The Voice from Within Jackson, Mississippi
Josh Hoffman-Peterson
Honors College Prep. English
Ms. Souferis
November 2015
When Eudora Welty wrote “Where is the Voice Coming from?” in response to the assassination of Medgar Evers, nobody knew just how true to life her story would be. In the early hours of June 12, 1963, black Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers was struck down in his own driveway of Jackson, Mississippi, by the bullet of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. While the murder was widely reported in the news, little was known of the killer at the time. However, this was no obstacle to Eudora Welty. Having lived in Jackson, the news welt up in Welty until she felt the need to write a story about the murder, with …show more content…
Both Welty’s background as a resident of Jackson and her understanding of the murder allowed her to accurately understand and create the character of the assassin. Though the common opinion of the right and wrong sides of history of the Civil Rights Movement is now established, Welty’s stance was both courageous and insightful at the time. She chose to stand for what she cared about, and it resulted in a historic statement of the era. Even as the clashes of the 1960s may seem distant, the inner struggles are anything but. Today, we watch as people of darker shade are still not treated equally as others by our law enforcement system, aside from being subject to the more subtly pervasive racism in everyday society. We watch as much of our white Southern counterpart chooses to turn away and discriminate against Mexicans, Syrians, and Muslims, in acts of classic racism disguised as ‘politics’. It is the same ideology that infected Byron De La Beckwith, even if in a new time and form. Though the Civil Rights era has passed, we must remember that this does not mean racism or hatred has passed. If anything, Eudora Welty’s story reminds us that relaying a righteous opinion is vital to fighting hatred; and that telling a story is a powerful way to do
Josh Hoffman-Peterson
Honors College Prep. English
Ms. Souferis
November 2015
When Eudora Welty wrote “Where is the Voice Coming from?” in response to the assassination of Medgar Evers, nobody knew just how true to life her story would be. In the early hours of June 12, 1963, black Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers was struck down in his own driveway of Jackson, Mississippi, by the bullet of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. While the murder was widely reported in the news, little was known of the killer at the time. However, this was no obstacle to Eudora Welty. Having lived in Jackson, the news welt up in Welty until she felt the need to write a story about the murder, with …show more content…
Both Welty’s background as a resident of Jackson and her understanding of the murder allowed her to accurately understand and create the character of the assassin. Though the common opinion of the right and wrong sides of history of the Civil Rights Movement is now established, Welty’s stance was both courageous and insightful at the time. She chose to stand for what she cared about, and it resulted in a historic statement of the era. Even as the clashes of the 1960s may seem distant, the inner struggles are anything but. Today, we watch as people of darker shade are still not treated equally as others by our law enforcement system, aside from being subject to the more subtly pervasive racism in everyday society. We watch as much of our white Southern counterpart chooses to turn away and discriminate against Mexicans, Syrians, and Muslims, in acts of classic racism disguised as ‘politics’. It is the same ideology that infected Byron De La Beckwith, even if in a new time and form. Though the Civil Rights era has passed, we must remember that this does not mean racism or hatred has passed. If anything, Eudora Welty’s story reminds us that relaying a righteous opinion is vital to fighting hatred; and that telling a story is a powerful way to do