Medgar Evers : Mississippi martyr / Michael Vinson Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Michael Vinson, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American civil rights workers--Mississippi--Jackson--Biography.

African American civil rights workers.

African Americans--Civil rights--Mississippi--History--20th century.

African Americans.

Civil rights movements--Mississippi--History--20th century.

Civil rights movements.

Civil rights workers--Mississippi--Jackson--Biography.

Civil rights workers.

Jackson (Miss.)--Biography.

Jackson (Miss.).

Mississippi--Race relations.

Mississippi.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People--Biography.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Evers, Medgar Wiley, 1925-1963.

Evers, Medgar Wiley.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (473 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Civil rights activist Medgar Wiley Evers was well aware of the dangers he would face when he challenged the status quo in Mississippi in the 1950's and '60's, a place and time known for the brutal murders of those who challenged the status quo. Nonetheless, Evers consistently investigated the rapes, murders, beatings, and lynchings of black Mississippians and reported them to a national audience, all the while organizing economic boycotts, sit-ins, and street protests in Jackson as the NAACP's first full-time Mississippi field secretary. He organized and participated in voting drives and nonviolent direct-action protests, joined lawsuits to overturn school segregation, and devoted himself to a career that cost him his life. This biography of a lesser-known but seminal civil rights leader draws on personal interviews from Evers's widow, his remaining siblings, friends, schoolmates, and fellow activists to elucidate Evers as an individual, leader, husband, brother, and father. His story is a testament to the important role that grassroots activism played in exacting social change.--From publisher description.

Contents:

"Mama called him her special child": a lineage of resistance

The "road to Jericho": from the Mississippi Delta to Jackson, Mississippi

The face of social change: the NAACP in Mississippi

A bloodied and battered Mississippi: 1955

The black wave: conservatism meets determinism

Riding the rails: freedom ride challenges and the Jackson movement

Two can play the game: the gauntlet toss

Mississippi, murder, and Medgar: our domestic killing fields.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781299402041

1299402046

9781610754873

1610754875

OCLC:

787842926