Medgar Evers Assassination Essay

Medgar Evers’ assassination was unjustified because the man who killed him, Byron De Le Beckwith, was racially motivated and only killed him because Evers was African American. Evers was born at Decauter, Mississippi, on July 2, 1925. Before he became active in the Civil Rights movement, Medgar was an insurance salesman. He also served in the army during the World War II, and became the 1st field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi(“Medgar Evers Biography” Bio.com. A&E Network). Within the time he was able to partake in the movement towards Civil Rights for blacks, he was crowned the most prominent Civil Rights activist in Mississippi(“Medgar Evers Biography” Bio.com. A&E Network). Being that Mississippi was in the south, that state was

Byron De Le Beckwith, Medgar’s assassinator, escaped trial once and then was convicted of the murder (“Medgar Evers Assassinated.” History.com. A&E Television Network). Bryon was one of the many members of the KKK. This was a group of all white Americans that discriminated, threaten, killed, lynched, hung, and beat African Americans; mainly during the Civil Rights Movement time. Byron was also a descendent of multiple generations of slave owners and KKK members. Therefore, he was raised to hate and kill African Americans. When Medgar became the face of civil rights in Mississippi, Bryon was lead to him. Bryon studied Evers’ everyday routine and learned Evers’ work schedule. He basically became obsessed with killing Medgar. After Byron was convicted guilty, Medgar’s wife, Myrlie Beasley said “I can finally feel happy again.”(Cosgrove, Ben) Evers was shot in the back at 12:40 a.m. in the driveway of his Mississippi home. The after math of Medgar Evers’ assassination, contributed to the fact that his assassination based on racial discrimination. At his funeral, more than 1,000 blacks were in attendance and another 1,000 marched through the town while the ceremony was carrying on (Younge, Gary); he is buried at Arlington National

However, this belief is very insufficient, because there is not evidence to support that claim. The killer of Evers’ told the entire world that he killed his victim because he was an educated African American male. After Medgar’s death, the president at the time spoke upon his death and what he is aspiring to accomplish to stop the violence and killings. This assassination also brought awareness to the government and the legislatures. The legislature passed laws to help protect the African Americans and other minorities from the prejudice and injustice. However, the white police still did not follow those laws and harassed blacks even more. They arrested more than 350 Negros that were innocent from things they were accused