Medgar Evers – Leadership Timeline

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Medgar Evers

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Leadership Timeline

Events that helped shaped Medgar Evers's leadership

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1925

July 2nd

Born in Decatur, Mississippi to James and Jessie Evers.

Continue to view Medgar Evers's biographical leadership timeline, beginning with his deployment to WWII.

Oct 7, 1936

Evers enlists in the Army

Apr 16, 1945

Medgar Evers is honorably discharged

Sept 16, 1948

Medgar Evers enrolls at Alcorn College

Dec 24, 1951

Medgar Evers marries Myrlie Beasley

1954

February 17th

Medgar Evers denied entry to Ole Miss Law School.

November 24th

Evers appointed as Mississippi's first field secretary for the NAACP

1955

Emmett Till

Evers calls for a new investigation of Emmett Till's lynching

early 1960s

Boycotts of downtown Jackson businesses

1962

James Meredith admitted to Ole Miss

1963

May 20th

Medgar Evers gives a 17-minute speech on local TV station WLBT

1963

June 11th

JFK's speech echoes Civil Rights issues that Evers and others had been pushing for years

1963

June 12th

Medgar Evers is assassinated in front of his house. He was returning home from an NAACP meeting and watch party for the JFK speech.

Later that year, the NAACP posthumously awarded Medgar Evers the Spingarn Medal for services to the African American community. His widow, Myrlie Evers, vowed to continue the fight for civil rights. Between 1995 and 1998, Myrlie Evers served as the National Board of Directors chair of the NAACP (Jaynes, 300).

References

References

Boycotts & NAACP Leadership

Evers was becoming more at odds with the NAACP leadership, which wanted him to focus on increasing voter registrations and NAACP membership. Whereas he saw the needs of the locals. “It’s not the lack of interest,” Evers wrote to the National Office, “but fear.” The terrorism and economic pressure were difficult to overcome (Reid, p. 91). Evers attempted to meet the local needs by directing financial resources while keeping voter registrations up enough to satisfy the National Office (Reid, p. 108). In Mississippi, Evers's concern for results was equally matched to the concern for people. However, the NAACP National Office would likely have seen his actions as not demonstrating concern for results. If the Leadership Grid was applied to Evers, the resulting style would differ depending on who was evaluating him. To Mississippians, he would likely be considered a Team Manager, whereas the national office might conclude Country Club Manager (Northouse, pp. 74–77).

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Accepting the NAACP Position

The NAACP office was impressed by Medgar Evers's attempt to enroll at the University of Mississippi and other activism work. Medgar's wife, Myrlie, was concerned that he would be targeted if he joined the NAACP. When questioned, Medgar said, “Myrlie, this is something that I have to do.” Myrlie responded, “What about me? What about the children?” Medgar replied, “This is why I have to do it (Reid, p. 65).” Once again, Evers demonstrates transformational leadership attributes by displaying behavior characteristics aligned with charismatic leaders, including being a strong role model, showing competence, articulating goals, communicating high expectations, and expressing confidence (Northouse, p. 165).

Military Service

Evers's military service hardened him (Reid, p 13). During his service, he gained a deep respect for the African leader, Jomo Kenyatta. He dreamed of a military uprising against racist white men but was ultimately dissuaded by the Biblical teachings. He confided that I couldn’t hate the white man and at the same time hope to convert him (Reid, p. 15). Using the Trait Approach to leadership, Evers demonstrated several common leadership traits: intelligence, integrity, self-confidence, and determination (Northouse, p. 23).

Emmett Till's Trial

Medgar Evers began the painstaking work to convince terrified Black citizens to testify in the upcoming trial. Through this process, it was said that Medgar displayed a public patience and calm that hid his stress. He hid his tears (Reid, p. 74). Applying the Situational Leadership II model, Evers demonstrated highly supportive behaviors without being too directive because of the risks involved with testifying. His approach would likely be classified as supportive but moving toward coaching (Northouse, p. 95).

Defendants Roy Bryant, left, and J.W. Milam, right, during their trial for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.

James Meredith

Medgar Evers was instrumental in helping James Meredith enroll in the University of Mississippi—the same university that denied Evers (Reid, pp. 110–112, 135–140, 143–144). In addition to the previously mentioned transformational leadership traits, Evers’s commitment to helping James Meredith demonstrates technical, human, and conceptual skills that align with the Three-Skills Approach of leadership. Evers gives equal weight to all three, and according to Robert Katz’s work, he would meet the skillsets required of “Middle Management,” which accurately describes Evers’s role in the NAACP leadership (Northouse, pp. 44–46).

Televised Speech

On May 20th, 1963, Medgar Evers gave a televised speech on a local TV station. The 17-minute speech was pre-recorded off-site for safety concerns. Medgar and Myrlie knew this speech would put an even larger target on Medgar’s life, but he knew it was necessary. Though she feared for his life, Myrlie said she had never been so proud of her husband (Reid, p. 158). Though the recording of his speech has been lost to time, the leadership qualities that Medgar Evers demonstrated included strong communication skills, truthfulness, transparency, and doing what is right no matter the consequences. Once again, Evers demonstrates leadership traits of self-confidence, determination, and integrity (Northouse, p. 23), while displaying behavior characteristics aligned with charismatic leaders (Northouse, p. 165).

Transformational Leadership

According to the Transformational Leadership Inventory theory (Northouse, p. 162), Medgar Evers would likely score extremely high as a transformational leader while still having a strong preference for transactional leadership. As a civil rights leader and activist, these are valuable leadership traits (Northouse, p. 164).

Nothing had changed…

In France, as a Black man, he was not treated differently by the Europeans. He even had a love interest with a white French woman and her parents approved of their courtship (Reid, p. 13). However, after returning from WWII to Mississippi, he was beaten on the bus for failing to move to the back of the bus. When speaking about his refusal to fight back, he would say, “You can’t let your emotions get away with you. If I had retaliated, I would have helped defeat the cause for which I was struggling (Reid, p. 94).” Evers demonstrates leadership traits of self-confidence, determination, and integrity (Northouse, p. 23). His actions also align with Kouzes and Posner’s model of leadership, which consists of five fundamental practices. Three of these are evident in this event alone: model the way, inspire a shared vision, and challenge the process (Northouse, p. 174).

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