Myrlie Evers worked for the conviction of the white supremacist who murdered her husband, heroic civil rights leader Medgar Evers, through two hung juries and over thirty years. “Ghosts of Mississippi teems with the carefully recreated details of a relentless quest for justice and features special appearances by three children of Medgar Evers and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s daughter Yolanda. “(Rob Reiner) The three main characters in this movie were Myrlie Evers, Bobby Delaughter, and Bryon de la Beckwith. Myrlie Evers, the faithful and strong wife of Medgar Evers, was his secretary for the Mississippi NAACP and supported Medgar in all of his demonstrations, boycotts, protests, speeches, and etc. She was a devoted wife who was proud of her heroic husband, but also lived in fear for Medgar’s life. “(Medgar Evers) Ghosts of Mississippi is a movie about the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963. Evers was shot and killed in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 12, 1963.
Medgar Evers pulled into his driveway of his Jackson home as he was getting out of his car he was shot in the back by forty-two year old Bryon de la Beckwith. Bryon de la Beckwith was a Mississippi native, also known as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who hated blacks, Jews, and basically anyone who was not white. Beckwith bragged for 31 years that he had gotten away with killing Evers. “(Medgar Evers) This movie definitely stays true to what actually happened in history, it gives accurate accounts of what the Evers family went through, how Byron de la Beckwith got away with the crime for so long and how they finally brought him to justice. The film is a drama film, which means it focuses on something that actually happened. The film was made for historical purposes.
The filmmaker’s intention was to tell the story of Medgar Evers and the long journey that was taken to convict his killer. We all must look at the situation and realize the wrongdoing and the hatred that filled the people’s hearts during that time, Justice was served! With many white men against Bobby Delaughter, he experiences many threats as well as getting a bomb threat on his house one night in 1994. “The first trail took place a couple of days later and Myrlie was the first witness to take the stand. She retells her experience and is saddened by the painful memories.
During the second trail, many more witnesses, including the two white males who falsely testified to seeing Beckwith in Greenwood at a gas station on the night of the murder that was ninety miles away. ” (Rob Reiner) Delaughter knew that a murder committed, weather it be yesterday, today, or a hundred years ago, couldn’t go unnoticed and the perpetrator needed to be punished for the wrongdoing. When the jury finally came back in from an extremely long discussion or argument rather, the verdict was presented. Bryon de la Beckwith was finally found guilty of the crime he most definitely committed on June 12th, 1963.
