“I grew up on a farm. My mother was a seamstress and a midwife. She delivered over 500 babies. My father died in the Pacific Islands. My mom became a single mother raising six kids. She never got to go to college so she struggled to send all of us. I went to JP Campbell College in Jackson. Many of the students had been arrested for sit-ins and demonstrations. But I grew up in the country and all of that was new to me. I got there and met Medgar Evers. That opened my eyes and my mind. He was talking about human rights, not just civil rights. He came in walking through the crowd asking questions about being registered voters and members of the NAACP. He asked how many work downtown. How many had meaningful jobs serving the public, not just stocking shelves and working in the back. All of the hands dropped. He said you shop downtown, but you can’t try clothes on. Or if you try them on they make you buy them even if they don’t fit. All of you were born here, no one brought you here. You have the right to whatever this country has to offer. Ask for it. If they don’t give it to you, take it. He said we are going to take what belongs to us, but we are going to be nice about it. The laws weren’t on our side. He was doing this for us and his kids to have a better life. That night changed me. I did a sit-in at the zoo. We knew they were coming for us,but luckily they didn’t arrest us. People need to know who Medgar was and what he sacrificed to make changes. He stood up to so much fear and was shot and killed in his own garage going home to his family. Some changes were made, but we are undoing some of the things he did. Education and being courteous are no longer important. We are killing each other. He would be so disappointed and disheartened with how things are going today. Is this what he gave up so much for? For kids who won’t stay in school or young men selling drugs instead of getting a job? Too many sacrificed all that they had so that we could have a better life today. I want people to remember the sacrifices and the people who made them.”