45 years later, Medgar Evers' legacy inspires
June 13, 2008
Mary Perez - McClatchy NewspapersIssue date: 6/12/08 Section: Real News
BILOXI, Miss. _ It was 45 years ago that Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his Jackson, Miss., home just hours after leaving the Gulf Coast, and soon after, President Kennedy gave a televised speech on civil rights.
Evers, the field agent for the Mississippi NAACP, was on the Coast a day earlier, planning a wade-in with Dr. Gilbert Mason for June 16, 1963. They hoped the protest would lead to blacks being allowed access to Mississippi's public beaches.
Evers was shot just after midnight on June 12 as he got out of his car and dragged himself to the back door of his home, where he died in front of his wife and three children.
"Every year this time," said Robert L. Stepney, who fell quiet before remembering the anniversary of his friend's death. He thinks about Evers, his college roommate for three years, and said, "You don't have many good friends."
The two met at Alcorn State University, where Evers went after serving in an all-black Army regiment in Europe during World War II. Evers was a quarterback on the football team and Stepney was his favorite wide receiver.
"We were like brothers," said Stepney, who moved to Gulfport in the 1960s and was a coach for 36 years. "When he came to the Coast, he would always come and stay with us."
"I was a young child in Columbus, Miss., when I heard about him being killed," said James Crowell, NAACP-Biloxi president.
He believes Barack Obama being a possible presidential nominee "equates to what started with Medgar Evers in those early years."
Evers and Martin Luther King gave their lives for what they believed and Crowell said, "I take my hat off to them. I don't have the threats that they had back in their days."
Just a week before Evers was killed, a firebomb was tossed into the carport of his home. On June 11, Dr. Felix Dunn of Gulfport called Evers to warn him he was in danger.
"They all knew they were in danger," said Gulfport attorney Felicia Dunn-Burkes, daughter of Dr. Dunn, who fought for civil rights on the Coast with Mason.
Evers, the field agent for the Mississippi NAACP, was on the Coast a day earlier, planning a wade-in with Dr. Gilbert Mason for June 16, 1963. They hoped the protest would lead to blacks being allowed access to Mississippi's public beaches.
Evers was shot just after midnight on June 12 as he got out of his car and dragged himself to the back door of his home, where he died in front of his wife and three children.
"Every year this time," said Robert L. Stepney, who fell quiet before remembering the anniversary of his friend's death. He thinks about Evers, his college roommate for three years, and said, "You don't have many good friends."
The two met at Alcorn State University, where Evers went after serving in an all-black Army regiment in Europe during World War II. Evers was a quarterback on the football team and Stepney was his favorite wide receiver.
"We were like brothers," said Stepney, who moved to Gulfport in the 1960s and was a coach for 36 years. "When he came to the Coast, he would always come and stay with us."
"I was a young child in Columbus, Miss., when I heard about him being killed," said James Crowell, NAACP-Biloxi president.
He believes Barack Obama being a possible presidential nominee "equates to what started with Medgar Evers in those early years."
Evers and Martin Luther King gave their lives for what they believed and Crowell said, "I take my hat off to them. I don't have the threats that they had back in their days."
Just a week before Evers was killed, a firebomb was tossed into the carport of his home. On June 11, Dr. Felix Dunn of Gulfport called Evers to warn him he was in danger.
"They all knew they were in danger," said Gulfport attorney Felicia Dunn-Burkes, daughter of Dr. Dunn, who fought for civil rights on the Coast with Mason.
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