Bill Text: MS SC588 | 2015 | Regular Session | Enrolled


Bill Title: Paying tribute to the civic leadership and legacy of Charles Evers.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-2)

Status: (Passed) 2015-03-09 - Enrolled Bill Signed [SC588 Detail]

Download: Mississippi-2015-SC588-Enrolled.html

MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2015 Regular Session

To: Rules

By: Senator(s) Norwood, Blount, Burton, Frazier, Hopson, Horhn, Jackson (11th), Jackson (32nd), Jordan, Simmons (13th), Stone

Senate Concurrent Resolution 588

(As Adopted by Senate and House)

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION PAYING TRIBUTE TO THE CIVIC LEADERSHIP, LEGACY AND LONGEVITY OF CHARLES EVERS ON THE OCCASION OF "SENIOR CITIZENS DAY AT THE NEW CAPITOL."

     WHEREAS, the respected legacy of Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Leader and Politician Charles Evers from Fayette, Mississippi, is well-known.  Charles will be an honored guest at the Senior Citizens Day at the New Capitol for citizens age 90 and above; and

     WHEREAS, Charles Evers, an Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Leader and Politician, was born in Decatur, Mississippi, on September 11, 1922, three years before his brother, Activist Medgar Evers.  Following service in World War II, the brothers attended Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Alcorn State University), where they became involved in Civil Rights activities.  In 1951, Charles Evers moved to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where he worked at a family-run funeral home and operated a taxi service, a bootleg liquor business, and the Evers Hotel and Lounge, which featured blues bands.  After the funeral home advertised on WHOC Radio, Station Owner Howard Cole asked Evers to start hosting a show himself.  Evers played blues records and also encouraged his African-American listeners to register to vote.  His brother Medgar took a position with the NAACP in Jackson and became Mississippi's most prominent Civil Rights figure.  In Philadelphia, segregationist threats to Charles Evers' businesses and family became so severe that he moved his family to Chicago in 1956; and

     WHEREAS, in Chicago, Evers was industrious in both legitimate businesses and vice, as he candidly described in his autobiography, Have No Fear:  A Black Man's Fight for Respect in America.  His nightclubs, the Club Mississippi, the Subway Lounge in Chicago, and the Palm Gardens in the suburb of Argo, featured Mississippi-born Blues Artists such as Muddy Waters, Elmore James and B.B. King.  After Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson on June 12, 1963, Charles Evers returned to his home state, where he succeeded his brother as Field Secretary of the NAACP.  Evers organized boycotts, protests and registration campaigns; and

     WHEREAS, in 1973, Mayor Charles Evers of Fayette and B.B. King began to cosponsor concerts at the Medgar Evers Homecoming in honor of the slain Civil Rights Activist.  Dozens of blues, soul and gospel acts performed at the annual festival during subsequent decades.  Charles Evers' formal involvement in blues began in 1954 when he became one of the first African-American Deejays in Mississippi at WHOC in Philadelphia.  In 1987, he began a long tenure as Manager of WMPR in Jackson; and

     WHEREAS, in 1969, Evers was named "Man of the Year" by the NAACP.  In the same year, he won election as the Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi, the first African-American Mayor of a racially mixed town in Mississippi in the post-Reconstruction era.  Evers was reelected as Mayor of Fayette in 1973 after an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of Mississippi in 1972.  He served as Mayor until 1981, and again from 1985 to 1989.  Evers also ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 1978.  Over the years, Evers has been an outspoken proponent for the rights of African-Americans.  He has also served as an informal advisor to Presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan; and

     WHEREAS, in 2012, Evers was inducted by the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center into its Wall of Honor.  This is a great tribute to some heroic men and women both during and after their military service; and

     WHEREAS, the Medgar Wiley Evers Homecoming is a celebration of the life and legacy of Charles' brother, Medgar.  Even though Memorial Tributes and Award Ceremonies have been held as far back as 1963, the first Mississippi Homecoming Celebration was June 1973, and has continued to this day.  The focus at that time was to bring people back home to Mississippi for the world to see the accomplishments made since Medgar's death.  Today, the focus has changed to the youth.  The Medgar Wiley Evers Scholarship Banquet was created to support students with the cost associated with higher education.  Awards are open to graduating high school students who plan to attend a school of higher learning in the State of Mississippi.  Charles Evers still lives in Mississippi and is currently the Station Manager of Radio Station WMPR 90.1 FM in Jackson, Mississippi; and it is with great pride that we recognize a record of achievement and legacy of leadership and dedication of this most public-spirited citizen of Mississippi:

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby pay tribute to the civic leadership, legacy and longevity of Charles Evers of Fayette, Mississippi, on the occasion of "Senior Citizens Day at the New Capitol" hosted by The Mississippi Outreach Foundation, Inc., on February 24, 2015, and extend the best wishes of the Legislature to Mayor Evers and his family on this occasion.

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Charles Evers, forwarded to the Mississippi Outreach Foundation, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.

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