Editing Medgar Evers (section)

==Activism==
The couple moved to [[Mound Bayou, Mississippi]], a town developed by African Americans after the Civil War. Evers became a salesman for [[T. R. M. Howard]]'s Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company.<ref name="NAACP Bio">{{cite web|url=http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-medgar-evers |title=NAACP HISTORY: MEDGAR EVERS |author=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People |publisher=naacp.org |date=June 24, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004234230/http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-medgar-evers |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |author-link=National Association for the Advancement of Colored People }}</ref> 

Becoming active in the civil rights movement, he served as  president of the [[Regional Council of Negro Leadership]] (RCNL), which began to organize actions to end segregation;<ref name="Wesleyan University">{{cite web |url =http://www.wesleyan.edu/mlk/posters/pdfs/evers.pdf |title =Medgar Evers: July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963 |author =Wesleyan University |publisher =wesleyan.edu |date =June 24, 2013 |author-link =Wesleyan University |access-date =June 24, 2013 |archive-date =May 16, 2017 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170516231427/http://www.wesleyan.edu/mlk/posters/pdfs/evers.pdf |url-status =live }}</ref> Evers helped organize the RCNL's boycott of those gasoline stations that denied blacks the use of the stations' restrooms. He and his brother, Charles, attended the RCNL's annual conferences in Mound Bayou between 1952 and 1954, which drew crowds of 10,000 or more.<ref>{{cite book|first1=David T.|last1=Beito|first2=Linda|last2=Royster Beito|title=T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer|publisher=Independent Institute|location=Oakland, California|date=2018|isbn=978-1598133127|pages=88–93}}</ref>

In 1954, following the [[Brown v. Board of Education|U.S. Supreme Court ruling]] that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Evers applied to the state-supported [[University of Mississippi Law School]] to challenge that practice in the state. His application was rejected due to his race, as the flagship school had long been segregated.<ref name="Ribeiro2001">{{cite book|first1=Myra|last1=Ribeiro|title=The Assassination of Medgar Evers|url=https://archive.org/details/assassinationofm00ribe|url-access=registration|access-date=September 27, 2012|year=2001|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3544-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/assassinationofm00ribe/page/16 16]}}</ref> Evers submitted his application as part of a [[Test_case_(law)|test case]] by the [[NAACP]].<ref name="BrownStentiford2008">{{cite book|first1=Nikki L. M.|last1=Brown|first2=Barry M.|last2=Stentiford|title=The Jim Crow Encyclopedia: Greenwood Milestones in African American History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oLjYbzkGWk8C&pg=PA277|access-date=September 27, 2012|year= 2008|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=978-0-313-34181-6|pages=277–78|archive-date=May 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530003229/http://books.google.com/books?id=oLjYbzkGWk8C&pg=PA277|url-status=live}}</ref>

On November 24, 1954,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wynne|first1=Ben|title=Black America: A State-By-State Historical Encyclopedia|date=2011|page=436}}</ref> Evers was named as the NAACP's first field secretary for Mississippi.<ref name="Williams, Reggie 2005"/> In this position, he helped organize boycotts and set up new local chapters of the NAACP. Evers was also involved with [[James Meredith]]'s efforts to enroll in the University of Mississippi in the early 1960s.<ref name="BrownStentiford2008"/><!-- It is 8 yrs from 1954 to Meredith -- surely we can say more about what Evers did all this time -->

Evers also encouraged Dr. Gilbert Mason Sr. in his organizing of the [[Biloxi wade-ins]] from 1959 to 1963, protests against segregation of the city's public beaches on the [[Mississippi Gulf Coast]].<ref name="RandallDorian2013">{{cite book|first=Dorian|last=Randall|title=Medgar Evers: Direct Action|url=http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2013/06/17/medgar-evers-direct-action/|access-date=January 17, 2014|date=June 17, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121031957/http://mdah.state.ms.us/senseofplace/2013/06/17/medgar-evers-direct-action/|archive-date=January 21, 2014}}</ref> Evers conducted actions to help integrate Jackson's privately owned buses and tried to integrate the public parks. Evers led voter registration drives and used boycotts to integrate Leake County schools and the [[Mississippi State Fair]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Evers' civil rights leadership, along with his investigative work, made him a target of [[white supremacy|white supremacists]]. Following the ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' decision, local whites founded the [[Citizens' Council|White Citizens' Council]] in Mississippi, and numerous local chapters were started, to resist the [[racial integration|integration]] of schools and facilities. In the weeks before Evers was killed, he encountered new levels of hostility. Evers' public investigations into the 1955 [[Lynching in the United States|lynching]] of Chicago teenager [[Emmett Till]] in Mississippi, and his vocal support of [[Clyde Kennard]], had made Evers a prominent black leader. On May 28, 1963, a [[Molotov cocktail]] was thrown into the carport of his home.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://beta.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-resolution/1022/text?textVersion=54662 | title =H.Res.1022 – Honoring the life and sacrifice of Medgar Evers and congratulating the United States Navy for naming a supply ship after Medgar Evers. | first =Hank | last =Johnson | author-link =Hank Johnson | publisher =beta.congress.gov | date =January 21, 2013 | access-date =June 24, 2013 | archive-date =April 7, 2014 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140407064948/http://beta.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-resolution/1022/text?textVersion=54662 | url-status =live }}</ref> On June 7, 1963, Evers was nearly run down by a car after he came out of the NAACP office in [[Jackson, Mississippi]].<ref name="NAACP Bio"/>