For Us, the Living

By Myrlie, B. Evers and Myrlie Evers Williams

Book Overview

In 1967, when this brave book was first published, Myrlie Evers said, "Somewhere in Mississippi lives the man who murdered my husband."

Medgar Evers died in a horrifying act of political violence. Among both blacks and whites, the killing of this Mississippi civil rights leader intensified the menacing moods of unrest and discontent generated during the civil rights era. His death seemed to usher in a succession of political shootings--Evers, then John Kennedy, then Martin Luther King, Jr., then Robert Kennedy.

At thirty-seven while field secretary for the NAACP, Evers was gunned down in Jackson, Mississippi, during the summer of 1963. Byron De La Beckwith, an arch segregationist charged with the crime, was released after two trials with hung juries. In 1994, after new evidence surfaced thirty years later, Beckwith was arrested and tried a third time. Medgar Evers's widow saw him convicted and jailed with a life sentence.

In For Us, the Living this extraordinary woman tells a moving story of her courtship and of her marriage to this heroic man who learned to live with the probability of violent death. She describes her husband's unrelenting devotion to the quest of achieving civil rights for thousands of black Mississippians and of his ultimate sacrifice on that hot summer night.

With this reprinting of her poignant yet painful memoir, a book long out of print comes back to life and underscores the sacrifice of Medgar Evers and his family.

Introduced in a reflective essay written by the acclaimed Mississippi author Willie Morris, this account of Evers's professional and family life will cause readers to ponder how his tragic martyrdom quickened the pace of justice for black people while withholding justice from him for thirty years. Since the conviction of Beckwith in a dramatic and historical trial in a Mississippi court there has been renewed acclaim for Evers. One speculates that, had he lived, he might have attained even more for the equality of African Americans in national life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0878058419
• ISBN13: 9780878058419
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.9" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Should be considered a classic of the Civil Rights Era

This is the story of Medgar Evers - one of the lesser known heroes of the Civil Rights Era - and the story of how his family and the movement managed to continue after Medgar was brutally assassinated in the driveway of his home while his wife and children were there. The story is lovely in parts, terrifying in parts, joyous in parts, humbling in parts, and poignant throughout. Any student of American history should read this book. It's more than the tragic love story of two amazing people; Mrs. Evers's fine writing adroitly details life in the Deep South before the civil rights movement gained widespread recognition and appeal. I highly, highly recommend it.

Read this moving book in two days

I am 38 years old and I read this book when I was 17 years old as a senior in high school. It wasn't a requirement that I read this book. I simply saw it in the library and was intrigued by the title. Now that I am an adult, I want my children to read this powerful book. I am also ordering the book today so that I can reread it. There were so many people who participated in the civil rights movement and it is time we learn about more of those American heros. I could not put this book down. I read it in two days! Myrlie Evers shares her darkest fears and greatest joy.