Medgar Evers

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I went to see a film about Medgar Evers. Medgar was an African American that lived in Mississippi. He had a good education, which was not common where he grew up. He also enlisted into the U.S. army. The NAACP noticed he was a good public speaker and he was later assigned to be a field secretary for Mississippi's NAACP district. He did what he could to help African Americans out. Medgar was once at the top of the hit list for the KKK. The KKK realized the impact he had through speech and knew that he could be a threat to white supremacy. The event that really sparked Medgar's inspiration to help out black folks was the killing of an innocent black boy. One day, a black boy from Chicago, walked into a store in Mississippi and asked the white cashier for a date. When her husband heard of this he sought after the young boy and brutally murdered him.

The two men that killed him got off scott free. Medgar knew right then and there that if he did nothing to help, then murders like these would continue. Medgar went undercover for a little while. One day when he got home, Byron Beckwith administered a drive-by and shot Medgar Evers in his own yard. Now, Mississippi has a statue built in Medgar Evers' honor. After I watched this documentary, my view on Civil Rights changed. Now I know how awful it was for African Americans back then.