Everlasting: Life and Legacy of Medgar Evers

(Music) - Hello, my name is Germaine Flo radio producer with MPB Think Radio and welcome to a special extension of the Everlasting Documentary Project.

Today we sit down with some of the co-creators and discuss the life and legacy of Civil Rights legend Medgar Evers.

To my right, I have Taiwo Gaynor, the executive producer of the documentary.

And also on the panel is Zeke Bandy, producer of the Everlasting: The Legacy Podcast.

And finally, I have the producer of Everlasting: the New Generation web series, Blake Barnes, Taiwo, Zeke and Blake.

Thank you all so much for sitting down with me so we all can learn a little bit more about this Everlasting project.

I mean, it's a thing.

It's a legacy podcast.

It's a legacy web series.

It's a legacy documentary.

I've got to jump right into it, whichever one wants to answer.

How did this project come about and what kind of spawned the idea?

- Okay, so the story that I heard about the way the project started was that Myrlie Evers was here at MPB for an event, and she went into the office of the executive director at that time, who was Ronnie Agnew.

And she closed the door behind her and said, You need to do a documentary about my husband, Medgar Evers, you know, and, you know, that was probably several years before we started working on it, but it was something that stuck with Mr.

Agnew, and he relayed that information to me one year, and he was like, we need to do a documentary on Medgar Evers.

- Yeah, - This was coming out of Covid.

So you know, we hadn't done a lot of documentaries.

And it was like one of those things where we were like, okay, well, let's do it.

- I mean, where do you start fro when you get a message like that, when you get a directive like that and you haven't touched a documentary in forever?

Where do you start?

Do you start with the subject?

Do you start with the idea?

- Well, the first thing we had to do was get permission from the family.

I mean, Reena Evers, who is the heir.

That's the daughter of Medgar Evers.

I mean, we needed to get her buy-in because this is a story about a family who is still around.

- Yeah.

- And so we wanted to make sure that we had their blessing that they were going to participate, make sure that they were part of the process, making sure that we were getting the information correct.

So we had to cultivate a relationship with the Evers family first to get their buy-in.

- I mean, it's-- this is a big project.

I mean, Everlasting, this is an everlasting project, and it has so many facets to it with the web series, with the podcast.

What made you all want to get together and say, let's take this bull's eye approach and and try to hit all these avenues to be able to tell this story?

- You know, one of the things that's interesting about Medgar Evers is that he doesn't have a lot of long historical narratives about himself, other than that he was a major cog in the wheel for the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.

He was very well known.

He was very much a part of a lot of different organizations.

And what I come to understand really quickly is that it's not only his story.

It's his story amongst a bunch of other stories.

And so, you know, these guys were part of the production process from the beginning.

- Right.

- And we were all kind of learning these things at the same time that, wow, there is so much information here.

We can't just tell this one story.

There's so many parts of the story that also need to be told.

So the idea of expanding this out into a podcast and digital content is where those thoughts came from.

- Right.

Zeke?

When he-- when Taiwo comes to you and says, Listen, we need to maybe expand on this project. When it comes down to the podcast, where was your thought process at where you where you may have wanted to take this project?

- I was so excited, where we would just sit with somebody and they would tell us sometimes their entire life story.

And then, you know, after about 30 minutes, we would get to where their life kind of intersected with Medgar Evers story.

And so there would be all this great stuff and all these just wonderful stories that we would hear that we would just know, as we were recording them, like this-- There's not room enough for this in the documentary.

And so that's where we kind of came up with the idea of we need a place where we can have all this land and where we can collect all these different stories, and share them with the rest of Mississippi.

And so that was one part of it.

The other part was that there's lots of, the Medgar Evers story and just the Evers family story that we're not able to get into within the confines of even a two-hour long documentary.

And so the podcast was a way for us to take some of those subjects or some of those topics that we're not able to really get into and really get into them or take and just kind of branch out for a second, say, pause.

Let's hear from this person more about why this event happened or, those kinds of things.

So, yeah, so it was it was a great opportunity to be able to take those things like Taiwo had said he had experience with other Civil Rights documentaries and, really just expand out on those.

- And speaking of expanding, we expanded all the way out to a web series, headed up by Blake Barnes and Blake.

Just thank you so much for this web series, but I want to know, too when you all expand into these different mediums of broadcast, what makes you want to go into it?

Because I know the web series is possibly for maybe a new generation of people versus a documentary and versus a podcast.

So kind of what made you all want to choose these mediums and talk a little bit about your portion with the web series?

- Yeah.

So whenever we started the whole project of the documentary, it was like early 2020 maybe, or 2021?

- Yeah.

- And so there was a couple of years where I had first joined.

I was a camera guy, and that was like my only job on the project.

And then as a couple of years passed, Im now one of the producers of the web series.

And so there's sort of been this arc of me growing up at MPB working on this project that's been here my whole career here.

- Yeah.

You know, Medgar Evers did a lot for us here in the state, you know, for the advancement of black people here in the nation and all of that.

So the content is definitely heavy.

How do you-- and anybody can answer, either one of y'all three.

Kind of set your emotions aside to be able to deal with the content.

And like you were saying, he's a family man.

He had a wife, he had children just kind of like you, you know?

And so how do you not put yourself in these situations where you can get maybe overly emotional and that you can continue the work that you're doing?

- In terms of the podcast we have, our podcast host is Rita Brent, who is known for her comedic work.

And I, at first when I heard that, I think I had the same feeling that a lot of people will have when they hear that Rita Brent is doing a podcast about Medgar Evers, which is she's she does comedy.

But she brings a certain weight to all the discussions and also a certain lightness too that, like, we're used to her, you know, in a jokey setting.

And so, there's something when all of a sudden you see her and you're like, oh, she's not telling a joke.

She's, you know, she's still very inviting and welcoming.

But she brings a certain tone just to a conversation about the subject that has been really great.

Just as kind of framing up how we're going to talk about something.

- Yeah, Blake, when it comes down to setting those emotions aside, was there a point where you were like, I may need to take a break.

I may need to think about this before I come back in and try to finish something?

- I think part of our job is to capture other people's emotions.

And there's a certain degree of where-- and that's sort of the point.

That's not a bad thing.

I think that following these students, a lot of them would never even been to the South before, much less into the Mississippi Delta.

There was a lot of emotions that I was able to capture of them, like experiencing these places in locations that they had only read about before and actually getting to visit those locations.

But I think that part of that journey was to realize that because they're feeling those emotions, it means that the story is still very present.

And so I don't think that there's was anything to deal with in terms like that.

It was something that we were just, I think they were aware of, and we were fortunate enough to be there, to be able to capture.

- Yeah.

Being an African-American male and dealing with this subject matter and the story that you know, were they're points where you felt anger?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, there were a lot of moments that I was reflecting on my own emotions, how I felt about what Medgar Evers was dealing with, thinking about what I'm dealing with now as a man, as a family man.

I mean, there was a very poignant moment where we interviewed Myrlie Evers, and this was during the 60th anniversary when we were doing the in the interviews with the students.

But Myrlie Evers was doing an interview for Morning Edition, which is our news program for MPB.

This was at my house for some reason, because we couldn't find a place to do it.

So she winds up coming to my house.

- Okay.

- And, you know, I remember her getting out the car and she, like, looks over-- and I have a pretty nice house, but, - That's why it was shot there.

(laughing) - Well, no, it's because it was the only place available at the time.

But she looks off into the yard, and she's like, you know, taken aback by how beautiful it is.

And as I'm watching, I'm like, oh my God, she would not have been able to live in a neighborhood like this when she was my age.

And then she comes into my house and she starts doing her interview with Desare Frazier who is our Mississippi Edition host.

And she's talking about, you know, her life with Medgar Evers and some of the things that they were going through, and especially like in his later days.

And she was like talking about she was about to leave Medgar Evers, was ready to divorce this man because he's putting his family in danger.

And she was inadvertently sitting at my dining room table in the same seat that my wife sits in.

So I'm imagining me having this conversation with my own wife.

What would my response be to that?

Would I say, okay, I'm going to stop what I'm doing?

I would like to think that I wouldn't, but, you know, it's a that's a heavy.

- Weight to bear.

- weight to bear.

You know, so yeah, those emotions were strong.

I feel like for years that these stories, what Medgar Evers had to experience, I mean, investigating horrific crimes and murders and, you know, lynchings and, you know, just abuse of people that he actually knew.

I mean, the weight of that and then having to go home to your family.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- It's a lot, you know.

- So celebrating his life is something we just did recently at the 100th Symposium.

Talk about that.

And of course, the spread that was all out there for everybody to come see and take part of and celebrate, like you say, the life of Medgar Evers.

- Well, yeah, I mean, it was it was incredibly important for us to have a presence at the Jackson Convention Center where the 100th celebration was held.

It was put on by Mississippi Votes and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.

We were invited to help.

We were a media partner.

So we kind of helped record panel discussions.

We created a Legacy Lounge that we were, that's what we called it.

But we were it was just really a kind of like a video podcast booth that we were inviting people to just come and tell their stories.

Like I said, it wasn't just Medgar Evers story.

You had Civil Rights veterans, people who, the night Medgar Evers was murdered, were getting phone calls saying, You're next. These are people that were interviewed that day.

- I mean, icons were there.

- Yeah.

I mean, it's incredible the people that were there.

So to be able to share this was, it felt like we were giving a gift, a birthday gift to Medgar Evers and the family and the people in Mississippi.

Just sharing that this trailer and this documentary is coming out.

Letting them know that the podcast is coming out.

Theres curriculum coming out.

Theres a digital series, I mean it's substantial.

And then to capture those stories while we were there was just incredibly special.

- And like you say, instead of the death, let's celebrate the life.

So I want to give the viewers a little taste of each piece, whether deal with the documentary, the podcast or the web series.

So Taiwo, give everybody a little taste of what they can expect out of the documentary.

- So one of the things, we realized about Medgar Evers life is that, it's not just a Medgar Evers documentary.

It's also about Myrlie Evers, his wife, who, is really the person who brought his legacy forward.

You know, when he died, he really unlocked something in her, you know, and she went on to do all kinds of great things.

And so it's about telling the story about this man who sacrificed everything for basic human rights and, you know, really kind of drawing the distinction of, like, what does it mean to sacrifice?

What does it mean to be responsive and responsible for not just yourself, but your your commitment to civil rights and freedom for others?

And then also just, you know, understanding what a man looks like.

- Yeah.

- A family man who, you know, loved.

And was, you know, had a had an incredible passion for his family, his wife, and to do what he needed to do for that.

You know, one of the things that I forgot to mention and I think was important is that, for the documentary, a lot of these interviews are not second-hand interviews.

These are people who actually worked with Medgar Evers or knew Medgar Evers personally, or worked with Myrlie Evers, or the family personally.

These these are very much firsthand accounts.

And that was important for us.

You know, we could have interviewed, you know, famous faces and big names, but we wanted to make it real and authentic.

You know, we weren't trying to do a show all documentary.

We wanted to do something that was factual, that felt authentic, that people could actually connect with.

And so that was important for us.

- Yeah, yeah.

What's also important is possibly the success of this documentary.

So I know there's a lot of teeth, there's a lot of skin, there's a lot of time that's been put into this doc.

So tell me, what do you how do you define success for a project like this?

And what does that look like for us here at MPB?

- Well, success in my eyes means as many people have access to it and can see it.

I mean that as many people as possible can get access to this content.

We are public television, and so when we have been collecting this content, we've been having to license footage and, you know, video and photos and you know, that that gets pricey.

And what we've been doing is we've been licensing it for perpetuity, which means that we have this license forever.

- Yeah.

- And we're not selling any of this content.

What we're trying to do is make it available in schools for screeners or on our air, or on other public television stations, making the podcast available for free.

We want to make sure that Medgar Evers legacy is availabl because it's been kept away from the world.

I mean, Joan Trumper Mulholland, she talks about The Three Ms.

- She was at the symposium.

- She was at the symposium.

We interviewed her for the documentary, and she talks about, you know, there is Medgar, Malcolm and Martin, the three Civil Rights icons that were murdered.

But you know about-- You don't know about Medgar Evers.

You know about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

But Medgar Evers has been kind of vanished from history.

So this is an opportunity to bring this man's legacy into the light that it deserves to be in.

And so that's what success looks like for me, making sure that everybody knows who Medgar Evers is.

- Right.

- I mean... - I think, would feedback kind of play a little part into this success and what it would look like on the end?

Would you love the feedback that you could get, maybe verbally or written?

- Yeah.

- (laughing) - Yeah, I would.

(laughing) - Yeah!

- How do you feel about that?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Of course.

I mean, that's, that's you know, it's part of I feel like why we're doing it.

I feel like we're-- it's.

Yeah, it's I think it's safe to say that Medgar Evers life and legacy has been understudied.

And, pretty much everybody I've talked to has just been ready to go to to talk about Medgar Evers.

And I think, yeah, when people think about the Civil Rights Movement, they think about Martin Luther King, Jr.

and Malcolm X... They came after Medgar Evers.

And so when we typically learn about the Civil Rights Movement, we're learning about it usually from like 1964 and on.

And so with Medgar Evers, he was assassin-- or he was assassinated on June 12th, 1963.

And so all of his life and most of what we're talking about in the documentary happened either before or in the very early time of the Civil Rights Movement.

And so we're able to see what somebody who is not really, you know, on big screens, talking to people, not like holding huge, you know, press conferences or rallies, talking to people.

He's very on the ground.

He's very going door to door, talking to people, you know, meeting people in his office here in Jackson.

And so, yeah, I think that like that, it' a very different perspective from what people would typically see of the Civil Rights Movement of kind of like how it got started and, yeah, I, I am very excited to see what people end up saying about this because I think this is going to be how a lot of people learn about Medgar Evers and what you were saying about how MPB is It's a special place to-- and really perfect for telling this story.

- Blake, do you second that noti Have you noticed a change in the agency staff?

- Oh, for sure.

I mean, even just outside of this project, there's been a huge undertaking of all of the people, all the departments to collaborate on all the different projects.

And this is our biggest project right now.

So I think it's involving the most hands.

But, I've even enjoyed just sitting in on the podcast and getting to run camera on the podcast sometimes, like we were just always switching hands and doing different things.

So it's a lot of learning that's going on, which I think it's it's great for all of us.

- I love that.

And last.

- Yeah - Just like Everlasting, So I love it.

Talking to you three has been a great, great time.

Is there anything you want to leave the audience with when it comes down to just ingesting this beautiful project?

- What I'm fascinated about is that, we don't know how people are going to get access to this.

Some people will see the documentary and say, Oh, theres a podcast. Or some people may hear the podcast first and say, Oh, by the way, there's a documentary. Some folks may see the digital content and say, Oh, by the way, theres a podca Oh, and theres a-- you know, s it's like, that's the part that's kind of fascinating to me is that there is this array of content and people will connect with it in so many different ways and share it in different ways, and it will ultimately lead them to different parts of things that they didn't really know about this man that they really should know and will be about to know.

So that's that's exciting.

- We're all about to know.

Now I just want to discuss some key takeaways before we get out of here.

Blake, what is one of those key takeaways that you want everybody to learn or to take with them?

- Theres this idea of history, and then there's this idea of the present moment, and those two things are way more crossed over that I think I thought they were beforehand.

And I thought beforehand that I thought I already knew that.

But it was even more revealed, that like, a lot of these people are just-- you can see them in the, in Kroger, if you go shopping.

You can bump into them and it's like they're, they're here, they're doing things.

And I think that it didn't happen as long ago as it's easy to sort of trick yourself into thinking it did.

That a lot of these people are-- they're not that old.

They're still, they're still ali They're still presently doing things in the state.

And, I also think that, probably the biggest takeaway was that how, how vocal and active the younger generations want to be in the future or currently already.

I think that they're going to have a lot of say in the future of our state, but also the country as a whole.

And I'm excited to, to see how that unfolds in the future.

- Yeah, I'm excited about that, too.

Now, when it comes down to you, Zeke, what is one of those key takeaways for you?

- I think one of the key takeaways I want the audience to get from this is that there there are some parts of their history that they are proud of, that we, a lot of times, focus on these, you know, difficult parts of our history.

And there definitely is that within the documentary.

And that's a big part of the Gen Z... media-- that series, web series as well.

And same thing with the podcast.

But, we really talk about some great stories and some great work that was done.

And I also want people to be proud of MPB as well, that this was a huge project.

You know, Taiwo mentioned that we've been working on this for years now.

And that this is not only something that we accomplished and that is something that is right at home here at MPB.

But that it takes a lot of work to do that kind of stuff.

Whenever I go see a movie or I watch a TV show, I always watch the credits roll because I like to see, you know, who was involved in this.

I like to see who did the sound on it.

But I also like to see how long those credits go.

And when you watch something on MPB, a lot of times the credits are, you know, not that many people, certainly not nearly as many people as you would see in a movie or something like that.

And so, I'm really proud of of the whole crew and the whole team that worked on this, and I hope that everybody who was able to see this is, you know, is proud that Mississippi, that their public broadcasting station was the ones who, who did this and, and that hopefully that's how they feel about it whenever they finish.

- Yeah.

Now, Taiwo, as lead and with the longest tenure on the project, what is one of those or a couple of those key takeaways for you that you want everyone to know in our audience?

- Well, the first thing I want people to know is who Medgar Evers is.

I mean, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

I mean, just three stops away from Franklin Avenue, where Medgar Evers College is and where we went to visit in New York.

And, you know, I knew the name Medgar Evers, but I didnt know who he was till I moved to Mississippi.

And, you know, coming from New York to Mississippi, you know, it's a big leap.

But what I realized in Mississippi, and this is what I've been calling it, is Mississippi is America's best kept secret.

Some of the most prolific writers, musicians, cooks, and just generous people come out of the state of Mississippi.

I mean, you'd be surprised.

A lot of the stars that are in Hollywood and politicians, people who go off to do very important things, not just in the country, but around the world, coming right out of the, you know, neighborhoods in Mississippi.

And so Mississippi is a very interesting and curious place that is filled with mystery, filled with wonder.

And so it's it's a very, it's very special that this story comes from this place.

You know, a lot of times Mississippi gets a bad rap.

- Yeah.

- And I, you know, I didn't know much about Mississippi until I moved to Mississippi and how misunderstood Mississippi actually is.

Although there is a lot of difficult history that has come out of Mississippi, things that are, you know, part of the narrative of where Mississippi has come from.

But it's not where Mississippi is today.

And so, you know, I think that is one of the other important parts that we want to make people understand about, not just the work that we do at MPB, but about stories like Medgar Evers and, you know, the other stories that we could tell at MPB.

One of the other things that I think is important to note while, you know, while Im on-- - On the Mississippi kick!

- Yeah.

While Im on Mississippi is that this documentary would not have been possible if it wasn't for the people of Mississippi.

- That's right.

- The Mississippi State Legislature, who funds MPB, also funded specifically this documentary, - That's great.

- that we created.

So, you know, while yes, Mississippi has had a difficult history, Mississippi is also willing to tell its own story, which is important.

- That's true.

And even with our legislative support that we have here, whether it dealt with this story or the Two Mississippi Museums, or what we do as a as a state to recollect our history, to try to not repeat it.

I think that's that's a perfect key takeaway.

- It is.

- Yeah.

I have had such a time with you, Taiwo.

You Zeke and you Blake.

It has been so great to finally meet the makers of Everlasting: the Legacy and Life of Medgar Evers project.

Again, I'm Germaine Flood and on behalf of Taiwo Gaynor, Zeke Bandy and Blake Barnes please please go on our website visit MPBonline.org to get more information about that project-- about this project, and to view all of the series.

That's the documentary, that's the podcast and the web series.

Again, we thank you for joining us here on MPB.

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