Interview with honorable Charles Evers : mayor of Fayette, Mississippi

              Interview with Honorable Charles Evers : mayor of Fayette, Mississippi
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Charles Evers was born to Jim and Jessie Evers on September 11, 1922 in the small town of Decatur in rural Newton County, Mississippi. He attended the eight grade Decatur Consolidated School and then high school in nearby Newton. In 1940 he dropped out of school after the eleventh grade and enlisted in the United States Army. After serving in the Pacific during World War II, he returned to Newton and finished high school. He then entered Alcorn A and M College at Lorman, Mississippi, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science in 1950.
Mr. Evers was recalled to active duty in the army and served for a year in Korea, and then returned to Mississippi. He settled in Philadelphia where he took over management of a funeral home owned by his family. He also owned a restaurant, a hotel, a taxi company, a gas station, and became Mississippi's first black disc jockey at radio station WHOC in Philadelphia. During this time Charles Evers and his brother, Medgar, became involved with civil rights activities through the NAACP.
In 1957 Charles Evers left Mississippi for Chicago, Illinois, where he worked as a hotel washroom attendant and gradually became involved in extra- legal activities. When in June, 1963, Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson, Mississippi, Charles Evers immediately returned to Mississippi to carry on his brother's civil rights work. He was appointed to replace Medgar Evers as state field director for the NAACP. After working for five years at voter registration and related civil rights activities, Charles Evers, in 1968, first entered Mississippi politics. He became a candidate for United States Representative from Mississippi's third Congressional district. In the voting he led a seven man ticket in the first Democratic primary but lost to Charles Griffin in the run- off election. During that same summer he led a challenge delegation to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago and successfully unseated the regular Mississippi delegation. He also was elected Mississippi's Democratic National Committee man. In 1969 Charles Evers was elected mayor of the town of Fayette, Mississippi, and in 1971 was defeated by Bill Waller in his bid to become Mississippi's first black governor.
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