Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

ist mob continued their intimidation, but refrained from their threats after one of
the veterans brandished his weapon, a .38 handgun . The two of the veterans who
initiated the effort of the six Newton County Black veterans, brothers Medgar and
Charles Evers, would become significant players in the struggle to win voting and
human rights for Black Mississippians."
Medgar Evers and the NAACP
Along with Fannie Lou Hamer, the image of Medgar Evers stands as a
personification of the human rights movement in Mississippi during the 1960s .
The popular representation of Evers does not reflect that this courageous leader,
as an individual, believed in and practiced armed self-defense and other forms of
armed resistance . A close examination of Evers' participation in the freedom
movement will demonstrate that he was clearly a product of the armed resistance
tradition .
After the incident at the Newton County courthouse, Medgar decided to
finish high school (he quit school after his sophomore year to enter the Army) at
an experimental secondary program at Alcorn A&M, where his brother Charles
was enrolled in college . The Alcom secondary program was such a good expert -
ence for Medgar that he decided to stay on for college . In college he met his
future wife, Myrlie Beasley. After graduating from Alcorn in 1952, Medgar and
Myrlie would move to the all-Black Delta town of Mound Bayou .
In Mound Bayou, the Everses would both work for a Black owned insur
ance agency, the Magnolia Mutual Insurance Company. One of the principal
owners of Magnolia Mutual Insurance was Dr. T.R.M . Howard, a physician and