Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home

National Monument

Mississippi

Authorized: March 12, 2019

less than one acre

Official Site: https://www.nps.gov/memy/index.htm

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medgar_and_Myrlie_Evers_Home_National_Monument

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument, also known as Medgar Evers House, is a historic house museum at 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. Built in 1956, it was the home of African-American civil rights activist Medgar Evers (1925-1963) at the time of his assassination. Now owned by Tougaloo College, the restored house is open for tours by appointment. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2017. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, signed March 12, 2019, named it as a national monument.

Links

Trump approves five national monuments – from black history to dinosaur bonesThe new sites created by a sweeping public lands bill have been years in the making – here’s our guide

Medgar Evers House

Location: Jackson, Mississippi

Built in 1956, the Medgar Evers House in Jackson was the home of the black civil rights leader at the time of his assassination.

Evers, a second world war veteran and activist, worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi and expand voting rights for African Americans. In June 1963, aged just 37, Evers was shot while in his carport by a white supremacist and Klansman named Byron De La Beckwith. In two separate trials in the 1960s, all-white juries could not reach a verdict. Beckwith remained free until 1994, when the case was re-tried and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Historians say the killing of Evers was one of the catalysts for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. His widow, Myrlie Evers, became a noted activist in her own right, serving as national chair of the NAACP.

Today, the house where the Evers family lived has been open as a museum by appointment only, maintained by Tougaloo College, a historically black institution. The house features exhibits about Evers’ life and death, period furnishings and family photographs. A virtual tour of the home, produced by Mississippi Public Broadcasting, can be seen here.

Ben West of the National Park Service told Mississippi Public Broadcasting on Monday that the park service was waiting on the president’s signature to begin planning the project, including parking, access and tour sizes, restrooms and other visitor services.

“The immediate next steps if and when it gets signed by the president is the park service would then seek to engage with Tougaloo College as the owner of the home, to work with them and the family as well,” said West.

West said the plan calls for talking with neighbors. He said the project could be expanded to include nearby houses as part of a historic district.

Medgar and Myrlie Evers' home established as a national monument in Jackson“Medgar and Myrlie Evers are heroes whose contributions to the advancement of civil rights in Mississippi and our nation cannot be overstated.”

Medgar Evers Home Museum – US Civil Rights Trail

U.S. Interior Secretary Asks Trump for New Civil Rights National MonumentMississippi civil rights sites, including the home of slain leader Medgar Evers, should be considered for national monument designation, the U.S. interior

Memo: Consider civil rights home for national monumentThe U.S. interior secretary says Mississippi civil rights sites, including the home of slain leader Medgar Evers, should be considered for national monument designation.

A look at 3 sites proposed as new national monumentsU.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended changes to some existing national monuments, including shrinking their size and allowing more uses such as mining, fishing and logging.