medgar evers was a field by tary for the naacp white spremities. the museum is dedicated to his memory. >> for many of us who have gone overseas, fought for this country, fought for mississippi, we fought for alabama. we fought for north carolina. we fought for illinois. and we fought for every state in this union. now we're going to stay here it become reality. got out of his home. about 40 yards away a sniper fired a high powered rifle. it hit him in the back into his

body. he did within an hour at a ackson hospital. >> former home of medgar evers in jackson, mississippi. address is 2332 margaret walker drive. medgar was born and raised in a little town called decatur, mississippi. and he talked about when you read about him and listening to him talk, he talked about he knew the differences how the races between them could never understand why. he talked about having white playmates. it was only after they would hunt and fish tonight -- it was only about when the three got to be the age of 16 that they were separated with their different ways. and he talked about seeing his friend, seeing he was going

downtown and he saw his friend standing in the corner with some other whites. and he said they called him nigger. his friend noticed his friend dropped his head when he said i. -- it. that's the kind of situation he grew up in. he said i knew the difference that was made between the races. i never understood why it was that way. he talked to his father about it. and his father talked to him about him and told him what his responsibilities are. in reading that it really came home to him just how much difference were made between the races and the things that would happen. belligerent when he was 12. when he asked his father what why do they do that. he said that's what they do. he was frustrated. he was hurt. getting away from it may have

enlisted into the army when he was only 16. and he served in world war ii. and he talked about as he traveled about, he said sending america because of the color of his skin when he came home to mississippi, he tried to register for the vote. he and his brother charles who was a veteran. these group of white men turned them around with shotguns. ran them off with shotguns. he said he ran. it made medgar get serious. he finished his other two years of high school and he was going to the unit. he enrolled in college majoring in business administration. >> after medgar graduated from all corn and moved to mississippi and he was out in mount bayou was an all-blacktown. and this young man named tim

howard was a black man who was rich. and he had this insurance company. so he gave medgar his first job of selling insurance for him. medgar said he started out in the little town of clarksville, mississippi selling insurance. and then he ventured out into the plantation and that's where he was selling people -- trying to sell insurance out there. and medgar began to look at some of the conditions under which these people were living. and also he talked about black people not knowing what insurance was. he was talking to him and watching their condition looking at their condition and looking at the reaction that he was getting when he talked civil - he would write rights, the naacp, getting registered to vote and that kind of thing and people would get wind of these stories which were true, what was happening to people in the area.

in fact, there were no schools for blacks. and if you try to register to vote what would happen to you -- what would happen to others and what could happen to you. so he was telling them that that's your right. medgar was not allowed to be on their property after they knew what they were doing. blacks could buy the gas but you couldn't use the bathroom. the prices in the grocery stores -- on in occasions it would go up. a lot of times they said you had to stand in line until the whites were served. and so, you know, don't buy the groceries. don't buy the gas. we'll go somewhere where you're reated better. before medgar, mississippi did

not have an naacp secretary. his job was to come in and organize 82 counties in the state of mississippi and getting people registered to vote taking complaints, that kind of thing checking what was and i believe he was selected by the naacp after he tried to get into the university. when they denied him admissions this is when the national naacp asked him to become field secretary. they didn't take medgar too serious. it was only after he really began to get things involved with the student movement and all of them who came in. and think that's when medgar -- you know, people really begin to shape things up.

he would not give up. he challenged them to make a speech, you know, blacks couldn't speak. he couldn't speak. i had heard medgar -- i heard him only when i went away to college. so he was not on television. he was not on the radio. i think this is when people begin to see -- they were not going to turn people around. people -- i call them the foot soldiers began to get involved. women and their children began to get involved. and i think this is when they saw this man is really shaking things up. >> don't shop for everything on capital street. let's let the merchants on capital street feel the economic tension. let me say this to you. i had one merchant call me and he said i want you to know that i talked to my national office today and they want me to tell you that we don't need nigger

business. these are storys that help to support the white citizens council, a town that is dedicated to keeping you and i second class citizens. now finally ladies and gentlemen, we'll be demonstrating here until freedom comes to negros here nd jackson, mississippi. >> this is what made medgar's family came to live in 19575. and it was historic in the sense that medgar and his family came into this neighborhood after he became field secretary. this was the neighborhood that was being -- sub addition that was being involved by two young black world war ii veterans. this had never happened before in jackson, mississippi. but these two veterans were developing a one-street subdivision. and they were developing and were constructing homes of what they call professional

middle-class professional blithe, lawyers and doctors, your teacher, business owners living on this one street subdivision. and then they were going to put the subdivision between two white subdivisions. looked kind of like a trial. did.his is what medgar he selected this particular lot. there was one on the left and one on the right. he knew what was happening. he knew that could happen. he knew the things that were happening to the family. the threats that were being made, those kind of things. so he changed his house plans. for instance, he didn't want a front door. so this is basically the only house in the area that does not have a front door. he asked that because he said he wanted his main interest -- entrance through the carport. he was going to teach his family when they were going to come the driveway they were always going to exit the house

in the passenger side that way they can use the wall as a means for protection. the one on the east wall higher than other windows, higher than that looked like this on this street. >> the first year someone shot through this window. medgar said put the kids on the floor so they would be lower on the windows than the beds would be. second shot was was through their bedroom window. so they would sleep on the floor. sometimes they would sleep with a gun and maybe with a pistol sometimes when he was here or vice versa. she was protecting her kids just as medgar was. medgar he knew people were involving him. hat's why he took all of these precautions. he would take his car to the mechanic and have it souped up

so to speak to have people that would chase him that kind of a thing. sometimes you va calling and you cannot let go. and i believe that's the way it was. medgar, that's what he would talk about. >> i've had a number of certain calls, people calling me saying they were going to call me, going to blow my home up and saying they i only had a few hours to live. 15 minutes past midnight, evers got of his car in a negro residential area. a sniper fired a shot from evers' sill weth. he crashed through his body. >> she and her kids in the back of the house and hearing medgar drive up and not coming into the house and she heard the shots and she said my kids began crawling across the floor to go to through the bathroom. because they said should

something happen, the safest place in the house is the bathtub that's where they were headed until she heard of something -- like someone threw something this the house and made her break for the door and she said when she threw open the door medgar was staggering coming around the car trying to get to this door. and she said she heard a couple of more shots and she thought they still were shooting at her. but the other two shots he heard was mr. wells next door. mr. wells said i wasn't aiming at anybody in particular. i was just hoping to run whoever it was away. but he and another friend came to medgar's rescue so to speak. medgar was lying facedown with his keys in his right hand. she said, i thought he was dead but he wasn't. he would say something but we couldn't understand him. but they brought him inside the house and took the mattress out

of the door and put him on that mattress to transport to the hospital. >> in jackson, mississippi in a man re lived of ught for freedom all his life in they laid medgar evers his grave ♪ >> following his death the moment kind of seemed like it died a little bit. but anyway, they had his funeral at the masonic temple. and after that he was buried at national cemetery. ter a period of time, no one lived in the house. and it had gotten in pretty bad

shape. there are other exhibits about medgar in other mue assumes but we knew he wanted to do something. they didn't know exactly what we want to do. people wanted to know where he lived. we just opened the door and let people flow in and flow out. it got to the point where, we've got to say something about medgar. there are people right here in mississippi who is mill age or don't really know who medgar is. i want people to know who medgar evers was. i want people to know what a great difference he made in mississippi. i learned later not only in ssissippi but throughout the world. one of the things he said is i like mississippi, this is home. i like fishing here. i like hunting. and hips is a wonderful place to grow up. he said, why should i leave?

i love mississippi. then when you look at it like this, had medgar left mississippi, what about all the other people? everybody wouldn't leave mississippi. why should you? as he put it you have the same rights as anybody born here. so why should you run away to some unknown city or state to get a decent education also make a living for your family, o get a decent job and support and have a nice home? why should you do that? and so medgar evers decided to stay here in mississippi. and thank god he did. >> tonight's look at the people and places and the struggle for civil rights is part of our c-span's city's tour. it's where we highlight the literal life and history of each city we visit. to see more go to our website

c-span.org and click on series and then click on c-span cities our. >> c-span's american history tour next friday focuses on native americans. we start off with the battle of the little big horn also known as custer's last stand. so a tour of new mexico, pueblo,. pictographs in montana and a native evoted to turn americans into christianity. next, alabama's civil rights trail from 1955 to the summit at montgomery march 10 years later. a look at martin luther's speech he gave in birmingham. and alabama's civil rht