A story of a trailblazing woman, empowered wife, and social justice champion.
Call Me Mrs. Evers is a one-woman play, telling the story of Myrlie Evers, wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and the first woman chair of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She is also something of an unsung hero of the women's rights movement as well.
After midnight on June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers, the beloved husband of Myrlie Evers and father of their children, was assassinated on the driveway of the family home. The play opens at the moment of the shooting of Medgar Evers, an event that would change, but not permanently define the life of Myrlie Evers.
Myrlie Evers would fight to obtain justice for her slain husband. Three decades and three trials later a guilty verdict was finally handed down by a Mississippi jury. While fighting to get justice for her husband, Myrlie Evers embarked on her own career as a civil, women's, and human rights leader. She would run for Congress and ultimately become the first woman to serve as the chairperson of the NAACP.
The climax of the play is the second inaugural of Barack Obama. Myrlie Evers was selected by the President of the United States to provide the invocation at the inauguration for the first African-American President's second term in office.
In the invocation, Mrs. Evers concludes:
We invoke the prayers of our grandmothers, who taught us to pray, ‘God make me a blessing.’ Let their spirit guide us as we claim the spirit of old.
Call Me Mrs. Evers stars LaDios Muhammad in the role of Myrlie Evers. The play is directed by Michael Peters with the script by Mike Broemmel.