#1 New York Times Bestseller
NAACP Image Award Winner
From Joy-Ann Reid, a triumphant work of social justice biography that repositions slain Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers at the heart of America's struggle for freedom, and celebrates Myrlie Evers's extraordinary activism after her husband's assassination in the driveway of their Mississippi home.
“Medgar Evers deserves a place alongside Malcolm X and Dr. King in our historical memory. Evers, with Myrlie as his partner in activism and in life, was doing civil rights work in the single most hostile and dangerous environment in America.”—from Medgar and Myrlie
Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.
Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most intractable and violent resistance to black voting rights in the Jim Crow South. Myrlie served as Medgar's secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled for racial justice against public accommodations and school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair within their state's “black belt.” They fought to desegregate the intractable University of Mississippi, organized picket lines and boycotts, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.
On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of Klan-related assassination of a black civil rights leader at that time; gunned down in the couple's driveway in Jackson. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy; writing a book about Medgar's fight, trying to win a congressional seat, and becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.
In this groundbreaking and thrilling work of historical nonfiction, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie's relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans, and the repercussions that still resonate today.
How did one couple's powerful love story become a public battle for the soul of a nation?
- NAACP Field Secretary: Medgar Evers's on-the-ground work investigating lynchings like that of Emmett Till and registering voters, placing him and his young family in constant danger.
- Mississippi History: A piercing look at the most hostile state in America, where firebombings, boycotts, and assassinations were the backdrop to one family's fight for freedom.
- The Civil Rights Movement: Go beyond the headlines to the perilous, day-to-day struggle for basic human dignity, as seen through the eyes of two of the movement's most dedicated heroes.
- A Legacy of Activism: After Medgar's tragic assassination in their own driveway, Myrlie Evers's incredible journey to carry on their work, seek justice, and become a civil rights leader in her own right.