Army erases WWII vet Medgar Evers from Arlington National Cemetery website
by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Today
World War II veteran Medgar Evers, whom President Trump called “a great American hero,” has been erased from the Arlington National Cemetery website, which featured a section honoring Black Americans who fought in the nation’s wars.
The U.S. Army purged the section that had lauded the late Army sergeant and civil rights leader, who was assassinated by a white supremacist in Jackson in 1963. The decision to erase Evers came after an executive order by Trump to eliminate all Diversity, Equality and Inclusion programs.
ALSO READ: ‘I miss lynch mobs’: The secretary of retribution's followers are getting impatient
Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben Anderson, who gave Trump a 2017 tour of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, said he can’t imagine the president would want Evers removed. “That’s got to be a mistake,” he said. “That involves a great American who served in the military and was one of the most courageous Americans of all time.”
The White House could not be reached for comment.
Evers is far from the only war veteran whose name has been struck from the website. So was Army Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.
“He got shot three times in Vietnam and survived,” said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. “History has not been kind to minorities, whether women, people of color or religious groups. Part of what we do in the greatest democracy known to man is to correct the record.”
The Mississippi Democrat said if the Trump administration truly cared about veterans, it wouldn’t have fired 80,000 people from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “You think it’s hard to get a medical appointment now?” he asked. “You take 80,000 out of that system, and it’s not going to work.”
In 2013, Arlington National Cemetery held a service honoring Evers and his family on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, where Evers drew praise from Republicans and Democrats.
Mississippi’s entire congressional delegation pushed for Evers to posthumously receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom, which his family accepted last year.
President Donald Trump gets a tour of the newly-opened Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson on Saturday. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, left, joins the president on the tour.
President Trump came to Mississippi for the opening of the Civil Rights Museum in 2017 and spent much of his time praising Evers.
“He fought in Normandy in the Second World War,” Trump said, “and when he came back home to Mississippi, he kept fighting for the same rights and freedom that he had defended in the war. Mr. Evers became a civil rights leader in his community.
“He helped fellow African Americans register to vote, organized boycotts, and investigated grave injustices against very innocent people. For his courageous leadership in the Civil Rights movement, Mr. Evers was assassinated by a member of the KKK in the driveway of his own home.”
Trump recalled how “Sgt. Evers was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. In Arlington, he lies beside men and women of all races, backgrounds, and walks of life who have served and sacrificed for our country. Their headstones do not mark the color of their skin, but immortalize the courage of their deeds.
“Their memories are carved in stone as American heroes. That is what Medgar Evers was. He was a great American hero. That is what the others honored in this museum were: true American heroes.”
He called Evers an inspiration for everyone. “We want our country to be a place where every child, from every background, can grow up free from fear, innocent of hatred, and surrounded by love, opportunity, and hope,” he said. “Today, we pay solemn tribute to our heroes of the past and dedicate ourselves to building a future of freedom, equality, justice, and peace.”
Each summer, Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin takes teachers to visit the grave of Medgar Evers. “It’s impossible to talk about his accomplishments in the field of civil rights without mentioning his service in World War II,” he said. “There’s a straight line from his service to trying to expand voting rights and desegregate the University of Mississippi law school.”
It’s impossible to understand the sacrifices of his service in the civil rights movement without understanding the sacrifices of his service in the Army, he said. “Any attempt to minimize this history is being incredibly dishonest.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.