Short description
The story of one the greatest leaders of the Civil Rights movement brings his achievement to life for a new generation. His personal documents, writings, and speeches provide a cohesive narrative detailing the rise and tragic death of a civil rights hero.
Long description
For the first time, the life of civil rights leader, Medgar Evers is told through his speeches, letters and papers. On the evening of June 12th 1963 - the day that President John F Kennedy gave his most impassioned speech about the need for interracial tolerance - Medgar Evers, the first field secretary for the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples) was shot and killed by an assassin's bullet in the driveway of his Mississippi home. The still-smoking gun - bearing the fingerprints of staunch white supremacist, Byron De La Beckwith - was recovered moments later in some nearby bushes. Still, Beckwith remained free for over thirty years until Evers's widow, Myrlie, finally forced the Mississippi courts to bring him to justice. "The Autobiography of Medgar Evers" tells the full story of one of the greatest leaders of the Civil Rights movement, bringing his achievement to life for a new generation. Although Evers's memory has remained a force in the civil rights movement, the legal battles surrounding his death have too often overshadowed the example and inspiration of his life.;Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable have assembled the previously untouched cache of Medgar's personal documents, writings and speeches. These remarkable pieces range from Medgar's monthly reports to the NAACP to his correspondence with luminaries of the time such as Robert Carter, General Counsel for the NAACP in the landmark Brown v Board of Education case.
Review
Once the leader in the number of lynchings in America, today Mississippi leads in the number of elected black officials. It's part of Medgar Evers' legacy--paid for in blood--and stamped on the lives of Mississippians, from the state capitol of Jackson to the cornfields of Newton County where Medgar Evers grew up.