Turn Me Loose, the Unghosting of Medgar Evers by Frank X Walker

Turn Me Loose, The Unghosting of Medgar Evers by Frank X Walker

Before you read, watch this segment from the PBS series Eyes on the Prize (“Fighting Back”): . Also, to learn about Walker, explore the Frank X Walker website at . Look at the interview with Walker on this site for particular insights about the Turn Me Loose volume. Explore the Wiki website for the story of Medgar Evers,and note the images at this site associated with the African-AmericanCivilRightsMovement (1955–68). Likewise, to get a sense of the times, scroll through the images from the movement at .

The shooting of Medgar Everswas one of the defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement. On June 12, 1963, Evers, a World War II veteran and NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, was shot in the back in his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi, by Byron De La Beckwith. Transported to the hospital by neighbors, Evers died a few hours later. Evers had devoted his work to voter registration and activities for equal rights and social justice; thus he became Beckwith’s target. Beckwith was tried twice for the murder, and both times all-white male jurors failed to convict due to hung juries. Finally, in 1994, thirty years later, Byron De La Beckwith was convicted for murdering Medgar Evers. The words of Beckwith reflect the troubled psychology of a racist mind, filled with hatred, jealousy, sexual fears, and the basest of human sensibilities. As you read poems like “Humor Me,” pay attention to how the mentality of the Jim CrowSouth is portrayed by Walker. How does Beckwith become a symbol for Jim Crow? Why do you think that Walker chooses in this volume to speak through characters involved in the event but not Evers himself, who remains silent throughout? How do the two wives, Myrlie Evers and Thelma Beckwith, function in the volume?

Ultimately, beyond the ugly racist persona of Beckwith, The Unghosting of Medgar Evers is a testament to forgiveness, but like the other great tragedies and events in the human drama, Walker asks us “never ever ever [to] forget” (“Heavy Wait” l. 16).