Medgar and Myrlie Evers' Yard and Garden

Today, a neat turf lawn connects the street to the front of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers House.

NPS

When Medgar and Myrlie Evers purchased their home in the newly built Elraine subdivision in Jackson, Mississippi, they traded the security of apartment living to fulfill their dream of owning a home in the suburbs. Developed between 1955 and 1957 by African American developers Winston J. Thompson and Leroy Burnett, Elraine was unique in Mississippi as the first complete neighborhood built by and for the middle-class African American community.

In strictly segregated Jackson, new developments were earmarked for white residents through systems of racist development practices, placing Black citizens in housing that was often cramped or substandard. Positioned at the edge of Jackson, Elraine was able to take advantage of city amenities, such as water, electricity, and sewage, that were sometimes more limited in African American neighborhoods.^[1]

Medgar Evers holding a fish, with Reena, Darrell Evers and a friend in the driveway (not at the Everses' Home), about 1957.

Evers Family Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Printed with permission in NPS Cultural Landscape Report

Elraine’s three-bedroom homes, large lots, and landscaped lawns stood in contrast to other African American neighborhoods in Jackson and were warmly received by the city’s middle-class African American community. Medgar Evers, an avid fisherman and outdoorsman, had expressed that “he wanted to live where there was space, not buildings, where you could hunt and fish and breathe clean air.”^[2] Elraine’s suburban design provided this atmosphere, much like white suburbs near Chicago that Myrlie and Medgar had admired during their visits to Illinois.

For the Evers family, Elraine’s spacious yards were a special draw. The Everses’ yard, like most in Elraine, was larger than what was typically found in surrounding neighborhoods. The front lawn adjoined neighboring properties and remained open to the street. Both Medgar, who was raised on a farm, and Myrlie, who had grown up in a family of avid horticulturalists in Vicksburg, were excited to select plants for their new property.

Evers and neighborhood children standing on the lawn in front of the Evers’s driveway and carport, summer 1959.

Evers Family Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Printed with permission in NPS Cultural Landscape Report.

Like many of their peers in Elraine, Medgar and Myrlie viewed their garden as an outlet for expressing creativity, communicating prosperity, and fostering community. Describing the sentiment that Elraine’s middle-class Black families shared, Myrlie Evers-Williams remembers that “everyone made a choice to be the owner of the best landscaped yard on that street.” In interviews, neighbors remember the family’s yard as a welcoming space where children played and adults stopped to chat.

Medgar Evers cared for the property’s lawn, vibrant with the thick texture of St. Augustine turf grass, mowing it regularly with the help of the couple’s oldest son, Darrell. Along the edges of the lawn and in planters, the Evers family adorned their yard with a variety of edible and decorative plants. Like many African American residential gardeners, the Everses cultivated an ornamental garden in front of their house and grew vegetables and fruits in the backyard.

Myrlie Evers and son Darrell Evers standing near the oak tree beside the driveway, summer 1959.

Evers Family Papers, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Printed with permission in NPS Cultural Landscape Report.

In a 2023 interview, Myrlie Evers-Williams recalled planting a variety of flowers in the front yard, some in a Roman brick planter beneath the house’s large picture window. The ornamental plants included roses, camellias, hydrangeas, azaleas, gardenias, tulips, daffodils, junipers, and arborvitae.

Medgar Evers built a chain-link fence around the back yard, providing an enclosed space for the family’s German Shepherd, Heidi. Sweet-smelling honeysuckle grew along the fence, and Evers-Williams remembers that she planted beds of vegetables along the north and east of the property line. These beds were filled with mustard greens, collard greens, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, squash, and peppers.

Her daughter Reena Evers-Everette, who lived in the house from ages three to eight, remembers a yard lush with trees: a flowering Mimosa, peach and plum trees, evergreen shrubs, and a live oak her father planted beside the driveway.

Roses in the Roman brick planter frame the picture window at the front of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers House.

NPS

Today, the Evers home is preserved as the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Monument. Although the original plants from the Everses’ time in the house are no longer there, the live oak Medgar Evers planted has been moved to nearby park property on Missouri Street. Myrlie’s Roman brick planter remains in front of the house. The house is still framed by a continuous, turf-grass lawn, neatly mowed as a verdant reminder of Medgar Evers’ care and attention for the yard.

The yard, lawn, and driveway provide a memorial to Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ civil rights work, pride in their home, commitment to resisting oppression, and investment in their community.

Medgar and Myrlie Evers House and Yard (1956 to 1964)

A labeled site plan shows vegetation and planting areas in the yard around the Medgar and Myrlie Evers House between 1956 and 1964.

NPS Cultural Landscape Report / DHM Design (Sources: Hinds County GIS; Historic Aerial Photography; Historic Photographs; Reena Evers-Everette and Myrlie Evers Interviews, October and November 2023.

Description of Planting Areas

1. Planting Bed at Carport

Changed from individual shrubs to a rectangular, narrow planting bed between 1959 and 1964. During the period of significance, the planting bed was delineated by a low, ornamental fence. An arborvitae shrub (or similar) was located south of this planting area throughout the period of significance. All plant material was removed after the period of significance.

Based on oral interviews conducted in 2023, shrub species growing in the bed before it was changed to a perennial bed may have included camellias, hydrangeas, or azaleas.

2. Roman Brick Planter

Individual shrubs within planter. Plant material changed after the period of significance.

Based on oral interviews conducted in 2023, plant species during the period of significance may have included roses.

3. Foundation Plants at the Front of the Home

The family planted a row of broadleaf evergreen shrubs flanked by two evergreen shrubs (likely arborvitae). One shrub was removed during the period of significance, and the remaining ones were removed after period of significance.

Based on oral interviews conducted in 2023, broadleaf shrubs were gardenias and azaleas.

4. Honeysuckle on the Perimeter Fence

In interviews from 2023, Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette recall honeysuckle growing on the chain-link perimeter fence along the west property line of the backyard. The honeysuckle was removed after the period of significance.

5. Live Oak Planting Bed

Live oak planted by the family with surrounding circular perennial planting bed. The planting bed was delineated by a low, ornamental fence and removed after the period of significance. The live oak was transplanted to the Missouri Street Lots in 1996.

Based on oral interviews conducted in 2023, plant species during the period of significance may have included tulips or daffodils.

6. Shrubs at Driveway Entrance

Juniper shrubs on each side of the driveway. Junipers replaced single small broadleaf shrub planted at the beginning of the period of significance. Removed after the period of significance.

7. Vegetable Gardens in the Backyard

Vegetable garden beds were kept by the family in the backyard along the north and east perimeter fencing. The beds were removed after the period of significance.

Based on oral interviews conducted in 2023, plant species during the period of significance may have included mustard greens, collards, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, squash, and peppers.

A Legacy of Community Gardening

Spade and Fork Garden Club

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Footnotes

[1] National Park Service, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument Draft Cultural Landscape Report (Department of the Interior, 2024), 92.
[2] Myrlie Evers and William Peters, For Us, the Living (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1967), 73, in National Park Service, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument Draft Cultural Landscape Report (Department of the Interior, 2024), 30.