Charles Evers

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James Charles Evers (born September 11, 1922) is an important civil rights advocate in the United States. The older brother of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, Charles Evers is a leading civil rights spokesman within the Republican Party in his native Mississippi. He ran for governor in 1971 and the United States Senate in 1978, both times as an independent.

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[edit] Biography

Born in Decatur, Evers had a strong, devoutly Christian mother and a fearless father. He learned from his parents that racism was not only wrong but un-Christian, and he always saw the civil rights movement as a Christian movement teaching love, liberation and equality for all.

During World War II, Charles and Medgar Evers both served in the U.S. Army. Charles fell in love with a Filipino woman overseas but could not marry her and take her back with him to Mississippi because of her "white" skin color.

Back in Mississippi, about 1951, Charles and Medgar Evers grew very interested in Jomo Kenyatta and his use of the "mau-mau" movement to free the nation of Kenya from colonial shackles in Africa. Along with his brother, he became active in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civil rights organization that also promoted self-help and business ownership. He drew inspiration from Dr. T.R.M. Howard, the president of the RCNL, who was one the wealthiest blacks in the state. Evers often spoke at the RCNL's annual conferences in Mound Bayou between 1952 and 1955 on such issues as voting rights.

About 1956, Evers's entrepreneurial gifts and his civil rights activism landed him in trouble in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He left town and moved to Chicago. There, he vowed to support the movement back home, and fell into a life of hustling, running numbers for the mob, and managing prostitutes. The money he made is said to have been substantial, and much of it was sent back to help the movement.

One evening in 1963, Byron De La Beckwith shot Medgar Evers as Mr. Evers came home from work. As his children begged him to get up, Mr. Evers spiraled toward death. He died in an ambulance. Charles Evers was shocked and deeply upset by news of his brother's death. He took over Medgar's post as head of the NAACP in Mississippi, over the opposition of more establishment figures in the NAACP, like Roy Wilkins. n 1969 Charles Evers was elected mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, and hence became the first African American mayor in his state since Reconstruction.

By then, Fayette had a majority of blacks, but African Americans had not enjoyed full voting rights there. Fayette had no industry, which meant it had almost no residents who had grown up outside the area. It was known to be hostile towards black people. His swearing-in as mayor had enormous symbolic significance statewide and national resonance. The NAACP named Evers their 1969 Man of the Year. John Updike mentioned Evers in his popular novel "Rabbit Redux." Evers popularized the slogan "Hands that picked cotton can now pick the mayor."

Evers served many terms as mayor of Fayette. Admired by some, he alienated others with his inflexible stands on various town issues. Evers did not like to share or delegate power. The political rival who finally defeated Evers in a mayoral election used the slogan: "We've seen what Fayette can do for one man. Now let's see what one man can do for Fayette."

Evers was defeated in the 1971 gubernatorial general election by Democrat William "Bill" Waller, 601,222 (77 percent) to 172,762 (22.1 percent). Waller had been the original prosecutor of De La Beckwith. In 1978, Evers ran for the Senate seat vacated by James O. Eastland. He finished in third place, behind his opponents, Democrat Maurice Dantin and Republican Thad Cochran, but he received 24 percent of the vote. Cochran won the election and still holds the Senate seat. Many believed that Evers drew enough black votes from Dantin -- who had defeated Bill Waller and other opponents in the primary -- to allow Cochran to win.

Evers has a strong physical presence and carries his 250 pounds (113 kg) with grace. He is quoted as saying, "I'll march, I'll picket, but I don't believe in no hunger strikes." He had the endurance, the driving ambition, and the gall of the successful politician -- but never the innate caution.

Evers has also attracted controversy for his support of judicial nominee Charles W. Pickering, a fellow Republican, in contrast to organizations such as the Mississippi NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus. He remains distrusted by some blacks for allegedly cooperating with the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Evers has befriended an astonishing range of people from sharecroppers to presidents. He was an informal advisor to politicians as diverse as Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Kennedy, George Wallace, and Ronald Reagan.

Using humor and a knack for the unexpected to keep his critics and opponents off-balance, Evers has also heaped scorn on black leaders who, he believes, are charlatans or have not "paid the price." Rare for a leader, he is willing to attach names to his criticisms, rather than to let them stand as a general exhortation. Charles Evers has been highly critical of such black community leaders as Roy Wilkins, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and Louis Farrakhan.

Many observers likened Medgar Evers to a "saint," in his religious faith, his total devotion to the cause of civil rights and his disregard for his own safety. By contrast, Charles Evers was an unabashed "sinner." Nevertheless, Mr. Evers did important work leading registration and voting drives in Mississippi, often defying death threats in the process.

Evers has told his complex life story well in the memoir Have No Fear.

[edit] Quotes

"Every race of people that's ever been set free, its leaders paid the price. Medgar paid the price, every day. And one day he gave his life."
"To all of you who still hold race hatred in your heart, I ask you please, give it up."
"Whenever you see bigotry, hypocrisy is real close by."
"Have no fear."

[edit] References

  • Charles Evers and Andrew Szanton, Have No Fear, Have No Fear: The Charles Evers Story (1998 book)
  • David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, T.R.M. Howard: Pragmatism over Strict Integrationist Ideology in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1954 in Glenn Feldman, ed., Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South (2004 book), 68-95.
  • John Dittmer, Local People: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (1994 book).
  • Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (1995 book).

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