June 12, 1963 - Medgar Evers, a native of Decatur, Miss., and an Army veteran of World War II who was murdered this morning, left a mass meeting at a church last night, stopped at the residence of a Negro lawyer, and then drove to his home on the northern edge of Jackson. Before leaving the church, he remarked to a newsman that “tomorrow will be a big day.” He arrived at his ranch-style home on Guynes St. shortly after midnight. The accounts of the authorities, his wife, and neighbors showed that the following events had taken place: He parked his 1962 sedan in the driveway behind his wife’s station wagon. As he turned to walk into a side entrance opening into a carport, the sniper’s bullet struck him just below the right shoulder blade. The slug crashed through a front window of the home (pictured), penetrated an interior wall, ricocheted off a refrigerator, and struck a coffee pot. Mr. Evers staggered to the doorway, his keys in his hand, and collapsed near the steps. His wife, Myrlie, and three children rushed to the door. The screaming of the children, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” awoke a neighbor, Thomas A. Young. Another neighbor, Houston Wells, said he had heard the shot and the screams of Mrs. Evers. The police, who arrived a short time later, helped neighbors place Mr. Evers in Mr. Wells’s station wagon. As the wagon sped to University Hospital, those who accompanied the dying man said he had murmured weakly, “Sit me up,” and later, “Turn me loose.” Dr. A.B. Britton, Mr. Evers’s physician, rushed to the hospital. He indicated that the victim had died from loss of blood and internal injuries. Mr. Evers expressed a premonition several weeks ago that he might be shot, according to Dr. Britton. The physician said he and other friends believed they should have taken steps then to protect him. In an interview 10 days ago in his Jackson office, Mr. Evers said calmly: “If I die, it will be in a good cause. I’ve been fighting for America just as much as the soldiers in Vietnam.”
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