Medgar Evers honored in San Diego

Civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers was honored on Nov. 12, when the USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE 13) was christened in San Diego.

Joining widow Myrlie Evers-Williams for the dedication were her children, Reena and James, who moved with their mother to Claremont from Mississippi Reena and James were students at Citrus College. 

Alongside for the ceremony was the Honorable Ray Mabus, the United States Secretary of the Navy, Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, USN Commander Military Sealift Command, and David H. Lewis, USN Program Executive Officer Ships, as was Darrell Carr, Citrus College professor of photography and personal friend of the Evers family.

Carr met Reena and Darrell, the eldest Evers child who died in 2001 of colon cancer, through a mutual friend at Citrus and became a close friend of the family.  He remembers happy times with the Evers and occasions when their mother would be in town.

"It was always a special treat to hear a first-hand experience of the civil rights struggle," Carr said.

Pamela Burton, Citrus alumna, met the Evers children in 1968 at Claremont High School and described the

Evers family as a wonderful group of people.

Burton reminded the people at the christening that "we all need to be well and secure, grounded. Anchored on hope..."

The USNS Medgar Evers is the 13th of 14 projected cargo ships in the Lewis and Clark (T-AKE) fleet of ships, named after the famous explorers.

During Myrlie's speech, she recalled people asking if she was upset that it was raining, but she said, "The raindrops are all the tears of joy of all the people that have fought so long and so hard to see us where we are today. Those are not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy. Let the rain come down, it's all right."

The USNS Medgar Evers will be a ship dedicated to war and humanitarian efforts, supplying aid to troops on the front lines, as well as civilians in the states in times of crisis.

Before civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were famous, Evers was in the fight for racial equality in the United States.

Born in Decatur, Mississippi in July 1925, Evers was one of six children in a farming family.  He enlisted in the United States Army in 1943, and fought in France and Germany in World War II. After returning home with an honorable discharge in 1946, Evers returned to the south where segregation was in full force.

After graduating from Acorn College in 1952, Evers worked as an insurance salesman and began organizing efforts on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  

After being rejected because of his race from the University of Mississippi School of Law, Evers filed suit against the college and his case was one of many examples in the monumental 1954 Supreme Court ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education, to desegregate schools.

Evers began recruiting for NAACP in Mississippi as the state's first field secretary in 1955. His efforts in the civil rights movement labeled him the most visible activist in Mississippi and left him and his family subject to death threats.

On June 12, 1963 Evers was shot by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council, and later the Ku Klux Klan, in the driveway of his family's home. Evers died 50 minutes later. He was buried with full military honors. Myrlie and their three children relocated to Southern California after her husband's death.

The three Evers children grew up in Claremont, and attended Citrus College with Carr from 1970-71.

Carr said that the christening of the ship was a fitting honor to Evers after so many years of fighting for equality.

In regards to the history Evers left behind, Carr said, "It inspired me to never quit."