Sit-ins, Protests and Civil Rights Martyrs in Mississippi
Following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist from Mississippi, worked hard to gain admission for Black students to the University of Mississippi, a public university in Oxford. The first NAACP field secretary for Mississippi, Evers also helped organize boycotts and led voter registration drives. Because he thought Mississippi was “too racist and violent” for lunch counter sit-ins, “The Tougaloo Nine” chose the Jackson Public Library for their famous sit-in. Evers was assassinated by a Ku Klux Klan member in 1963, the same day President John F. Kennedy delivered his civil rights address. The city of Jackson erected a statue in honor of Evers in 1992, and his home is a National Historic Landmark.
