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

eturned home around midnight . Myrlie and the Evers' children were at home
waiting up for him. That evening Evershad no personal security trailing him, and
the Jackson police, who often followed him home, were nowhere to be found.
Medgar was shot by sniper fire from a high-powered rifle immediately after
leaving his car. A neighbor Houston Wells, after hearing the shots and the screams
of Myrfe Evers, went to his bedroom window to see Evers lying on the ground
bleeding . Wells got his handgun and fired a shot in the air for the purpose of
frightening away the sniper. Evers somehow was able to stagger to his kitchen
door where he collapsed by the steps . Wells and other neighbors, after covering
Evers with a blanket and placing him in a station wagon, transported him to the
hospital . Evers died shortly after arriving at the hospital. It is possible if Medgar
had security that night Beckwith's assassin plans may have been blocked. It is
unclear why he was not accompanied by bodyguards . Sam Bailey lamented "he
(Evers) was supposed to have a body guard carry him home. I don't know what
happened to him. I guess he (Evers) got careless ." 33
In death Eversbecame the martyr of the Mississippi Movement . Evers was
a complex personality. His public persona contrasts somewhat with his private
comments and practices . Medgar, very much an image conscious leader, created a
public portrait of himself as a tireless soldier who didn't hate his enemy. While
this image is not inconsistent with armed self-defense, Medgar realized that the
majority of the white American public, whether in the North or South, were
threathened by the image of "Negroes with guns ." The image of Medgar as a gun
slinger did not enhance his image as one who was willing to sit down and resolve
problems with segregationists . Playing the" trickster," Medgar de-emphasized the