Today I did a little over an hour of research on the Evers family. I have about three pages of notes, made two family trees for the blogs, and started to read The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches by his wife, Myrlie Evers-Williams, and Manning Marable. The book is a mini historians dream especially those interested in black history. The introduction shares how Medgar Evers is rarely mentioned or completely ignored.

In most standard textbooks of African American history, Evers is either barely mentioned or completely ignored. In the third edition of August Meier and Elliot Rudwick’s From Plantation to Ghetto, Evers is not cited. Most recent studies of the Black Freedom Movement generally mention Evers, but only as the victim of assassination, or as a relatively obscure leader referenced in connection with his nearly decade-long role as the NAACP’s field secretary in Mississipi.

Page Xxi

Scholar Ronald Bailey’s quote within the introduction truly captures why I chose to embark on this project. He states,

But those who fail to remember are doomed to repeat it…Medgar Evers is symbolic of the very best of what black people, what Mississippi, and what the United States can produce.”

Made me think when did I first learn of Medgar Evers. It is either between reading Eyes on the Prize when I was younger or watching the Ghost of Mississippi. The book even stated that in his own film Evers himself was a ghost because the audience does not hear him in his own words.

So…what have I learned so far studying Evers’ ancestry.

You’ll have to wait until the next post for that.

Also, I finished watching the inauguration all the way in Lithuania it started at 6pm here and I cooked beforehand. I started to get a bit emotional when the president made his way to his seat then I was like “Honey, get you act together.” What a beautiful moment in history and wonderful speeches, poems, and songs.

Til next time

Christina