That the thing that the mayor has said becomes a reality. He got out of his car in a negro residential area. A sniper fired a single shot from a highpowered rifle. The bullet hit him in the back and passed through his body, through window and he died within an hour at a jackson hospital. Youre in the former home of major evers in jackson mississippi. Our addresses on Margaret Walker drive. A was born and raised in little town called decatur, mississippi. In listening to him talk, he talked about how he knew the difference is how the he never could understand why. He talked about having my playmates. They would hunt and fish together. It was only about when the friend got to be about the age of 16 that they separated and went there separate ways. He talked about seeing his friend staying on the corner with some other whites. He noticed his friend dropped his head when he said it. Of situationkind he grew up in. Then he talked about, he said i knew the difference that was made between the races. Could never understand why was that way. He talked to his father about it and his father would talk to him and tell him what his responsibilities are. But in reading and listening to talk, it really came home to him just how much difference races. E between the he said when he asked his father why they would do that to him, his father said that is what they do. He said, im sure he was a little bit angry, frustrated. He was hurt. So getting away from it from mississippi, he enlisted in the army when he was only 16 and he served in world war ii. He talked about as he traveled about, he said defending america, it did matter about the color of his dn until he came back home to mississippi. He tried to register to vote, he and his brother charles, he said this group of white men turned them around with shotguns. He said we ran, we did not go up against those men. But it made him get serious and thats when he got back into he finished his other two years of high school. Enrolled in college, majoring in business administration. And movede graduated to mound bayou mississippi. Allblackme it was an town. It was founded by blacks and run by blacks. In moundg man live bayou, who was a black man who was rich. He had this insurance company. So he gave met her his first job of selling insurance for him, and he said he started out in the little town of clarksville mississippi, selling insurance. Then he ventured out onto the plantations. Look at some of the conditions under which these people were living, and he talked about black people not even knowing what interest was. Ands he was talking to them watching their conditions, looking at their conditions and looking at the reactions that he was getting when he talked about human rights, civil right, the ncaap, getting registered to vote and people would tell him these stories, which were true. What was happening to people in the area. In fact, in many places there were no schools for blacks and if you fried to register to vote what would happen to you, what happened to others and what could happen to you. He was telling them that is your right. Once they would not allow him back on their properties when the word got out which he was doing. He started several boycotts. Blacks would buy the gas but you could not use the bathroom. Prices in the Grocery Stores would go up when blacks went in and a lot of times you had to stand in line until the whites were served. So he said dont buy the gas, dont buy the groceries well go somewhere where you are treated a little bit better. Before medgar, the naacp did not have a secretary. He got people registered to vote, taking com place of employments and checking what was going on. I believe he was selected by ncaap to do that. When ole miss denied him admission. He had to come into jackson to start with ncaap. They did not take him serious until after he came into jackson and to get things flowing so to speak and got involved with the student movement. You had the freedom riders who came in and i think that is when people began to see he was shaking things up. He did not give hundred when he challenged lbgt. Blacks could not speak. I heard it when i went away to college. He was not on television. He was not on radio. So i think this is when people began to see they were not going turn people around. I call them the grassroot people. The foot soldiers began to get involved, women, children, began to get involved. This is when they saw this man is really shaking things up. Dont shop for anything on capitol street. Lets have the merchants build economic capitol pension. I had a merchant call me and they talked to their National Business and they want me to tell you that we dont need negro business. This helps the council, the council that is dedicated to keeping you and i secondclass citizens. Finally, we will be demonstrating here until freedom comes to jackson, mississippi. [applause] this is where he came to live in 1955. Medgar came into this neighborhood after he was field secretary. This was the neighborhood that was one of the subdivisions being developed by two black world war ii veterans. This never happened before in jackson, mississippi. These two veterans developing a onestreet subdivision and they were constructing homes on what they call professional blacks. You had your lawyers, doctors, your teachers, business owners, living on this one street subdivision. Then they were going to put this subdivision in between two white subdivisions. It was a trial thing and this is where he game. He selected this particular lot because it was a house on the left and there was one on the right and he knew what was happening and what could happen. He knew what things were happening to the family, the threats being made. Those kinds of things. He came in changing 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 to be through the carport. He was going to teach his family when they come through the driveway and they would exit the car on the passenger side so they can use the wall as protection. The first year of the house, they were here, someone shot through this window, the living room window. That is when mrs. Evers say put medgar on the floor so the kids will be lower than the window. That is when they all got on the floor when it was shot for the second time. She slept with a gun and medgar with a pistol or vice versus. He knew his life. He knew people were following him. That is why he took all of these precautions. He talked about, in meetings, he talked about how when he got a car he had a mechanic friend and he would take it to him and have it soupedup to outrun people who would chase him. That is why, you know, sometimes you have a calling and you cannot let go and that is what you he would talk about. I had a number of threatening calls. People calling say they are going to kill me. They are going to blow my home up and i only had a few hours to live. 15 minutes passed midnight evers got out of his home and from 40 yards away, a sniper fired a single shot. The bullet hit him in the back crashed through his body through a window into the house. Mrs. Evers talked about she and the kids in the back of the house and she heard him drive up and not coming in the house. He heard the shots and my kids started to crawl across the floor starting to go to the bathroom. He told the kids that the safest place was the bathtub. She heard a thump and he was coming around her car trying to get to the door. She heard a couple more shots and she thought they were still shooting but the other two shots were mr. Wells next door. I was hoping to run whoever it was away. But he and another friend came to medgars rescue, so to speak. Mrs. Evers say he was laying face down with his keys in his right hand. She said, i thought he was dead. I couldnt understand him. They brought him inside the house and took the mattress off his daughters bed and put them on that mattress to transport him to the hospital. Inin jackson mississippi 1963 there lived a man who is brave. He fought for freedom all of his , but they laid met evers in his grave