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Friday Foto Finish
By Jeremy | February 8, 2008
Medgar Evers
In my experience in New York, even though there's a CUNY college named after Medgar Evers few people are aware of his connection to education or historical significance that would warrant a school being named in his honor.
... [H]is unsuccessful attempt in 1954 to attend the University of Mississippi Law School attracted national attention, especially since it came after the U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional. Evers soon worked full time for the NAACP and moved to Jackson to run the statewide office. Here as state field secretary for the civil rights organization he led a boycott of white Jackson merchants who discriminated against black customers, and investigated racially motivated crimes against African Americans throughout the state. Evers also supported James Meredith’s successful effort to become the first African American to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962. Such high profile leadership of the NAACP angered white supremacists throughout the state. He was assassinated outside his home in Jackson on June 12, 1963. ... Evers’s legacy is ever present in Mississippi. Ten years after his death Mississippi had over 250,000 black voters (as opposed to 28,000 in 1963), 145 black elected officials, and African Americans were enrolled in each of the state’s public and private institutions of higher education.More. See also, NPR's "The Legacy of Medgar Evers."
Topics: black history, civil rights, foto, history, medgar evers | No Comments »
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