EDITORIAL/Charles Evers’ legacy
Charles Evers used his voice to promote racial equality until the end.
A Mississippi civil rights and political icon, Evers began his radio career at Philadelphia’s WHOC in the 1950s while working in his family-run funeral home business. He died July 22 at 97.
About his endorsement of President Donald J. Trump in 2016, Evers told National Public Radio: “You know, my whole thing — to those who are listening — we have to stop thinking that black folks have to be all Democrats. We have a right to choose, and I happen to have been a Republican now for a long time. I’m supporting Trump because I think he is — firstly, he’s a businessman, and he can provide jobs for us. And that’s what I’m looking at.”
After serving in World War II, Evers, a Decatur native, moved to Philadelphia in 1951 where he also operated a taxi service, a bootleg liquor business, and the Evers Hotel and Lounge, which featured Blues bands.
After the funeral home advertised on WHOC radio, station owner Howard Cole asked Evers to start hosting a show himself.
In 1963, his brother Medgar, field director of the NAACP in Jackson, was assassinated outside his home. Charles took his place.
Evers left the Democrat Party in the 1970s over complaints that white Democrats took African American voters “for granted.”