April 25, 2002

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Speeches and letters of slain civil right leader Medgar Evers were presented today to state historians in a ceremony at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson.

The presentation was made by Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams. Evers-Williams will also speak later this week to the Conference of Black Mayors meeting in Jackson.

Evers-Williams gave 55 boxes to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

“It was very difficult for me to let the papers go,” Evers-Williams told the audience of about 200 at the ceremony. “I could pick them up and see a little bit of Medgar.”

She said she was donating the papers to Mississippi because she wants scholars — professional and amateur — to make the connection between the civil rights movement and the kind of race relations Mississippi has realized since then.

“This is where they belong,” Ever-Williams said.

Former Gov. William Winter, a longtime member of the Archives and History Board of Trustees, opened the ceremony and told Evers-Williams: “Welcome home, Myrlie.”

Winter said Medgar Evers “gave his life in his quest to free us all — black and white folks alike — from the bondage of racial segregation and discrimination. He was a true hero.”

Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP, was shot from ambush at his home in Jackson in 1963.

Mississippi Writers Page Links
About This Site | New Book Info | News & Events | Literary Landmarks | Mississippi Literary History | Mississippi Publishing | Other Features | Other Web Resources

WRITER LISTINGS:
by author | by title | by place | by year | by genre

SEARCH THE MISSISSIPPI WRITERS PAGE

Ole Miss Links
UM Home Page | English Department | Center for the Study of Southern Culture | The University of Mississippi Foundation