Charles Evers

James Charles Evers (born September 11, 1922) is an impor­tant civ­il rights advo­cate in the United States. The old­er broth­er of civ­il rights mar­tyr Medgar Evers, Charles Evers is a lead­ing civ­il rights spokesman with­in the Republican Party in his native Mississippi. He was the first African American elect­ed since the Reconstruction era as may­or in a Mississippi city, in Fayette in 1969. He ran for gov­er­nor in 1971 and theUnited States Senate in 1978, both times as an inde­pen­dent. Born in Decatur, Mississippi, Evers had a strong, devout­ly Christian moth­er and father. During World War II, Charles and Medgar Evers both served in the U.S. Army. Charles fell in love with aFilipina woman over­seas. They could not mar­ry her and go to his native Mississippi because of her “white” skin col­or. Mississippi had enshrined Jim Crow rules in its con­sti­tu­tion, which pro­hib­it­ed inter­ra­cial mar­riages. In Mississippi about 1951, Charles and Medgar Evers grew inter­est­ed in African free­dom move­ments. They were inter­est­ed in Jomo Kenyatta and the rise of the Kikuyu trib­al resis­tance to colo­nial­ism in Kenya, known as the “Mau-Mau” Rebellion as it moved to open vio­lence. Along with his broth­er, Charles became active in the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), a civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tion that also pro­mot­ed self-help and busi­ness own­er­ship. He drew inspi­ra­tion from Dr. T.R.M. Howard, the pres­i­dent of the RCNL, who was one the wealth­i­est blacks in the state. Between 1952 and 1955, Evers often spoke at the RCNL’s annu­al con­fer­ences in Mound Bayou on such issues as vot­ing rights. Around 1956, Evers’s entre­pre­neur­ial gifts and his civ­il rights activism land­ed him in trou­ble inPhiladelphia, Mississippi. He left town and moved to Chicago. There, he vowed to sup­port the move­ment back home, and fell into a life of hus­tling, run­ning num­bers for the Mob, and man­ag­ing pros­ti­tutes. The mon­ey he made was said to have been sub­stan­tial, and much of it was sent back to help the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Byron De La Beckwith shot Medgar Evers as he arrived home from work. Evers died in an ambu­lance on the way to the hos­pi­tal. Charles Evers was shocked and deeply upset by news of his broth­er’s death. Over the oppo­si­tion of more estab­lish­ment fig­ures in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) like Roy Wilkins, Charles took over Medgar’s post as head of theNAACP in Mississippi.  https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Charles_Evers.html