Medgar Evers House Study Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Michigan for yielding me the necessary time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge our colleagues to support H.R. 959, the Medgar Evers House Study Act.

Medgar Wiley Evers was born in the small town of Decatur, Mississippi, in 1925. Medgar would go on to serve in our country's Army in France and in Germany during World War II. After his military service, Medgar attended Alcorn State University, where he would meet his future wife, Myrlie.

After graduating from Alcorn, Medgar devoted his life to seeking justice and equality for all Americans. As field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, Mr. Evers led successful voter registration efforts throughout the State. He applied for admission to the University of Mississippi Law School in an unsuccessful effort to desegregate the university. Medgar also courageously led investigations into the death of Emmett Till and publicly supported Clyde Kennard after his imprisonment on erroneous charges stemming from his efforts to integrate the University of Southern Mississippi.

On June 12, 1963, as he returned home from a NAACP planning meeting, Medgar was shot in the back in the driveway of his home while his family was inside the house. He died at a local hospital less than an hour later. One week after his death, he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Today, the Medgar Evers House has been preserved as a museum by Tougaloo College. The home has been refurbished to appear as it did at the time of Evers' death. The home contains an exhibit regarding Evers' family, career, death, and his legacy. The home has hosted scores of visitors including many Members of Congress who participated in the Faith & Politics pilgrimages throughout the South.

My bill, H.R. 959, the Medgar Evers House Study Act, authorizes a special resource study by the Secretary of the Interior on the home in which his family lived and Medgar Evers was assassinated located at 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. The study will determine the national significance of the Evers home and determine the feasibility of designating the site as a unit of the National Park system.

Mr. Speaker, Medgar Evers was a civil rights giant. He dedicated his life to bringing down the pillars that maintained Jim Crow in Mississippi. The heroic life he lived and the remarkable legacy that he left are unquestioned. Today's bill will further cement the role that he played in advancing civil and human rights in our Nation. With that, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 959.

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