Strong Rooted Volume 1: Republished
Some of us may only know Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams because of her husband, slain NAACP field secretary Medgar Wiley Evers who was killed in their driveway on June 12, 1963. Evers-Williams is so much more than a widow. So much more than a woman of color. So much more than can be written here.
Evers-Williams was born Mylie Louise Beasley, raised by her grandmother and aunt, who were both school teachers; Evers-Williams enrolled in Alcorn A&M College and became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Evers-Williams Left college in 1951 when she married Medgar Evers, with who she had three children with.
Evers-Williams earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Pomona College and remarried after the murder of her first husband. Evers also buried her second husband, Walter Williams, when he lost his bought with prostate cancer in 1995. Sometimes we think a thing was created for us, but we soon realize that we were created for that thing. That is the case of Myrlie Evers-Williams, who worked for the NAACP with her first husband, Medgar, and then again in the ’80s when the organization was suffering. Evers-Williams breathed life back into the organization and raised enough money to get the organization out of debt.
Evers-Williams has buried two husbands, raised three children, ran for Congress twice, was the first Black woman to serve as a commissioner on the Board of Public Works, wrote several books on the topic of Civil Rights, and she was the first woman to deliver the invocation at a Presidential Inauguration.
“It’s not the load that weighs you down; it’s the way that you carry it.”—Lena Horne.
The Writer
