This summer, a permanent exhibit honoring civil rights leader Medgar Evers will be unveiled at the Eudora Welty House & Garden in Jackson.
The exhibit, set to be unveiled 60 years after Evers was wrongfully slain at his Jackson home, will take a closer look at Welty’s short story, “Where Is The Voice Coming From?” which was written right after the news of Evers’ death broke.
Welty used the fiction piece to paint a startlingly accurate picture of Evers’ assassination, his motives, and his movements prior to the crime being solved by authorities. She later said, “The fiction’s outward details had to be changed where, by chance, they had resembled those of actuality, for the story must not be found prejudicial to the case of a person who might be on trial for his life.”
The exhibit will compare Welty’s original draft of “Where Is The Voice Coming From?” to her final version. Visitors will be able to compare excepts from the short story to actual crime scene photographs.
“In Jackson, Mississippi, the legacy of Medgar Evers is felt strongly to this day,” Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell said. “This small but impactful exhibit shares his story with our visitors and illustrates how some of the most powerful tools we will ever have – whether processing personal grief or fighting publicly for justice – are imagination, creativity, and the written word.”
The Medgar Evers exhibit will open on June 1. The Eudora Welty House & Garden is located at 1109 Pinehurst Street in the historic Belhaven neighborhood.
