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Showing posts with label Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America. Show all posts
Myrlie had many times weighed whether she could stay at home with Medgar. She was often afraid--but it wasn't from her wonderful, loving husband, it was from those who hated her and all Black people there in Mississippi, where Medgar had brought her after they were married. He wanted to be in Mississippi and hopefully help ALL people in the State. He knew that it was those even in the state congress, the governor's office, the mayor's office, the police that instigated all of the efforts to prevent integration...
Medgar had wanted to continue on in the University of Mississippi. But they, too, were prepared and sent his application back that he needed a "white" man's recommendation... Medgar had known many white men as he served our country and, perhaps, could have used one or two of them. But he knew that it wasn't a need for another reference. It was because he was Black. In fact, he and Myrlie had lived in the only Black neighborhood around. He had to stop thinking about a higher education. He needed to work and provide for his family. He took the job with the NAACP when it was offered. The primary function was to travel around the state and work with the Black people in the state to enroll them to vote... All was to be nonviolent...until Medgar and students in the state grew antsy... Do you know that word, it is informal for agitated, anxious, jumpy. I like this little word... I would be antsy if I couldn't go to my local movie theatre to see a movie I had heard about. I'd get antsy if I didn't feel like cooking and wanted to take my children to a local restaurant to get a quick meal.
You know the feeling, don't you? Imagine now, that your children were sent to a substandard school where they used second-hand textbooks...that didn't even talk about the history of your ancestors... slavery... Yeah, just like politicians are trying to do right now...
On the other hand, the republicans who are trying to work for America are frustrated because of those who Hate Only for Political Power. And, of course, it is not fun to be threatened just because you wanted to do your job...
Now, let's go back to the south where Mississippi held court with 12 white men on anything. Black people were not allowed to be represented... Indeed, they were facing threats from not only the government but their lynch crew. the KKK. ALL Black people knew exactly what was going on--just like all of America who cares knows what is going on right now. And, if they didn't know before, than January 6th was the turning point for many...
Medgar had often told Myrlie that she was stronger than she realized. She didn't understand how that could be until Medgar was murdered, and she had seen him try to crawl toward her as he died in front of her and two of her children. You might say Myrlie grew up that day. But it was through shedding the millions of tears that she had within her... Anybody can imagine that she was screaming inside, yet trying to keep her children from the scene--from their realizing what had just been done by one man... with a gun... By the way, Mrylie kept pressing and, finally, after two acquittals, the man was convicted for her husband's murder...
Mrylie began to receive requests for speaking all over the nation. After all...She was the first widow of a civil rights leader who had been assassinated! As she began sharing, her confidence grew, her words grew stronger, more direct, and more powerful. She was speaking the truth to hundreds of thousands across the nation who listened...
And when she was joined by the wife of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, she welcomed the comfort that these two women could bring to her, knowing that they knew exactly what pain and distress they were all facing. Each would share memories from when they were living as a wife of such a significant leader who faced danger every day... For instance, Myrlie remembered and shared about Medgar talking about when he was very young and all of the children would play together, not thinking about their differences... and then, suddenly, Medgar told her of a day when one of his white friends was standing with a group of young white men...
“He called me ‘nigger,’” Medgar said. “The split had come. The lines were drawn, Blacks on one side, white on the other. I guess at that moment, I realized my status in Mississippi.”14
And the three women all cried together, feeling that same pain... Marian Davis, the first Black person I had ever met and who became my best friend through junior and senior high school, once gave me my first lesson as well... The three of us--Carolyn, Marian and I had gone over to a spudnut show before school. We had all selected our treat and went outside to stand and eat. I had gotten a sputnut with white icing I remember. I can't remember what Carolyn got. But I remember that Marian had gotten a brownie with chocolate icing. Then Marian turned to me and asked if I wanted a bite... I laughed and said "no that's ok..." Then she said what I will never forget... "It's ok, you can take the first bite..." Even today, as I write, my heart melts and tears come to my eyes. She had taught me my first lesson about the races. She knew her status even when I didn't know mine... My respect for Black people began that day when Marian Davis taught me of loving her neighbor as her self...with a twist of irony that I knew she never intended--it was how she had been taught...
How I wish that the twisted minds within our nation had not been incited... again...
Ok, I wanted to end today's post of a high note. Myrlie did discover that Medgar was right... She became a very successful woman, she married again to a man who knew that her first husband was the love of her life, but he loved her enough to want to work to provide her and the children a new home and life... Continuing to Medgar's work in civil rights, and seeing how President Kennedy did finally take action... (Was he murdered also for that act? Makes you wonder about the timing doesn't it...)
Later, we see Myrlie achieving her one dream from her life... She loved the piano classical music as I do...and, that dream had been filled. Participating in a concert at Carnegie Hall! I couldn't find videos back that far, but did find Alicia Keys who would be proud to represent Myrlie and her audience... don't you think?
But Myrlie loved all music so I hope you enjoy these:
The title of a song came to me as I was writing... Then as I listened to it, I remembered one time when I heard Joy sharing that she was a Christian...she fumbled to answer whatever was being discussed. I found it ironic, perhaps even a God Incident, that this song came to mind... For surely I believe that Joy-Ann Reid was led to write this book at this particular time... God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. Folks, this book needs to be talked about, shared, and praised... Even in tragedies--even with all the lies, God's Love, His Truth will come through... I believe this book is just one way He's working to win over hate and violence in the world... Support those who speak Truth, Speak Love, Speak Jesus...
On May 17, 1954, Earl Warren, the new Chief Justice, appointed by President Eisenhower after Vinson’s sudden death from a heart attack, delivered the unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, declaring that “separate but equal” was dead.
White Southerners erupted. The Clarion-Ledger in an editorial declared May 17 “a black day of tragedy for the South, and for both races.” The Jackson Daily News said that “human blood may stain Southern soil in many places because of this decision, but the dark red stains of that blood will be on the marble steps of the United States Supreme Court building.”
Congressman John Bell Williams, a future governor of the state, called May 18, 1954, “Black Monday,” and Sen. James O. Eastland proclaimed that Mississippi would never abide by the ruling and submit to the mixing of the races in its schools. Gov. Hugh Lawson White formed a Legal Education Advisory Committee to find ways to, in the words of the Ledger, “dodge the ruling,” even inviting some ninety Black leaders, whom he deemed to be “good Negroes,” to meet with him and the board to seek their cooperation in maintaining separate schools, which the governor and other white elites insisted was a majority view among Black Mississippians. The governor even offered to improve Negro schools to make them “truly equal,” in return for Black leaders pledging to oppose integration.
The group, including NAACP head Dr. E. J. Stringer, summarily declined the governor’s offer and fully supported the Brown ruling and integration. On July 18, the Ledger reported that “segregation problems on the university level [had] skipped Mississippi so far, with one exception: Medgar Evers of Mound Bayou, an NAACP director, has applied for entrance to the University of Mississippi.” Medgar was now officially a public name, with all the risks that entailed.
Within months, Governor White and the Democratic state legislature called a special session to pass a state constitutional amendment that white voters ratified later that year, allowing the state government to dissolve any school district that accepted integration. The amendment also added teeth to Mississippi’s already monstrous voter suppression laws, requiring that voters show “good moral character” as well as interpret arcane passages from the state’s 1890 constitution, subjectively decided by each county registrar, all of whom were white. Several counties required voters to re-register, forcing many of the few already-registered Black voters off the rolls.
In Sunflower County, Robert Boyd “Tut” Patterson gathered a group of fellow white bankers, business owners, and planters to create the first Association of Citizens Councils of Mississippi (ACCM), which used its collective economic power to keep segregation in place by punishing Blacks who stepped outside the Mississippi social code by registering to vote, joining the NAACP, or attending meetings about changing the status quo. The Citizens’ Councils attempted to distance themselves from the “rednecks” in the Klan, but their hostility to change, and tendency to keep a minute account of the activities of Blacks who “stepped out of line,” had its own brutal calculation.
Medgar’s determination to enter Ole Miss Law School stalled amid that rancor. By fall, Attorney General Coleman recommended that the Mississippi State Board of Education reject Medgar’s law school application. Instead, they returned it, saying it lacked a second reference from a white citizen who’d known Medgar for ten years.
Medgar’s instinct was to sue, especially with the Brown victories in hand. Dr. Howard and Thurgood Marshall had other plans. Soon, on Marshall’s recommendation, Medgar was offered the job of statewide field secretary for the NAACP, a new position the organization created for him. Medgar accepted, letting his law school dream go for the time being. Myrlie was thrilled—and horrified.
The job offer meant leaving Mound Bayou, and the bugs and the heat of the Delta, and moving to the state capital of Jackson. It also meant ratcheting up Medgar’s visibility and the risks to his life.
At their dinner table, after the babies were put to bed, Myrlie protested. “I told him about my fear for his life, for the lives of our children and myself. He shared just a little about his fear, but I remember Medgar telling me, ‘I’ll always be there for you.’ And I said to him, ‘What about your body if it’s not?’” Her question was met with silence. “He got up and walked away from the table . . . walked out of the room.
And when he came back in, he was different. I didn’t understand what had happened. And he told me, ‘Myrlie . . . this is something I have to do.’ I said, ‘What about me? What about our children?’ And he said, ‘This is why I have to do it.’ It took me a long time to understand that. I gave in, of course, because I wanted our marriage to last. I wanted it to be a comfortable marriage, as comfortable as marriages can be.”
~~~
I was nudged into getting this book. I've just started reading, so it will be a while before my review is posted... But I came to this excerpt and I knew this needed to be brought forward to all of my readers...
Perhaps it will reach the ears of two Black men who recently delivered my new washer... It was another fiasco dealing with, still, another large corporation who has NO idea how to communicate! Maybe I'll talk about that at another time. In any event, I was upset. The young man who, I learned, had started a new business, was very courteous and calm while I ranted. Finally, he asked whether I wanted the washer and I had calmed down and told them to bring it in, while I continued to rant about companies that don't have to pay taxes because of the government's action. And that they were the people who got the complaints from us. They agreed. I asked how many they would receive and they said 2 or 3 a day... In my frustration, I don't remember how, but all of a sudden I was talking about Trump and voting... The talkative guy looked at me, and seemed surprised, asking "Don't you like him?" I immediately said "No, He's dangerous!" He then told me about a tax arrangement attributed to Trump for start-up businesses. I admitted I didn't know about that, and then later realized that Trump probably was once again taking credit for something congress did or even under Obama... In any event, I really wanted to shout, He supports White Supremacy... Instead, I fumbled and told them to ask their women... Yelling Do your research as they left... It was not my finest hour, as they say... But, how can you say that there is danger for, in my opinion, the Black citizens of our country, just like in the past... After all, Trump has been elected to go back to the way it was... Right?!
Then somebody sent me a notice about a group on Facebook with info about this book. I went out and bought it. I watch The Reidout often, but since I've been reading and writing more these days, I've tried not to watch MSNBC all day like I did during Trump's presidency. LOL although I keep my ears open for what books might be announced... to check out...
The book begins with a lot of historical background, of which this excerpt is a part... Medgar is still alive and standing tall as his father was known to do, walking down the streets of Mississippi without looking down or away as they passed white people... Of course, I had already read enough books to know that Black mothers, in worrying about their children, would tell them about us, we white folk who hated them, so they had to be careful how they acted... And Joy's book repeated the same for generation after another... until Myrlie met Medgar...
Like Joy, I don't support war, so I had no problem in her concern about what was happening... I felt it too and even have had discussions because there is talk all over the internet about another civil war... I was told this by a young, white, woman who is also afraid for her child. I would be too... How in the world have we gone backward in time? The Republican Party is so corrupted that those in office now are actually going against our citizens in ensuring the present administration does not succeed any further... Check out the Border fiasco where Trump has told the House leader to NOT solve the border problem--that he wanted to run for office on the problem! WE HAVE GOT TO GET THEM OUT OF OFFICE!
Folks, we need to do more for our country. It is quite clear what is happening..."MAGA" and all it stands for is working to move back to the 40s when white men had total control of all things, including the government. President Biden defines it as the soul of our country. I am more and more convinced that he is even more correct than we could ever have imagined... I, for one, refuse to go backward to a place where we lose all of the advances that have occurred since that time.
Remember an election is coming... We need to ensure that fraud and violence are not part of this like it was and result in another January 6th... Vote out those republicans in Congress who refuse to work for the good of ALL Americans!
