Medgar Evers, a Mississippi native, is memorialized at the Lamar Law Center of the University of Mississippi. Evers was instumental to the desegregation of the Mississippi education system. In addition to fighting for his own admission to the school of law, Evers was a key figure in the eventual admission of the first black student, James Meredith, into Ole Miss. Shortly after he made his investigations of the murder of Emmett Till and the Clyde Kennard conviction public, this NAACP lawyer was assassinated in front of his home. He has since been commemorated musically and the 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi.

Evers is also remembered for his pride in Mississippi. He said, “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…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.”

Sojourners visit the Medgar Evers memorial during the trips to learn about and to honor a man who was determined to fight for equality, both in his local community and for future generations of Americans.