thousands of black veterans like medgar and charles medgar with a determination to vote. so on his 21st birthday, on july 2, 1946, charles medgar evers and four other young black world war ii veterans walked to the county courthouse, word of plans of their voting spread and decatur's main street was nearly vacant. a cluster of well-armed angry white men stood at the courthouse entrance. according to the account of charles evers, they held schott shotguns, rifles and pistols, quote, we stood at the courthouse steps eyeballing each other. >> whites who knew them and respected their parents urged them to leave before violence erupted. the sheriff did nothing to assure they vote. he wasn't going to let us vote but he didn't want to try to kill us. he knew he might have to kill us, but he didn't want to do that. finally it was medgar who decided that today was not the best time to have a confrontation. certainly not when the odds were six against 20. don't worry, said medgar. we'll get them next time. as they departed one enraged racist yelled you damn evers anythingers are go

where medgar had been killed.i stood in the carport where medgar had been shot cowardly in the back. she told me the story of how late at night after her husband's murder, that she would go outside in the middle of the night and try to scrub out the stain of his blood stai the carport, from the driveway, a stain that was a stain on the driveway, but a stain that had taken away a beloved father from her children, a loving husband from herself, but had taken away a central figure and visionary leader of the black freedom struggle. and for all of us, regardless of race who believe in democracy in this country. i walked into her bedroom, and she paused for a moment, and i asked her why. she told me the story of several days before medgar's assassination, he came home early. she was ironing his white shirts and starching them. she had done about a dozen. she said aren't you going to thank me for ironing and starching your shirts? he said i'm not going to be needing them. what we owe medgar evers and what we owe myrlie

where medgar had been killed.i stood in the carport where medgar had been shot cowardly in the back. she told me the story of how late at night after her husband's murder, that she would go outside in the middle of the night and try to scrub out the stain of his blood stai the carport, from the driveway, a stain that was a stain on the driveway, but a stain that had taken away a beloved father from her children, a loving husband from herself, but had taken away a central figure and visionary leader of the black freedom struggle. and for all of us, regardless of race who believe in democracy in this country. i walked into her bedroom, and she paused for a moment, and i asked her why. she told me the story of several days before medgar's assassination, he came home early. she was ironing his white shirts and starching them. she had done about a dozen. she said aren't you going to thank me for ironing and starching your shirts? he said i'm not going to be needing them. what we owe medgar evers and what we owe myrlie

medgar evers' vision has yet partially -- and i want to

medgar evers had been assassinated in mississippi in june of 1963. bull connor, the police commissioner of the city of birmingham, had used dogs and fire hoses on children, women in the streets of birmingham. hundreds and thousands of young people, young children, had been arrested and jailed in the city of birmingham. people couldn't register to vote simply because of the color of their skin. back in 1961, '62, '63, people had to pass a so-called literacy test in my native state of alabama. on one occasion, a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. another occasion, a man was asked to count the number of jellybeans in a jar. >> before he would be allowed to register? >> register. and there was black doctors, lawyers, college professors, high school principals, maids, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, stood in unmovable lines all across the south. were denied the right to participate simply because of the color of their skin. >> you lived a very frenetic schedule in the months leading up to the march. you were in all the hot spots

by the time medgar efforts eve rs dies, president kennedy says its everything, and until we solve the'm inequality in the united states this democracy does not have a progressive future. [applause] >> so, what is the nature of this contradiction and why? i would simply join what my co-panelist said and read to you a few lines from a letter written in march of 1913. exactly 100 years ago. it's called, an open letter to woodrow wilson, and its author is w.e.w. due boys. you face no insoluble problem, talking about the so-called negro problem. the only time when the negro problem is insol automobile is when men insist on settling its wrong by asking absolutely contradictory things. you cannot make ten million people at one in the same time century vial and dignified, docile and self-reliant, servants and independent leaders, segregated and yet part of the industrial organism. disfranchised and citizens of a democracy, ignorant and intelligent. this is impossible. he writes. and the impossible is not factitious. it is in the very nature of things. so, the possibility and the imimpossible of

she got recruited to join the naacp inserted to make trips to this big city which is where she met medgar and get more and more involved in the movement. she was a major fund-raiser for the civil rights movement. what they did in those days, take people who were active and take them around to new york and boston and chicago and los angeles and tell their story about activism throughout the south as a way of raising money to pay for all of the activities of the movement. along with her sister, she also worked in the movement and worked on the march on washington. she and her sister joyce shared an apartment with a nobleman named horowitz. a regular visitor of that apartment was a young swinger name a -- singer named bob dylan who was kind of sweet on abcafifteen. but dorie was not only active in the movement, like many other people she was willing to put her body on the line. when medicare evers was assassinated on the morning of june 12, his followers gathered for a major memorial service and funeral. then they wanted to have a funeral procession passed the state capital of mississippi. t

she got recruited to join the naacp inserted to make trips to this big city which is where she met medgar and get more and more involved in the movement. she was a major fund-raiser for the civil rights movement. what they did in those days, take people who were active and take them around to new york and boston and chicago and los angeles and tell their story about activism throughout the south as a way of raising money to pay for all of the activities of the movement. along with her sister, she also worked in the movement and worked on the march on washington. she and her sister joyce shared an apartment with a nobleman named horowitz. a regular visitor of that apartment was a young swinger name a -- singer named bob dylan who was kind of sweet on abcafifteen. but dorie was not only active in the movement, like many other people she was willing to put her body on the line. when medicare evers was assassinated on the morning of june 12, his followers gathered for a major memorial service and funeral. then they wanted to have a funeral procession passed the state capital of mississippi. t