JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – A new permanent exhibit that honors slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers will open at the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG).

The exhibit will open on June 1, 2023, in response to the 60th anniversary of Evers’ assassination on June 12, 1963, outside his Jackson home.

After the news of Evers’ death broke in Jackson, Mississippi author Eudora Welty wrote “Where Is the Voice Coming From?”, a short story about the attack. The new EWHG exhibit, titled Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers, follows the making of Welty’s piece.

This exhibit compares Welty’s original draft with the final version, highlighting changes. Story quotes pair with actual crime scene photographs, though Welty’s words predate the images. A photograph of Evers at work as Mississippi’s first field secretary for the NAACP opens the exhibit, along with an overview of his accomplishments.  

“In Jackson, Mississippi, the legacy of Medgar Evers is felt strongly to this day,” said Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell. “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.”