Medgar Evers was infuriated. Was it really going to happen this time? His work registering voters in Mississippi meant constant death threats. And there he was, in his own driveway, a white man’s rifle trained directly on him.
Evers was such a threat because his short life had been marked by one undeniable truth.
He would do ANYTHING to rid white terrorism from the state of Mississippi. Aside from documenting their crimes against our people and organizing voting drives, he did something else that petrified white people – build Black power.
He exposed white terrorism to the world by recruiting our people to join the NAACP’s ranks and to speak out when they witnessed racial injustice. When Emmett Till was murdered, he persuaded Black witnesses to testify against white murderers.
The gun went off, and the bullet hit Evers’ back, and it was over. But with his last words, he would live on.
“Turn me loose,” he said. With those three words, uttered with the last fibers of strength in his body, he wasn’t just telling his family and loved ones they should let him go in peace.
His last words also demand that we keep that same energy – that his spirit be turned loose in the movement and in our memories, to inspire us to take his lead and give everything we have for our people.