Medgar Evers & Malcolm X

At first glance, Medgar Evers and Malcolm X seem almost completely different. One was a member of the Nation of Islam. The other was a disciple of Martin Luther King. One was a very urban individual living in the north, while the other lived in the rural south. One believed in integration, while the other believed in separatism and armed conflict. These two men seem almost as different as is possible. In the following pages, the plan is to explore their lives and beliefs to find points of contrast and points of similarity.

One of the major points of similarity between Medgar and Malcolm is in the manner of their deaths. Both were murdered in the assassinationrife 1960s. For many years, both murders went unpunished. Yet, in the case of Medgar, the murderer was long known and he has finally been convicted (Dreifus, 1994). That murderer was a white southerner named Byron de la Beckwith. He was an ardent segregationist who had very publicly condemned the NAACP and had written letters to the FBI for years about his intentions to destroy the work of the NAACP (Vollers, 1995).

It was clear from the beginning that de la Beckwith was the guilty party. Nonetheless, a jury of his peers, which meant other white, male segregationists refused to find him guilty. He was eventually convicted in Hinds County, Mississippi in February of 1994, more than 30 years after Evers' murder in 1963.

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successful using the standard NAACP tactics. He wanted to join forces with Martin Luther King, but the NAACP at that time wanted no part of mass marches and civil disobedience (Branch, 1988). It remained a relatively conservative organization, although it was labelled radical, and even communist, by white Americans, including the FBI of J. Edgar Hoover. Evers was just returning home to his family in Jackson after a failed strategy session when he was shot. He was shot with a rifle, and only one shot, but he died within the hour. According to Taylor Branch (1988) Evers murder took on much larger implications because of the timing. Evers was shot during a tenweek period after the Birmingham settlement during which American cities were overwhelmed by racial demonstrations. He was actually murdered on the very night that President Kennedy made an important speech affirming the goal of racial equality and firstclass citizenship for Negroes. Kennedy had asserted that the country faced a moral crisis in regard to its Negro citizens and that it was the task of the United States to make a great change toward equality and freedom for Negroes that was peaceful and constructive. On the other hand, in looking at Malcolm X's life, it
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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