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Open Transcript Open Descriptive Transcript TranscriptOne June 13, 1964, Aaron Henry published an op-ed in the Mississippi Free Press titled “Dear Medgar.” In it, he reflected on the work that he and his friend fellow civil rights activists had done in the year following Medgar Evers’s assassination. This included the development of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Mississippi Summer Project, now known as Freedom Summer. He also reflected on the lessons he learned from Medgar Evers, the moment he heard about his death, and his memories of their lives together fighting for freedom in Mississippi. To commemorate the 61st anniversary of Medgar Evers’s assassination and the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument presents a reading of Aaron Henry’s letter to his friend Medgar Evers.
Since you went to Heaven, you would be pleased and amazed at the number of people that have joined the Freedom Struggle. Many people in Jackson, Canton, Greenwood, Biloxi, Gulfport, Moss Point, Pascagoula, Clarksdale, Greenville, Newton County, Starkville, and all over the state have really come alive in the cause of freedom. Many of us are just learning what you tried so hard to teach us that “Freedom is Everybody’s Business.” It would please you also to know that all the civil rights organizations in Mississippi are working together and putting over a program that you would be proud to participate in. Remember the organization that you and Bob Moses and I worked on and named the Council of Federated Organizations, the organization that brought together the Mississippi-based workers of the NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC? Well, we are all working hard to make sure that the unity movement is a success. Medgar, we will never forget what you meant to all of us. Your dedication to freedom was so well understood that everyone respected you. To the freedom movement you were hope, success, and encouragement all in one dynamic package. Many of us complain of the hours we put in now, but your schedule makes all of us look like schoolboys. I shall never forget your courage and determination the night you, Mrs. Hurley, Dr. Biethel, and several more of us went to investigate the Emmett Till slaying. Remember the people we found that were willing to talk on the witness stand only if we could get them out of Mississippi immediately following the trial? Remember the all-night drive we took the day the trial was over to place these people on safe ground? I remember well the first time I saw you cry. The night was at a freedom banquet for the State Conference of the NAACP in Jackson when you were trying to present an appreciation certificate to the mother of Clyde Kennard, a young student that was being held in the state penitentiary. His only crime was trying to become a student at Mississippi Southern University. Anyway, as you tried to read the citation you began to shake and cry. I tried to take over for you and you said, “Now Prexy, I want to finish this.” And you did go on to finish it. I was never so glad to see you as I was that morning in the Cleveland, Mississippi, jail where I was booked on a crazy morals charge; on the morning you, attorney R. Jesse Brown, Mr. Drew, Mr. Hackett, Dr. Burton, Mr. J.W. Wright, and several more of our good friends came into the jail and told the jailor you came for me. The jailor was really funny. He did not know what charges there were against me, nor who had filed the charges. He promised to send Attorney Brown a copy of the charge in the mail the next day. I shall never forget your placing your arms around my shoulders and saying, “Prexy, let’s go home.” Man, I relive incidents with you all the time, the number of cases it was my privilege to investigate with you, the number of legal acts we filed, and the number of meetings we made around the state and around the nation. I will never forget, as you cannot, the night of June 11, 1963. After the meeting, we sat comparing notes for our testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that was to be given on the 14th of June. We were trying not to duplicate testimony as we both had witnessed the same things. I left for the airport and you left going home. I went on to Houston, Texas, to address the Texas Pharmaceutical Association and you went home. That night as you were going home Mrs. Evers had permitted Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke to wait up for you since they did not have much time with you as you were so busy with the movement of freedom. Just the day before, you, Mrs. Mercedes Wright, and I had been driving down the streets of Jackson to see how many Negro shoppers were downtown. We came upon a group of white men dressed in bright colorful uniforms that we were informed where shrine or Shriners uniform. One of these fellows borrowed a policeman’s blackjack and began to beat the head of a Negro in a car parked in the street and the policeman just looked on and when the man in the bright colored uniform had finished, he gave the stick back to the policeman and the Negro fellow finally got the car in gear and drove away in a hurry. We were critical of the Negro for permitting himself to be beaten and not strike back, but we were even more critical of the policeman who loaned the white man his stick and stood there and watched it all. On the morning of June 12th in a hotel in Houston, Texas, I turned on the Today Show to hear what Lena Horne had to say. I’d heard that she would be on the show that day, and when she came on there was Roy Wilkins sitting beside her, and your picture on the top of the screen. I said to myself, “Ole Medgar is in the news again.” Then I heard the announcer say that Miss Horne was on the show and that Roy Wilkins had been invited due to the tragic death of Medgar Evers last night in Mississippi. He said a high-powered rifle bullet had torn out your heart. I cannot tell you how shaken I was, Medgar. But I remembered that you had always said that no matter what happened to either of us, the other must carry on. I knew that the next day, I would have to present your testimony, too, before the House Judiciary Commission. Since you have been gone, I have tried to do the things I felt I had to do in the way I felt you would have done. To me, Medgar, when you fell, you fell forward, covering the full six feet and two inches of your body. You carried us that far down the road to freedom. We will never have to retrace those steps. I hope that if it is my privilege to fall in my tracks for the noble cause of freedom, that I too will fall forward and thus do my best to close the gap between man and freedom. I know that no one can never give any more to the cause of freedom than you gave. Thank you, Medgar, for freeing me, for now I too am willing to give the final measure. May God keep you in His tender mercy and give to you peace and satisfaction for the great contribution you made toward bringing the Kingdom of God on his Earth. Featuring Dr. Mark Henderson Filmed by Matthieu Welch
Descriptive Transcript(Background music. White text on a black background reads: “On June 13, 1964, Aaron Henry published an op-ed in the Mississippi Free Press titled ‘Dear Medgar.’” Next slide reads: “In it, he reflected on the work that he and his fellow civil rights activists had done in the year following Medgar Evers’s assassination.” Next slide reads: “This included the development of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Mississippi Summer Project, now known as Freedom Summer.” Next slide reads: “He also reflected on the lessons he learned from Medgar Evers, the moment he heard about his death, and his memories of their lives together fighting for freedom in Mississippi.” Next slide reads: “To commemorate the 61st anniversary of Medgar Evers’s assassination and the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer,” and text continues on the following slide: “the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument presents a reading of Aaron Henry’s letter to his friend Medgar Evers.”) (As background music fades out, the black slide background fades to reveal an African American man standing in the driveway of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. He wears a navy blue suit over a grey and blue plaid shirt, and he holds a black folder that contains the text of the letter. The home is a single-story ranch house painted turquoise, with three rose bushes planted underneath the front window to the right of the narrator. The narrator is framed by wrought iron columns on either side of the carport, which has a grey concrete slab base. The façade of the home also features a yellow-orange brick feature wall, which is visible to the far right. There is a vibrant green lawn on either side of the driveway. The narrator stays in this position for the duration of the video.) Dear Medgar: Since you went to Heaven, you would be pleased and amazed at the number of people that have joined the Freedom Struggle. Many people in Jackson, Canton, Greenwood, Biloxi, Gulfport, Moss Point, Pascagoula, Clarksdale, Greenville, Newton County, Starkville, and all over the state have really come alive in the cause of freedom. Many of us are just learning what you tried so hard to teach us that “Freedom is Everybody’s Business.” It would please you also to know that all the civil rights organizations in Mississippi are working together and putting over a program that you would be proud to participate in. Remember the organization that you and Bob Moses and I worked on and named the Council of Federated Organizations, the organization that brought together the Mississippi-based workers of the NAACP, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC? Well, we are all working hard to make sure that the unity movement is a success. Medgar, we will never forget what you meant to all of us. Your dedication to freedom was so well understood that everyone respected you. To the freedom movement you were hope, success, and encouragement all in one dynamic package. Many of us complain of the hours we put in now, but your schedule makes all of us look like schoolboys. I shall never forget your courage and determination the night you, Mrs. Hurley, Dr. Biethel, and several more of us went to investigate the Emmett Till slaying. Remember the people we found that were willing to talk on the witness stand only if we could get them out of Mississippi immediately following the trial? Remember the all-night drive we took the day the trial was over to place these people on safe ground? I remember well the first time I saw you cry. The night was at a freedom banquet for the State Conference of the NAACP in Jackson when you were trying to present an appreciation certificate to the mother of Clyde Kennard, a young student that was being held in the state penitentiary. His only crime was trying to become a student at Mississippi Southern University. Anyway, as you tried to read the citation you began to shake and cry. I tried to take over for you and you said, “Now Prexy, I want to finish this.” And you did go on to finish it. I was never so glad to see you as I was that morning in the Cleveland, Mississippi, jail where I was booked on a crazy morals charge; on the morning you, attorney R. Jesse Brown, Mr. Drew, Mr. Hackett, Dr. Burton, Mr. J.W. Wright, and several more of our good friends came into the jail and told the jailor you came for me. The jailor was really funny. He did not know what charges there were against me, nor who had filed the charges. He promised to send Attorney Brown a copy of the charge in the mail the next day. I shall never forget your placing your arms around my shoulders and saying, “Prexy, let’s go home.” Man, I relive incidents with you all the time, the number of cases it was my privilege to investigate with you, the number of legal acts we filed, and the number of meetings we made around the state and around the nation. I will never forget, as you cannot, the night of June 11, 1963. After the meeting, we sat comparing notes for our testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that was to be given on the 14th of June. We were trying not to duplicate testimony as we both had witnessed the same things. I left for the airport and you left going home. I went on to Houston, Texas, to address the Texas Pharmaceutical Association and you went home. That night as you were going home Mrs. Evers had permitted Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke to wait up for you since they did not have much time with you as you were so busy with the movement of freedom. Just the day before, you, Mrs. Mercedes Wright, and I had been driving down the streets of Jackson to see how many Negro shoppers were downtown. We came upon a group of white men dressed in bright colorful uniforms that we were informed where shrine or Shriners uniform. One of these fellows borrowed a policeman’s blackjack and began to beat the head of a Negro in a car parked in the street and the policeman just looked on and when the man in the bright colored uniform had finished, he gave the stick back to the policeman and the Negro fellow finally got the car in gear and drove away in a hurry. We were critical of the Negro for permitting himself to be beaten and not strike back, but we were even more critical of the policeman who loaned the white man his stick and stood there and watched it all. On the morning of June 12th in a hotel in Houston, Texas, I turned on the Today Show to hear what Lena Horne had to say. I’d heard that she would be on the show that day, and when she came on there was Roy Wilkins sitting beside her, and your picture on the top of the screen. I said to myself, “Ole Medgar is in the news again.” Then I heard the announcer say that Miss Horne was on the show and that Roy Wilkins had been invited due to the tragic death of Medgar Evers last night in Mississippi. He said a high-powered rifle bullet had torn out your heart. I cannot tell you how shaken I was, Medgar. But I remembered that you had always said that no matter what happened to either of us, the other must carry on. I knew that the next day, I would have to present your testimony, too, before the House Judiciary Commission. Since you have been gone, I have tried to do the things I felt I had to do in the way I felt you would have done. To me, Medgar, when you fell, you fell forward, covering the full six feet and two inches of your body. You carried us that far down the road to freedom. We will never have to retrace those steps. I hope that if it is my privilege to fall in my tracks for the noble cause of freedom, that I too will fall forward and thus do my best to close the gap between man and freedom. I know that no one can never give any more to the cause of freedom than you gave. (Background music fades in.) Thank you, Medgar, for freeing me, for now I too am willing to give the final measure. May God keep you in His tender mercy and give to you peace and satisfaction for the great contribution you made toward bringing the Kingdom of God on his Earth. (Video fades to black. Text on screen: “Featuring Dr. Mark Henderson.” Next slide reads: “Filmed by Matthieu Welch.” Text fades out, and the National Park Service logo fades in. The logo is shaped like an arrowhead. It has a brown background with a snow-capped mountain in the distance. In front of the mountain is a green image of a sequoia tree on a grassy plain with a white lake. In the foreground is a white image of a bison grazing.) (Video fades to black; background music fades out.)
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Mississippi NAACP president Aaron Henry (1922-1997) published this letter in the Mississippi Free Press in June 1964, the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers in the driveway of his home on June 12, 1963. To commemorate the 61st anniversary of Evers’s death and to honor Evers’s close friendship with Aaron Henry, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument presents this reading of Henry’s letter. Aaron Henry served as president of the Mississippi NAACP for over 30 years beginning in 1960 and was at the forefront of the Mississippi civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s along with a slew of friends and collaborators. One of his close friends was Medgar Evers, who was the field secretary of the Mississippi NAACP from 1954 until his assassination in the driveway of his home on June 12, 1963. Aaron Henry felt this loss deeply, and he continued to honor Evers's legacy throughout the rest of his life. On June 13, 1964, he wrote an open letter to Medgar Evers in the Mississippi Free Press in which he reflected on the years they spent together fighting for freedom in Mississippi and detailed the ongoing work of the movement following Evers's death. Find the full text of the letter in the Freedom Summer Digital Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society |
Last updated: June 10, 2024