it now and it’s a great question. How can someone hate so much as to kill that person because of politics? I’m glad you asked.
Byron de la Beckwith
There is no mystery about the KKK and the state of Mississippi. It was rife with the bigots in those days and the KKK had the king bigots. It may still. One of the king bigots was an outspoken man when it came to integration. He was a higher up in the Mississippi White Citizen’s Council and generally known to hate if for no other reason than to hate. The problem with this man, Byron de la Beckwith, was he had connections. So many, in fact, that he was tried twice and got hung juries. No one wanted to be responsible for his downfall in a state with that pervading mentality. Governor Ross Barnett was seen shaking hands with Beckwith in court just prior to jury deliberation as a matter of fact.
That mentality was succinctly expressed by an Evers associate, Sam Baily, when he said “a white man got more time for killing a rabbit out of season than for killing a negro in Mississippi.” The two trials for ‘Dee Lay’ as he was known to his friends, one in 1964 and the next in 1965 seemed to clearly punctuate that impression.
There was plenty of evidence. Only 150 feet from Evers’ body a rifle was found with Beckwith’s fingerprint on it. Oddly (I say facetiously) the gun had been stolen only days before the murder.
Witnesses placed Beckwith in the neighborhood. Beckwith produced witnesses that swore in court he was sixty miles away. One of the witnesses was a policeman.
Mr. Evers’ wife, ever the strong woman, never gave up, even though she moved to Los Angeles. She maintained her belief justice was never served…but that day would come. The two trials only seemed to strengthen her resolve.
“Time” magazine reported on July 5, 1963 that “Byron De La Beckwith fancied himself a real Southern gentleman. He dressed with casual care, always bowed deeply from the waist when passing friends, punctuated his drawl with soft ‘suhs.’” Delay surprised many by getting arrested, but there were others, who knew him with a bit more clarity, and on a more personal basis that suspected him of some relatively heinous things. Those in the know figured him for a twisted individual, which he proved to be.
According to Beckwith’s tireless recounting of his family history, he was from a Mississippi blueblood tree dating all the way back to Jefferson Davis. He himself was born in California, but that never stopped him from praising his southern genes.
Both of his parents died young, his father from pneumonia and alcoholism, and his mother of cancer. Delay was five and twelve respectively. Enter eccentric uncle William Green Yerger, part time catfisherman and part time farmer. Mostly he fished, and bled white supremacy.
According to many of Beckwith’s sales customers, it was more the order of the day than unusual, for him to spout his obsessive beliefs about segregation. Even though he was a church going man he constantly spoke of those obsessions to anyone that would give him the time. One of his church members was quoted by “Time” as saying, “He tried to inject racism into everything. If you talked about Noah and the Ark, he’d want to know if there were any Negroes in the Ark.” This man was obviously sick, and that was often verified by people that knew him.
Even the local White Citizen’s Council where he belonged finally asked him to let up on his aggressive behavior. It is pretty crazy when an organization like them thinks you’re too pushy about your beliefs. That alone says plenty about the man’s mental state.
The mentality of the time was decidedly clear in 1967 when Beckwith ran for lieutenant governor and actually came in fifth out of six with a surprising 34,000 votes. This man’s vitriol actually got him votes. If there were 34,000 people who voted for him, think how many more felt the same way but didn’t vote. That says a lot doesn’t it?
His downfall came at his own hand, like it often does with people like him. Not only did he hate blacks, he really hated Jews and Roman Catholics as well. While on his way to New Orleans in 1973, to bomb a leader of the Anti – Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, he was stopped and the weapon was found in his car. He once again got off federal charges, but the state knew who they had and he was found guilty of interstate transport of explosives without a permit. Two years was his sentence. It was the best they could do at the time but it got him off the streets, and ultimately served as his downfall.
This disgusting man got sick and of course they took him to the infirmary. There was a black nurse’s aide in the clinic, and even though he was sick (this time physically), he refused treatment from her. This was tersely stated by him when he said, “if I could get rid of an uppity” Medgar Evers…” he would have no trouble dealing with the ”no-account” aide. A guard standing close by heard the comment. Twenty – one years later the guard would testify.
In 1994 the newspapers had changed apparently. The Clarion – Ledger investigated and published sensational accounts of Beckwith’s relationship with the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, an organization that deeply despised integration. Believe it or not this was a state agency! It has since been dismantled.
The Clarion Ledger charged the agency with helping Beckwith screen potential jurors at the two previous trials. Mr. Evers’ legacy was in part reason for a new trial. The absolute revulsion of his murder inspired new investigators and prosecutors to take yet one more look at the cold case. February 5, 1994 left Beckwith in a state of complete shock when the jury found him guilty.
Mrs. Evers had continually fought for justice and finally found it. She continually lived the motto of her husband by showing violence is not the answer and like him, ingratiating herself to us in her strength. Her tenacity will be her legacy along with her two sons and a daughter. Medgar’s legacy will be his never ending energy, his morality, his love for social justice and his fellow man, and the gift he gave us in the feeling of good finally winning over evil not just in his life, but also in his death.
