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Three major events in the civil rights history of Mississippi have inspired numerous works of fiction and other forms of popular culture, as highlighted by this exhibit.

Summer Courthouse historical marker after its unveiling, close-up

1955: (August 28): The Murder of Emmett Till

[Photo: 2015 Dedication of Emmett Till Murder Trial marker, Tallahatchie County Courthouse, Sumner, Miss.]

Emmett Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago was abducted, tortured, and lynched for allegedly making sexual advances to a white female while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. When his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, insisted on a public funeral with an open casket in Chicago, her son's death brought attention to the plight of African-Americans in the South under Jim Crow. After a jury acquitted two white men of the brutal slaying, one of the accused bragged of his involvement to the national media. These events are said to have sparked the modern civil rights movement in the American South.

Your Blues Ain't Like Mine / Bebe Moore Campbell

Wolf Whistle / Lewis Nordan

Novels inspired by the death of Emmett Till:

  • Your Blues Ain't Like Mine / Bebe Moore Campbell (1992)
  • Wolf Whistle / Lewis Nordan (1993)

Documentary works:

1963 (June 12): The Murder of Medgar Evers

Medgar_Evers_press_photo_1963

Medgar Evers in a press photo from around 1963. No copyright markings on the photo or the newspaper.

Medgar Evers was the first field secretary in Mississippi for the NAACP. In this role, he helped organize boycotts and sit-ins around the state, set up new chapters of the organization, and helped with James Meredith's efforts to enroll at the University of Mississippi in 1962. Evers himself had applied to UM's Law School in 1954, as a test case by the NAACP, but had been rejected due to his race.

In the early hours of June 12, 1963, hours after President John F. Kennedy's Civil Rights address appeared on national television, Evers was shot in the back while getting out of his car. He died in a local hospital less than an hour later. The trial of his assassin, Byron De La Beckwith, in April 1964 failed to reach a verdict. Evers's widow Myrlie waited for a new judge to be assigned in the county and refiled the charges against De La Beckwith. In 1994, 30 years after the murder, De La Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison where he died in 2001 at the age of 80.

The assassination of Medgar Evers inspired several songs, stories, books, and films.

  • Only a Pawn in Their Game / Bob Dylan (1963)

  • Mississippi Goddam / Nina Simone (1964), written in response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of the Sixteenth-Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963. (documentary short, Mississippi Goddam: The Story Behind the Anthem)

  • Ghosts of Mississippi / directed by Rob Reiner (1996) centers on the retrial of Byron De La Beckwith.

1964: Freedom Summer

FBI poster for missing Civil Rights workers (Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner)

FBI poster of then-missing Civil Rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner (1964)

During the first weekend of Freedom Summer, a volunteer campaign launched in June 1964 by the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC) to attempt to register African-American voters in Mississippi, three civil rights workers -- Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman -- disappeared. Authorities ultimately discovered their bodies on August 4, just outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Freedom's Blood / James D. Forman

The Murderer Vine / Shepard Rifkin

Novels inspired by the events of Freedom Summer:

  • Freedom's Blood / James D. Forman (1979)
  • The Murderer Vine / Shepard Rifkin (1970)

Other media:

  • Mississippi Burning / directed by Alan Parker (1988)

Also in eGrove:

Events

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http://egrove.olemiss.edu/etmc_photos/19

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