Of civil rights leader, medgar evers, in jackson, mississippi. We toured his house to learn more about the tragic events of 1963. For many of us who have gone overseas and fought for this country, fought for mississippi, fought for alabama, fought for north carolina, fought for illinois, and fought for every state in this union. We are going to stay here and see that the things the mayor has said become reality. 15 minutes after midnight, he got out of his car. About 40 yards away a sniper fired a single shot. Back,llet hit him in the crashed through his body and through him out a window in the house. He died an hour later at a jackson hospital. You are in the former home of medgar evers. He was born and raised in decatur, mississippi. He knew the differences between the races. He had friends, he talked about having white playmates. They would hunt and fish together. At about the age of 16, they went separate ways. He talked about seeing his friends. He was going downtown. He saw his friends standing on the corner with other whites. He said they called him nigger. He noticed his friend dropped his head when he said it. That is what kind of situation he grew up in. He talked about, he said i knew the difference that was made between the races. He could never understand why it was that way. He talked to his father about it and his father would talk to him and tell him what his responsibilities are. Reading and listening to people talk, it really came home to him just how much the differences were made between the races and the things that would happen. He witnessed a lynching at the age of 12. He asked his father why they would do that to him, and his that is what they he said i was a little bit angry and frustrated. He was hurt. Getting away from th mississippi and going to the army when he was only 16. He served in world war ii and talked about as he traveled, he said defending america, it didnt matter the color of his skin until he came back home to mississippi. On his 21st birthday, he tried to register to vote, he and his brother charles, and he said these group of white men turned them around with shotguns and ran them off with shotguns. He said they ran and did not go up against those men, but it made him get serious. He finished his last two years of high school and he enrolled in college, majoring in business administration. After he graduated from alcorn, he was in mount bayou, it was an allblack town, founded by blacks and run by blacks. A young man lived in mount bayou who was a black man who was rich. He had an insurance company, so he gave medgar his first job of selling insurance. Medgar said he started out in the little town of clarksville, mississippi selling insurance. He ventured out to the plantations, trying to sell insurance out there. Medgar looked at the conditions under which people were living and that black people did not even know what insurance was. As he was talking to them and watching their conditions and looking at their conditions and looking at the reaction he was getting when he talked about human rights, civil rights, the naacp, getting registered to vote, that kind of thing, people would begin to hear of these stories. They were true, it was what was happening to people in the area. For many areas, there were no schools. If you tried to register to vote, what would happen to you is what would happen to others. Medgar was telling him that was their rights. He would not be allowed back on the properties, and he initiated several boycotts. Blacks could buy gas but cannot use the bathroom. The prices in the Grocery Store would go up when the blacks went in. And they would say you have to stand in line until the whites were served. So he said we will go somewhere or you are treated better. These things started to work because of medgar evers. Mississippi did not have any naacp secretaries. His job was to come in and organize 82 counties in the state of mississippi, getting people registered to vote, taking complaints, that type of thing, and checking what was going on. I believe he was selected by the national naacp office to do that after he tried to get into the university of mississippi. Now ole miss. They denied him admission and this is when the national naacp ask him to be a field secretary. To do that, he had to come into jackson. Maybe at first they didnt take medgar too serious, it was only after he came into jackson and really began to get things flowing, so to speak, and he got involved with the student movement. You had the freedom riders who came in. I think thats when people began to see this man is shaking things up and he will not give up. When he challenged wlbt to make a speech blacks could not make a speech on television. I heard this only when i went away to college. He was not on television. He was not on radio. This is when people begin to see they were not going to turn people around. I called them the grassroots people. The foot soldiers began to get involved. Women, children began to get involved. I think this is when they saw this man is really shaking things up. Do not shop for anything on capitol street. Lets let the merchants feel the economic pinch. I had one merchant to call me and he said, i want you to know that i talked to my National Office today and they want me to tell you that we dont need nigger business. These are stories that help support the white citizens council, a council dedicated to keeping you and i second class citizens. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we will be demonstrating here until freedom comes to negroes here in jackson, mississippi. [applause] this is where medgar and his family came to live in 1955. It was historic in itself because the family came into the neighborhood after he became field secretary. This was a neighborhood that was being developed but to young young blackby two world war ii veterans. This had never happened before in jackson, mississippi and probably in the state of mississippi. They had developed a one street subdivision. They were constructing homes for what they called middleclass professionals. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, this Business Owners living on this one street, this subdivision. They would put the subdivision in place between two white subdivisions. It was like a trial. That is where medgar came here. He selected this particular lot. There was a house on the left and one on the right. He knew the things that were happening, the threats being made and so he changed his house plans. He did not want a front door. This is the only house in the area that does not have a front door. He asked that because he wanted his main entrance through the carport, and he was going to teach his family that when they come into the driveway, they would always exit the car on the passenger side so they could use the wall and the car as a means of protection. The windows on the east wall are higher than other windows, higher than houses like this on the street. The first year there were here, someone shot through the living room window. That is when mrs. Evers said put the kids on the floor because its lower than the bed would be. The second time, they were shot through the bedroom window. This is when they all got on the floor. She talked about how sometimes she would sleep with a gun. She was protecting her kids. Medgar knew people were following him. That is why he took all of these precautions. In meetings he talked about how he had this mechanic friend. He would take it to him to have it souped up to outrun people who were chasing him and those kind of things. Sometimes i think you have a calling and you cannot let go , and i believe thats the way it was for medgar. Thats what he would talk about. I have had a number of threatening calls. People saying they were going to kill me, going to blow my home up. Saying i only had a few hours to live. 15 minutes past midnight, he got out of his car at his home. A sniper fired a shot at evers silhouette. The bullet hit him in the back, crashed through his body and through him through a window into the house. She said she heard him pull up and not getting into the house and she said she heard the shots. She said my kids began crawling across the floor to go to the bathroom because they had told medgar that if something should happen, the safest place in the house was the bathtub. That is where they were headed until she heard a thump. It made her break for the door, and medgar was staggering around the car trying to open the door. She heard a couple more shots and she thought they were still shooting at her. The other two shots were from next door. Mr. Wells said he was not aiming at anyone in particular, just hoping to run whoever was away. But they came to medgars rescue. His wife said he was laying face down his keys in his right town. She said i thought he was dead but he wasnt. He was saying something but they could not understand him. They brought him inside the house. They took a mattress off the bed and put them on the mattress to transport him to the hospital. In jackson, mississippi in 1963 there lived a man of praise he fought for freedom all of his life but they laid medger evers in his grave following his death, it felt like the movement died a little bit. They had his funeral at the masonic temple and after that he was buried in Arlington National cemetery. After a period of time, no one was in the house. It had gotten in bad shape. There are other exhibits and in other museums. We wanted to do something with the house. We may not have known exactly what we were going to do. At first people just wanted to come and see where medgar evers and his family lived. We would let people flow in and flow out. It got to the point where weve got to say something. There are people in mississippi who are my age or older who do not really know who medgar evers was. I want people to know who medgar evers was and the great difference he made in mississippi. I learned later, not only in mississippi but throughout the world. One of the things he said is like mississippi. This is home. I like fishing here. I like hunting. Mississippi is a wonderful place to grow up. He said, why should i leave . He said i love mississippi. Had medgar left mississippi, what about the other people . Not everybody could or would lead mississippi. Why should you . As he would put it, you got the same rights as anybody born here, why should you run away to some unknown city or state to get a decent education or to make a living for your family, to get a decent job and support your family to have a nice home . Why should you have to do that . And so medgar evers decided to stay right here in mississippi, and thank god he did. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events who tell the american story, every weekend. Saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern, on the civil war, the richmond bread riots were poor and workingclass women protest inflation and the scarcity of food. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern, four films profiling the auto restaurant and airline industry, negatively affected today by that pandemic. And the nixon administrations native american reform, the restoration of native american lands. Exploring the american story, watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Impact of the coronavirus on social and racial tensions, the prospects for a vaccine, state reopenings and congressional efforts to reform law enforcement. The center for strategic and International Studies hosted the discussion
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