Qualla: The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home

The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. They chose the house, in part, because it was hard to shoot into. Not on a corner lot. The entrance tucked beneath a carport, sheltered from the street. For Medgar and Myrlie Evers, shopping for a home in 1956 in Jackson, Mississippi, meant evaluating sightlines the way a soldier might, because that is what the NAACP's field secretary for Mississippi effectively was -- a man at war with an entrenched system of racial violence who knew his address would not stay secret. The single-story ranch at 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive, in the Elraine Subdivision, was one of 36 similar houses built for Black middle-class families in Mississippi's first planned African American subdivision after World War II. It was supposed to represent progress. Instead, it became a crime scene, then a shrine, and finally a national monument.

Image: Jud McCranie | CC BY-SA 4.0

The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home: The Neighborhood That Wasn't Supposed to Exist

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charlie Brenner from Jackson Mississippi, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Elraine Subdivision in northern Jackson was a deliberate act of defiance against the racial order. Developers Leroy Burnett and Winston J. Thompson built 36 single-story ranch houses specifically for African American families in the years after World War II, creating Mississi...

Image: Charlie Brenner from Jackson Mississippi, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home: Living Under the Crosshairs

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carlapbatchelor at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. As the NAACP's field secretary for Mississippi, Medgar Evers organized voter registration drives and investigated racial violence in what was arguably the most dangerous state for civil rights workers. The threats followed him home. The Everses had been specific targets of racist...

Image: Carlapbatchelor at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home: June 12, 1963

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0. That evening, Medgar Evers attended a meeting of civil rights organizations in Jackson to coordinate a response to Governor George Wallace's stand at the University of Alabama, where Wallace had physically blocked the enrollment of Black students. Evers arrived home around midnig...

Image: Michael Barera | CC BY-SA 4.0

The House That Chose Its Occupants: Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home: From Crime Scene to National Monument

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Carla Batchelor, May 2005, CC BY-SA 3.0. The bullet hole in the wall between the kitchen and living room is still there. So is the house, preserved almost exactly as it was on the night Medgar Evers was killed. After decades in private hands, the property was acquired by Tougaloo College. In 2017, the National Park Serv...

Image: Carla Batchelor, May 2005 | CC BY-SA 3.0