OPINION: The only dirt they found

By Selika Sweet, M.D., FAAFP

JA Guest Writer

“He had to be one of the best men I ever knew,” my aging mother said.

“I know. You talk about him all the time.”

“He was always working to help people get registered and out to vote. He traveled all over the state. He was the only person I knew to call.”

“You’ve told all this to me a thousand times,” I said. “I’ll hear it again.”

“Your dad was out of town at a training session with the VA. It was winter and very cold.  The furnace beneath the house had gone out. I didn’t know anyone else to call but Medgar. He came over from two doors down, crawled under the house, and lit the furnace. You know, his life was always in danger. Before he left, he asked if we needed anything else. I remember it like it was yesterday: I stood in the doorway with two children beside me and a baby in my arms. About four months later, he was killed in his driveway, holding T-shirts that said, ‘Jim Crow Must Go.’ He was shot in the back. The blood is still there.”

“There needs to be more like him,” I told my mother.

“I agree,” she said, “they searched for dirt on him. The only dirt anyone could find was the dirt from crawling beneath our house.”

Mr. Medgar Wiley Evers was our family friend and my dad’s fishing buddy.

THANK YOU FOR VOTING.