Medgar Evers was een Afrikaans-Amerikaanse burgerrechten-activist. Na gevochten te hebben in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, sloot hij zich in de vroege jaren ’50 aan bij de Burgerrechtenbeweging. Nadat het Hooggerechtshof in 1954 bepaalde dat rassenscheiding binnen het onderwijs ongrondwettig was, richtte hij zich speciaal op de Universiteit van Mississippi, die bleef weigeren Afrikaans-Amerikanen toe te laten.
Op 12 juni 1963 werd Evers vermoord door Byron De La Beckwith, een lid van de White Citizens’ Council. Ondanks overweldigend bewijsmateriaal weigerden geheel witte jury’s tot twee keer toe De La Beckwith te veroordelen. Pas in 1994 (!) kwam het tot een veroordeling.
Bob Dylan wijdde “Only A Pawn In Their Game” aan Evers, waarin hij betoogde dat Beckwith niet de enige schuldige was: de rijke witte elites die arme witte mensen tegen arme zwarte mensen opzetten, waren volgens Dylan tenminste net zo schuldig. Een piepjonge Bob Dylan speelde de song in 1963 tijdens de March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, waar Martin Luther King zijn beroemde “I Have A Dream” speech gaf. Dylan’s optreden kun je hier bewonderen, al is de geluidskwaliteit erg slecht.
Veel minder bekend, maar tenminste net zo mooi is “Too Many Martyrs”, geschreven en gezongen door Phil Ochs, de meest onderschatte songschrijver van de jaren ’60.
In the state of Mississippi many years ago
A boy of 14 years got a taste of southern law
He saw his friend a hanging and his color was his crime
And the blood upon his jacket put a brand upon his mind
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again
His name was Medgar Evers and he walked his road alone
Like Emmett Till and thousands more whose names we’ll never know
They tried to burn his home and they beat him to the ground
But deep inside they both knew what it took to bring him down
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again
The killer waited by his home hidden by the night
As Evers stepped out from his car into the rifle sight
he slowly squeezed the trigger, the bullet left his side
It struck the heart of every man when Evers fell and died.
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again
And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear
laid him in his grave when the victory was near
While we waited for the future for freedom through the land
The country gained a killer and the country lost a man
Too many martyrs and too many dead
Too many lies too many empty words were said
Too many times for too many angry men
Oh let it never be again