A permanent memorial to slain civil rights leader Medgar
Evers was dedicated Oct. 1 at the Lamar Law Center, as part of the University’s
observance of 40 years of integration.
Speaking at the ceremony, Dean Samuel M. Davis traced the history of African-American
students at the UM Law School, pointing out the denial of Evers’
enrollment in 1954. “That was wrong,” he said.
Today, minority students make up 10 percent of the entering class. The
president of the Law School Student Body is black, and the chair of the
Moot Court Board is black.
They did not earn these offices because they are black—they earned
them because they are people, people who have earned the respect and admiration
of their peers,” said the dean. “How times have changed, and
none of this would have been possible without men like James Meredith
and Medgar Evers, the man we honor today. He cared. He made a difference
in our lives. He helped shape the state of Mississippi and The University
of Mississippi.
Davis read a quote taken from one of Evers’ speeches and engraved
on a permanent plaque accompanying the encased memorial display. Evers’
words: “I love the land of my birth. I do not mean just America
as a country, but Mississippi, the state in which I was born. The things
that I say here tonight will be said to you in hopes of the future when
... we will not have to hang our heads in shame or hold our breath when
the name Mississippi is mentioned, fearing the worst. But instead, we
will be anticipating the best.”
Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, spoke briefly at the dedication
ceremony.
Mississippi was the land that he [Medgar] loved, the land he fought and
died for, and it was his hope that we would one day be where we are today
in race relations. But he would also say that it’s only a beginning.”