National Park Service Reinstates Brochures Identifying Medgar Evers’ Killer as a Racist
The National Park Service reversed course Thursday, returning brochures to the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument that explicitly identify Byron De La Beckwith, the man who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers, as a racist. The move comes just hours after Mississippi Today reported on the initial removal of the brochures, sparking immediate criticism.
The Park Service initially claimed the brochures were removed because they were “outdated.” However, officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, revealed the agency intended to replace them with a revised version omitting the term “racist” when describing Beckwith. Plans also included removing the graphic detail of Evers lying in a pool of blood after being shot.
“You can take away the brochures, but the one thing you can’t take away is history,” stated Wanda Evers, niece of Medgar Evers and a Hinds County Supervisor.
Reena Evers-Everette, executive director of the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Institute and daughter of the slain civil rights leader, confirmed her family had been informed of the pending changes, stating the matter remains “under review,” but a final version has not yet been released.
U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, whose district includes the Evers home, announced he is sending a letter to the National Park Service demanding an explanation. Thompson championed the home’s designation as a national monument over a 16-year period.
The controversy stems from the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers on his driveway in Jackson, Mississippi, by Beckwith. It took 31 years for a Mississippi jury to finally convict Beckwith of the crime. The original brochures identified Beckwith as “a member of the racist and segregationist White Citizens’ Council.”
Historians corroborate the depth of Beckwith’s racist ideology. Stephanie Rolph, author of “Resisting Equality: The Citizens’ Council 1954-1989,” explained the council “believed in the natural superiority of the Aryan race. They even went so far as to say that civilizations failed because of racial amalgamation.” Beckwith’s affiliations extended to the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a group responsible for at least 10 killings in Mississippi.
Further evidence of Beckwith’s virulent racism surfaced during his unsuccessful 1967 run for Mississippi lieutenant governor, where he openly advocated for “absolute white supremacy under white Christian rule.” In 1973, he was arrested attempting to bomb the home of a Jewish leader in New Orleans and subsequently imprisoned. A 1990 interview revealed Beckwith repeatedly using racial slurs, referring to African Americans as “beasts” and Medgar Evers as a “mongrel,” proclaiming “God hates mongrels.”
The current effort to revise historical interpretation appears linked to a March 2025 executive order issued by President Donald Trump, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The order accused the previous administration of rewriting history and directed the Interior Secretary to revise or replace signage that “perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history.”
Following Trump’s order, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued his own directive two months later, calling for the removal of content that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” and instead emphasizing “the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
The Washington Post has reported that the administration has broadened this directive to include the removal of exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, including a photograph from 1863 depicting a formerly enslaved man bearing the scars of brutal beatings. According to the Post, National Park Service officials are interpreting the order to apply to information concerning racism, sexism, slavery, LGBTQ+ rights, and the persecution of Indigenous people.
However, Park Service officials stated Thursday that the Interior Secretary’s order aims to ensure a “full and accurate story of American history,” including previously minimized or omitted subjects like slavery and the treatment of Native Americans, informed by “current scholarship and expert review, not through a narrow ideological lens.” They maintained that claims of widespread historical erasure are inaccurate, stating that some materials may be edited for context, others unchanged, and some removals unrelated to the order.
Julien Beacham, formerly with the Evers Institute, recalled being instructed that park rangers were no longer permitted to refer to Beckwith as a “racist” during tours.
Leslie Burl McLemore, a political science professor and founding director of the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy at Jackson State University, vehemently criticized the proposed changes, calling them “asinine.” “He was a first-class racist, and there’s no way you can get around it,” McLemore asserted. “He assassinated a man and then bragged about it.” McLemore emphasized the crucial role of leaders like Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Bob Moses in the Civil Rights Movement, warning that these efforts represent a dangerous attempt “to turn back the clock.”
