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.”