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Authors: Maryanne Vollers
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When it came time to fill out the birth certificate, she quietly altered the child’s name to Darrell Kenyatta Evers. Medgar didn’t complain, but he still sometimes called his son Kenyatta.
Over the years Myrlie would have to endure the smirks and casual little jokes their friends would make. “How’s the little Mau Mau?” they would ask. Unfazed, Medgar would reply, “Burning Spear is just fine.”
By now, Myrlie Evers realized that her life with Medgar was not going to be at all ordinary.
5
Black Monday
Something was bothering E. J. Stringer. It was weighing on his mind as he rose to speak to a group of black professionals at the American Legion Hall in Mound Bayou. This was Stringer’s first speech in his new role as president of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP. A lot of members in the audience were, like himself, veterans of World War II. Stringer was thinking about education. He was a graduate of Alcorn College, but he had been compelled to leave the state to get his degree in dentistry. Yet in Mississippi’s white universities, where no black man had ever studied, there were German, Japanese, and Italian students. The white schools of Mississippi were good enough for our former enemies, but not for the black veterans who fought them to keep America free. The thought, Stringer recalls, irritated him. So he asked a question of his audience that night: “Is there anyone here who will help us to integrate the university system of Mississippi?”
When the speech was over, Medgar Evers stepped up to E. J. Stringer and told him that he was willing.
On Monday, January 11,1954, Evers look his first step into the arena. On that day he filed an application to the University of Mississippi Law
School. Thurgood Marshall, who was then director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, agreed to act as Evers’s attorney.
The Jackson Daily News picked up the story after E. J. Stringer made the formal announcement. The headline read, “Mound Bayou Man Files Application at ‘U’ Law School.”
It shouldn’t have been such big news. After all, eight southern states had already quietly accepted a few Negroes at the university level, and legal trends were running in the direction of desegregation. The NAACP had, since the late 1940s, been winning a series of lower court decisions on the issue.
Mississippi, of course, was different from other places. There were signs that the state would not yield an inch.
Myrlie Evers was furious. She knew what this meant, that there would be years of harassment, danger, not to mention poverty. How would they afford law school? Besides, she was pregnant again.
Medgar said he was doing it for her, for the children. She didn’t see it that way. They were still arguing about it when the family visited Medgar’s parents in Decatur.
Myrlie adored Mama Jessie. She was such a decent, loving, lighthearted woman. Myrlie loved Daddy Jim too, but he was harder to get close to. She thought he was like a diamond in the rough. He could be stern, somber, thoughtful, but he just lit up when he saw his only grandson, Darrell. Daddy Jim would rub his rough old face against that baby’s skin, chuckling and clucking while Darrell ran his little legs all over the old man’s chest.
Jim Evers was completely bald then, and very thin. His heavy-lidded eyes were tired in a deep way. But he was still the law in that household. When he spoke, everyone heard him.
As always the Evers family did their talking at the dinner table. Medgar told his parents he was applying to Ole Miss law school. Myrlie told them she was pregnant again. And suddenly the delightful reunion turned into a pandemonium of tears and angry words and people stomping away from the table.
Jessie was terrified for her son and worried about his children. Medgar laid out his reasons for his decision. His father listened without a word and then spoke to him as if he were a child.
“Your first duty is to
Over the years Myrlie would have to endure the smirks and casual little jokes their friends would make. “How’s the little Mau Mau?” they would ask. Unfazed, Medgar would reply, “Burning Spear is just fine.”
By now, Myrlie Evers realized that her life with Medgar was not going to be at all ordinary.
5
Black Monday
Something was bothering E. J. Stringer. It was weighing on his mind as he rose to speak to a group of black professionals at the American Legion Hall in Mound Bayou. This was Stringer’s first speech in his new role as president of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP. A lot of members in the audience were, like himself, veterans of World War II. Stringer was thinking about education. He was a graduate of Alcorn College, but he had been compelled to leave the state to get his degree in dentistry. Yet in Mississippi’s white universities, where no black man had ever studied, there were German, Japanese, and Italian students. The white schools of Mississippi were good enough for our former enemies, but not for the black veterans who fought them to keep America free. The thought, Stringer recalls, irritated him. So he asked a question of his audience that night: “Is there anyone here who will help us to integrate the university system of Mississippi?”
When the speech was over, Medgar Evers stepped up to E. J. Stringer and told him that he was willing.
On Monday, January 11,1954, Evers look his first step into the arena. On that day he filed an application to the University of Mississippi Law
School. Thurgood Marshall, who was then director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, agreed to act as Evers’s attorney.
The Jackson Daily News picked up the story after E. J. Stringer made the formal announcement. The headline read, “Mound Bayou Man Files Application at ‘U’ Law School.”
It shouldn’t have been such big news. After all, eight southern states had already quietly accepted a few Negroes at the university level, and legal trends were running in the direction of desegregation. The NAACP had, since the late 1940s, been winning a series of lower court decisions on the issue.
Mississippi, of course, was different from other places. There were signs that the state would not yield an inch.
Myrlie Evers was furious. She knew what this meant, that there would be years of harassment, danger, not to mention poverty. How would they afford law school? Besides, she was pregnant again.
Medgar said he was doing it for her, for the children. She didn’t see it that way. They were still arguing about it when the family visited Medgar’s parents in Decatur.
Myrlie adored Mama Jessie. She was such a decent, loving, lighthearted woman. Myrlie loved Daddy Jim too, but he was harder to get close to. She thought he was like a diamond in the rough. He could be stern, somber, thoughtful, but he just lit up when he saw his only grandson, Darrell. Daddy Jim would rub his rough old face against that baby’s skin, chuckling and clucking while Darrell ran his little legs all over the old man’s chest.
Jim Evers was completely bald then, and very thin. His heavy-lidded eyes were tired in a deep way. But he was still the law in that household. When he spoke, everyone heard him.
As always the Evers family did their talking at the dinner table. Medgar told his parents he was applying to Ole Miss law school. Myrlie told them she was pregnant again. And suddenly the delightful reunion turned into a pandemonium of tears and angry words and people stomping away from the table.
Jessie was terrified for her son and worried about his children. Medgar laid out his reasons for his decision. His father listened without a word and then spoke to him as if he were a child.
“Your first duty is to
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