Of Long Memory: Mississippi And The Murder Of Medgar Evers - Softcover

Nossiter, Adam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306811626 ISBN 13: 9780306811623

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2002

Synopsis

The history is well known: On June 12, 1963, Mississippi's courageous NAACP chief, Medgar Evers, was gunned down by white supremacist Byron de la Beckwith. Tried twice by all-white juries, Beckwith escaped conviction for three decades. But then Mississippi began to confront its tormented past. And in the 1990s, when Beckwith was sent to jail by a crusading young prosecutor, the family of Medgar Evers finally got justice. Hailed as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Lillian Smith Award, Of Long Memory reveals how this remarkable reversal took place. Nossiter uses the tools of memory, history, and reportage—and the clear vantage point of an outsider, a Northerner—to portray an entire state quite literally summoning up its ghosts. A new epilogue discusses other civil rights cases now being reconsidered, and skillfully shows how the South is finding a way to create justice where none had existed before.

About this title

About the Author:

Adam Nossiter has been a staff writer for the New York Times and before that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is the author of The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory, and the Second World War, and has been writing about the South for nearly 20 years. He lives in New Orleans.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The conviction earlier this year of Byron de la Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers provides a timeliness to this well- researched, fluidly written, and thoughtful book. A Jewish Yankee, Nossiter seems an unlikely chronicler of the lives of black civil rights Mississippian Evers; the racist murderer de la Beckwith; the original prosecutor of the murder, Bill Waller, who later became Mississippi's governor; Evers's mercurial, radical brother Charles; and Bobby DeLaughter, the prosecutor who finally obtained a conviction of de la Beckwith after two mistrials. Nossiter covered Mississippi in general and the case in particular for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and indeed, Nossiter and Mississippi are central characters in this book. In many ways, the assignment was akin to covering a foreign country. Like most foreigners, Nossiter had trouble at first learning the local language and byways. But, like most smart and persistent travelers, eventually he could claim some measure of understanding. In asking why the Evers case came to trial again, Nossiter found the answer not through looking at culture or economics but through a study of changing state government politics, which he views as ``a compelling mirror of larger movements beneath the surface.'' His Jewishness often plays a part in the story. For example, in July 1992 Nossiter finally had an opportunity to meet the imprisoned de la Beckwith, a man past 70 and in failing health. A friend, knowing de la Beckwith would never grant an interview to a Jew, presented Nossiter as a Catholic. But de la Beckwith was suspicious. ``Say the Hail Mary for me,'' he demanded of Nossiter, who admitted, ``Can't. Don't know it.'' Immediately, Nossiter writes, ``the look on Beckwith's face changed.'' Then he spoke: ``You're not a Catholic. You're a damn Jew.'' The book is filled with such dramatic, revelatory scenes, which prove Nossiter to be a perceptive, observant journalist. They are not likely to be forgotten soon by readers. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0306811626
• ISBN 13: 9780306811623
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336