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Medgar Evers Facts & Worksheets

Medgar Evers was an American civil rights activist from Mississippi who actively fought for voting rights, against segregation, and boycotts of businesses that practiced discrimination.

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Medgar Evers was an honorable World War II soldier, loyal husband, and parent, in addition to being a trailblazing civil rights activist. He organized rallies and voter registration campaigns, attracted new members to the civil rights movement, and pushed for school integration while serving as the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi.

See the fact file below for more information on Medgar Evers, or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Medgar Evers worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Early Life

  • Medgar Wiley Evers was born to James and Jessie Evers in Decatur, Mississippi, in 1925. Evers was exposed to overt racism on a daily basis as a youngster in Decatur.
  • A family friend was lynched when he was twelve years old. For over a year, the man’s bloodied clothes were displayed as a form of intimidation on a fence.
  • While in his teens, Evers observed white American gangs patrolling the Decatur streets on Saturday nights, searching for an African-American victim to beat up or run over with their automobiles.
  • Despite the enmity of the local white people, Evers was eager to establish a name for himself. He entered the army after leaving high school at seventeen and soon found himself participating on Europe‘s battlefields during World War II.
  • Medgar joined the Army after his sophomore year of high school and was deployed to a segregated field unit in England and France during World War II.
  • Although some African-American troops refused to return from France, where they were treated equally, others resolved to battle their way back. After a racist incident, Medgar told his brother, “When we get out of the Army, we’re going to straighten this thing up!”
  • After three years of exemplary military duty, Evers earned an honorable discharge in 1946, completed high school, and enrolled at Alcorn College (now Alcorn State University) in Mississippi, where he majored in business administration. He met Myrlie Beasley there, and they married on December 24, 1951.

Activism and NAACP

  • After earning his Bachelor of Arts, Evers and his wife relocated to Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where he worked as an insurance salesman. 
  • Evers, alarmed by the extent of poverty and suffering he discovered among the African-American population of rural Mississippi, decided to take action and joined the NAACP.
  • As a result of Evers’ activity, the NAACP recruited him as the state’s first field secretary. He oversaw investigations into nine racist killings, the lynching of Emmett Till, and Clyde Kennard’s unjust conviction.
  • Evers quickly organized local NAACP branches and coordinated boycotts of gas stations that refused to let African-Americans use their facilities. Evers’ organizing talents enabled him to unite disparate groups of disillusioned persons into a cohesive force.
  • Following the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which prohibited segregation in public schools, Evers petitioned for registration to the University of Mississippi Law School. His application was turned down. This effort drew Evers to the attention of the NAACP’s national leadership, and the following year he was named Mississippi’s first NAACP field secretary.
  • After relocating to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1954, Evers sought to establish an NAACP office there. In the early 1960s, he orchestrated high-profile boycotts against Jackson’s businesses. He was influential in the fight to admit African-American student James Meredith to the University of Mississippi in 1962.
  • Myrlie was to become intimately involved in Medgar’s Civil Rights Movement efforts. She worked as his full-time secretary at the NAACP headquarters in Jackson. She also made vital contributions to the Civil Rights Movement as a helpmate, speech researcher, hostess, chauffeur, and musician.
  • Threats to his life were shared at this point, with the Eversname prominently listed on several white supremacist kill lists. Nonetheless, Evers remained entirely immersed in the fight for liberty. His workdays were frequently up to twenty hours long, and he was responsible for organizing boycotts, marches, prayer vigils, and bailing out people who had been detained.
  • His investigations included the lynching of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black teenager, in 1955. Till was reportedly murdered for conversing with a white lady.
  • Evers also stood by fellow civil rights leader Clyde Kennard after he was convicted of larceny in 1960. Evers faced threats as a civil rights activist, including a firebombing incident in which a Molotov cocktail was hurled into his home on May 29, 1963.

Assassination & Death

  • Before they were successful on June 12, 1963, white supremacists made several attempts on Evers’ life. Less than an hour after coming into his home and exiting his car with NAACP T-shirts proclaiming “Jim Crow Must Go.”
  • Evers was shot in the back and passed away at the nearby hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. He was assassinated just hours after President John F. Kennedy made a speech in support of civil rights on national television.
  • Mississippi became a crucial battleground during the mid-century Civil Rights Movement due to its opposition to equal rights for African-Americans. Medgar Wiley Evers was undoubtedly the state’s most passionate activist, orator, and dreamer for change between 1952 and 1963.
  • When the FBI investigated Evers’s murder, they discovered a suspect, Byron de la Beckwith, who was an ardent opponent of integration and a member of the Mississippi White Citizens Council.
  • Beckwith’s fingerprint was detected on a revolver located 150 feet from the shooting location. Beckwith was seen in Evers’s neighborhood that night, according to many witnesses. He denies shooting Evers and said his pistol was taken days before the event. Beckwith, too, presented witnesses who testified that he was sixty miles away from Evers’s house on the night of the murder.
  • In the 1960s, Beckwith had two trials in Mississippi for the murder of Evers—the first in 1964 and the second in 1965. Juries were deadlocked in both cases. 
  • Myrlie Evers relocated to California with her kids after the second trial. Mrs. Evers continued to participate in the hunt for fresh evidence, despite her ardent conviction that justice was never done in her husband’s case. Byron de la Beckwith was detained a third time in 1991 on suspicion of killing Medgar Evers, and in 1994, he was ultimately found guilty of the crime.
  • De La Beckwith appealed the case and died in prison in January 2001 at age 80.

Evers Legacy

  • In front of more than 3,000 people, Evers was buried to rest at Arlington National Cemetery with full military rites. Numerous songs by well-known musicians, including Bob Dylan‘s “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” “Too Many Martyrs,” and Phil Ochs’ “Another Country,” were inspired by his murder and the inability to prosecute De La Beckwith. The 1994 trial of De La Beckwith for Evers’s murder is shown in the 1996 movie The Ghosts of Mississippi with Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg.
  • Since his sad death, Evers’ contributions to the civil rights cause have been remembered in a number of ways. In Jackson, Mississippi, his wife established the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute to continue the couple’s commitment to social improvement. One of the City University of New York’s campuses was named after the killed demonstrator, as was the United States. One of the Navy’s ships was also named after him.
  • President Obama declared the Evers family house a national historic site at the beginning of 2017. Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran stated, “the National Historic Landmark designation is a vital step toward recognizing and protecting major civil rights landmarks in Mississippi and throughout the country.” “Medgar and Myrlie Evers deserve this honor for the sacrifices they made.”

Medgar Evers Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Medgar Evers across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Medgar Evers worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Medgar Evers, who was an American civil rights activist from Mississippi who actively fought for voting rights, against segregation, and boycotts of businesses that practiced discrimination.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

  • Medgar Evers Facts
  • Evers Word Search
  • Let’s Identify!
  • A Man of Civil Rights
  • Famous Activists
  • Words from Evers
  • Attributes to Imitate
  • A Letter to Mr. Evers
  • Evers Legacy
  • Political Cartoon
  • My Advocacy

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Medgar Evers best known for?

Medgar Evers was an honorable World War II soldier, loyal husband, and parent, in addition to being a trailblazing civil rights activist. He organized rallies and voter registration campaigns, attracted new members to the civil rights movement, and pushed for school integration while serving as the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi.

Why is Medgar Evers important to the civil rights movement?

As a result of Evers’ activity, the NAACP recruited him as the state’s first field secretary. He oversaw investigations into nine racist killings, the lynching of Emmett Till, and Clyde Kennard’s unjust conviction.

What was the impact of Medgar Evers’s death?

Since his sad death, Evers’ contributions to the civil rights cause have been remembered in a number of ways. In Jackson, Mississippi, his wife established the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute to continue the couple’s commitment to social improvement. One of the City University of New York’s campuses was named after the killed demonstrator, as was the United States. One of the Navy’s ships was also named after him.

Where was Medgar Evers shot?

Evers was shot in the back and passed away at the nearby hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. He was assassinated just hours after President John F. Kennedy made a speech in support of civil rights on national television.

Who led the civil rights movement in Mississippi?

Mississippi became a crucial battleground during the mid-century Civil Rights Movement due to its opposition to equal rights for Black individuals. Medgar Wiley Evers was undoubtedly the state’s most passionate activist, orator, and dreamer for change between 1952 and 1963.

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