Medgar Evers influence on the political struggle and law after his death - Admission/Application Essay Example

This momentum for reforms then spilled over to social and political changes to achieve equality among all races. The black Americans had to fight for every political right they are entitled to because of rampant blatant and overt discrimination and this struggle took a serious turn during the 1950s and the 1960s. There are a number of black Americans who gained prominence in this political fight the most famous of which is Martin Luther King, Jr. However, there are many others who had to contribute to the struggle in their own ways and some of them paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.

The intensity of emotions cannot be underestimated as white supremacists did all they could to prevent political equality. As they say, old habits die hard. It is to the credit of some white people who had sympathized with the African Americans and helped them in their struggles by siding with them. One of the big names in the Civil Rights Movement that is too largely overshadowed by Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) is Medgar Evers. Like MLK, Evers was also assassinated but he died much earlier than MLK.

This paper discusses the legacy of Mr. Evers in the political struggles and how his death affected the laws that were soon passed. Discussion Medgar Evers was born in Decatur, Mississippi on July 19, 1925; he was the third of four children of a small farm owner. As a child, he had already experienced the effects of the racial discrimination so rampant in the South such as suffering from the taunts of white kids. As a grown-up, he and his brother had tried to exercise their right to vote during an election but were not able to do so due to the presence of an armed crowd of white (numbering about two hundred people) who prevented blacks from voting by blocking the election booths.

This incident triggered or encouraged him to seek justice by becoming a member of the nascent but activist organization called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); he was an active member even while still a student at the Alcorn A & M College in Lorman, Mississippi. As a result of his involvement with the NAACP, he saw the injustices in which black people suffered such as the terrible living conditions of rural black people. At the time, he was an insurance salesman and so his job entailed going out and meeting people.

His membership with NAACP also marked him as a dangerous man with ideas such as the need to overcome racial hatred and promote mutual understanding which was thought by some white people to be subversive. He became the state field secretary of the NAACP in his state of Mississippi and his political activism made his name to be included in a nine-man death list in the deep South.1 This inclusion in the list forced him to transfer himself and his family to Jackson, Mississippi where he continued his community work to end segregation.

It was while returning home in the evening from one of his numerous meetings, boycotts, prayer services and organizing picket lines that he was killed by a bullet to the back of his head. The killing sparked outrage among blacks as he was one of the first major leaders to be killed. Political Struggle – the death of Evers galvanized the blacks into more determination and greater courage to continue his work of organizing blacks so they will attain political and social freedoms which were constrained by segregationist policies.

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