Eulogy for Medgar Evers (1963)

Summary

Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (1908-76) was a surgeon and civil rights leader who played an invaluable role in that movement. He successfully encouraged African Americans to send their donations to Tri-State Bank of Memphis, which was black owned when whites attempted to stop civil rights funding in the South, and he led the movement to have 50,000 bumper stickers with the slogan “Don’t Buy Gas Where You Can’t Use the Restroom” drawn up because of segregation preventing Blacks from using restrooms in places like Mississippi. He also acted as mentor to civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, who was slain in 1963. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Howard’s eulogy for Evers. 

Selected by

Christopher Brooks

Professor of History, East Stroudsburg University

Kenneth Mack

Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Document Excerpt

[Medgar Evers] knew that the National Association for Colored People was the most feared and the most hated organization on earth by the white people of Mississippi. Medgar said on that occasion to me, “You know, in these Delta counties where Negros outnumber the Whites 3 and 4:1, I have seen and three and four Negros for every one white man answer the call of his country, and I have grown fine in my Mississippi of seeing Negros fight free then die for something out yonder in the Ardennes Forest, in Flanders Field, in Iwo Jima and Heartbreak Ridge that they couldn’t enjoy right here in Mississippi.” 

To the Family: we want you to be strong; this is a great tragedy. Medgar has not died in vain. . . . Let there not be a puzzle pause, not for the shedding of blood.  There is no remission of sin. There is no equal rights. The is no school integration. There is no voting rights but for the shedding of blood. 

I have all the faith in world in our non-violence movement. It has been the way up until now. But for 100 years, we have turned one cheek and then another. And they have continued to hit us on both cheeks, and I’m just getting tired now of hurting from silence.