On our trip to visit Mississippi NPS sites this summer, we visited two sites associated with the Civil Rights movement.
Selma to Montgomery NHT
The highlight of our trip to Selma, Alabama was walking across the Edmond Pettis Bridge where thousands of non-violent protestors led by Martin Luther King, Jr. began their four-day, 54-mile march to the capital in Montgomery. As we crossed the infamous bridge, I marveled at the bravery of the protestors and hummed some of the powerful songs of the movement like “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” and “We Shall Not Be Moved”.
The marchers organized at local churches. Their first attempt was stopped by troopers, in Bloody Sunday. The NPS center at Selma included harrowing first person accounts of the beatings that day.
President Johnson called the march a “turning point in the man’s unending reach for freedom”. The national media coverage of the marches and violent beatings led Congress and President Johnson to take action. Five months later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law, allowing African Americans in the South to register to vote.
At the recommendation of a local Selma man at the end of the bridge, we tracked down the best BBQ sandwich we will probably ever eat. Lannie’s Bar-B-Que Spot was, as he said, “in the hood, where they make the best BBQ”.
Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home HM
Next we visited one of the newest NPS sites (it was designated in 2019), in a neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi, where Medgar Evers was murdered in the carport of his home while his wife and children were inside. His murder became a catalyst for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A civil rights activist, Evers was working to end segregation in public facilities in Mississippi, to improve the enforcement of voting rights, and to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The white supremacist who murdered Evers was finally convicted more than thirty years later in the third trial.
The Mississippi Civil Rights museum in Jackson included a display honoring Medgar Evers, including the gun used in the murder, information about poll taxes and discriminatory voting tests (which we agreed were almost impossible to answer), and Klan regalia.
Medgar Evers represents what is means to struggle against oppression. What it means to be willing to sacrifice everything to stand up not only for your own welfare and benefit but for the welfare of others. Thats what it means to advocate. Dr. Michael Williams
Prior to the start of our attempt to visit all of the NPS sites, Alabama and Mississippi were just states that we traveled through on the way somewhere else. But we have enjoyed learning more about their historical significance, and we look forward to more visits, especially if it involves more BBQ from Lannie’s in Selma, Alabama.