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Washington Post
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Daughter of assassinated civil rights leader sees painful echoes of political violence in America
Jackson, Miss. — More than 60 years after a white supremacist assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, his daughter still sees the same strain of political violence at work in American society. 'It's painful,' said Reena Evers-Everette. 'It's very painful.' Evers-Everette was 8 years old when her father, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.


The Independent
02-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Daughter of assassinated civil rights leader sees painful echoes of political violence in America
More than 60 years after a white supremacist assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, his daughter still sees the same strain of political violence at work in American society. 'It's painful,' said Reena Evers-Everette. 'It's very painful.' Evers-Everette was 8 years old when her father, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. A few months after Evers' killing in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was gunned down. The deaths of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy followed later that decade. Now, experts say the level of political violence in America over the past few years is likely the highest it's been since the 1960s and 1970s. The past year alone has seen the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers, and two assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. At a four-day conference celebrating Evers' life just before what would have been his 100th birthday on July 2, his daughter was joined by the daughters of slain civil rights leaders: Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and Bettie Dahmer, the daughter of civil and voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer. The 2025 Democracy in Action Convening, 'Medgar Evers at 100: a Legacy of Justice, a Future of Change,' was held in Jackson. 'I just was feeling so much pain, and I didn't want anyone else to have to go through that,' Kennedy said, recalling that after her father died, she prayed for the man who killed him. 'I was saying, 'Please don't — please don't kill the guy that killed him.'' Two-time Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams spoke at the event, denouncing efforts by the Trump administration to strip the names of activists from Navy vessels, including possibly Evers. 'They want to take his name off a boat because they don't want us to have a reminder of how far he sailed us forward,' Abrams told the conference crowd. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has undertaken an effort to change the names of ships and military bases that were given by President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, which often honored service members who were women, people of color, or from the LGBTQ+ community. Abrams drew parallels between acts of radical political violence and the Trump administration's use of military resources against protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against immigration enforcement actions. 'Unfortunately, we cannot decry political violence and then sanction the sending of the Marines and the National Guard to stop protesters and not believe that that conflicting message doesn't communicate itself,' Abrams told The Associated Press. 'What I want us to remember is that whether it is Medgar Evers or Melissa Hortman, no one who is willing to speak for the people should have their lives cut short because of what they say.' In addition to her father's life and legacy, Evers-Everette wants people to remember the hatred that led to his assassination. 'We have to make sure we know what our history is,' she said. "So we don't repeat the crazy, nasty, racist mess."

Associated Press
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Daughter of assassinated civil rights leader sees painful echoes of political violence in America
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Jackson, Miss. (AP) — More than 60 years after a white supremacist assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, his daughter still sees the same strain of political violence at work in American society. 'It's painful,' said Reena Evers-Everette. 'It's very painful.' Evers-Everette was 8 years old when her father, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi. A few months after Evers' killing in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was gunned down. The deaths of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy followed later that decade. Now, experts say the level of political violence in America over the past few years is likely the highest it's been since the 1960s and 1970s. The past year alone has seen the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers , and two assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. At a four-day conference celebrating Evers' life just before what would have been his 100th birthday on July 2, his daughter was joined by the daughters of slain civil rights leaders: Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and Bettie Dahmer, the daughter of civil and voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer . The 2025 Democracy in Action Convening, 'Medgar Evers at 100: a Legacy of Justice, a Future of Change,' was held in Jackson. 'I just was feeling so much pain, and I didn't want anyone else to have to go through that,' Kennedy said, recalling that after her father died, she prayed for the man who killed him. 'I was saying, 'Please don't — please don't kill the guy that killed him.'' Two-time Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams spoke at the event, denouncing efforts by the Trump administration to strip the names of activists from Navy vessels , including possibly Evers . 'They want to take his name off a boat because they don't want us to have a reminder of how far he sailed us forward,' Abrams told the conference crowd. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has undertaken an effort to change the names of ships and military bases that were given by President Joe Biden's Democratic administration, which often honored service members who were women, people of color, or from the LGBTQ+ community. Abrams drew parallels between acts of radical political violence and the Trump administration's use of military resources against protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against immigration enforcement actions. 'Unfortunately, we cannot decry political violence and then sanction the sending of the Marines and the National Guard to stop protesters and not believe that that conflicting message doesn't communicate itself,' Abrams told The Associated Press. 'What I want us to remember is that whether it is Medgar Evers or Melissa Hortman, no one who is willing to speak for the people should have their lives cut short because of what they say.' In addition to her father's life and legacy, Evers-Everette wants people to remember the hatred that led to his assassination. 'We have to make sure we know what our history is,' she said. 'So we don't repeat the crazy, nasty, racist mess.'


Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Medgar Evers' family fights efforts to strip his name from Navy vessel
A week after Pentagon leaders announced their intention to possibly rename the USNS Medgar Evers, christened for the World War II veteran and civil rights leader, his family urged the Department of Defense and the Navy to reverse their position. The ship is one of eight vessels named after activists – among them Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harriet Tubman – that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to rebrand in a large offensive against 'wokeness' and diversity, equity and inclusion in the military to reestablish the 'warrior ethos.' This could be the second time Evers' name is erased. Although President Donald Trump called Medgar Evers a 'great American hero' at the 2017 opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, his name was removed last March from a site on the Arlington National Cemetery Website, which featured a section honoring Black Americans who fought in the nation's wars. 'Renaming the USNS Medgar Evers is not only malicious — it is despicable,' said Evers' daughter, Reena Evers-Everette. 'As my mother said, 'This is an injustice to a man who fought for his country both at home and abroad.'' Evers was among the continuing wave of U.S. soldiers who arrived on the beaches of Normandy after the D-Day invasion in 1944. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17 and served in the Red Ball Express, a convoy run largely by African-American soldiers that transported equipment from Normandy beaches to Allied forces in inland France. He earned several military medals for his service. After fighting the Nazis in World War II, he returned home to fight racism again in the form of Jim Crow, which barred Black Mississippians from restaurants, restrooms and voting booths. In 1954, he became the Mississippi NAACP's first field secretary and played a major part in the development of the organization. He led protests and boycotts for voting rights and desegregation of public schools, parks and Mississippi beaches. A target of white supremacists in Mississippi, he was murdered in 1963 by a member of the segregationist White Citizen's Council and Ku Klux Klan. In 2009, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus – a former Mississippi governor – announced the naming of a dry cargo ship after Evers. On Nov. 12, 2011, the USNS Medgar Evers was christened by Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers. 'I will not have to go to bed again wondering whether anyone will remember who Medgar Evers is,' she said at the ceremony. Mabus said he named the ship after Evers because the Lewis and Clark ships are named for pioneers and explorers, 'those who have pushed past boundaries, and Medgar Evers was just such a civil rights pioneer.' Since its launch, the ship has traveled around the world and has taken part in NATO exercises. By attempting to remove the names of activists who fought with courage and honor for the citizens of their country, the secretary of Defense sacrifices military values to a revisionist definition of patriotism, Evers-Everette said. 'The USNS Medgar Evers was not named to make a political statement,' she said. 'It was named to reflect a deeper truth: that freedom is not free — and some Americans have paid dearly for it.' ___ This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.