In 1954, the first Citizens' Council is formed in Mississippi, and these white councils essentially run state politics for most of the decade. Blacks and whites who support integration suffer economic and physical reprisal. Voter registration campaigns are organized, but those who try to register lose their jobs. The Mississippi voting-rights drive draws national attention. Negotiations between Evers and Jackson's mayor fail to end discrimination.
Demonstrations break out, and hundreds are arrested and jailed.
The battle in Jackson escalates. President Kennedy makes his strongest speech on civil rights in June 1963. That night Evers is killed by an assassin outside his Jackson home. Following his murder, blacks in Mississippi are torn between the nonviolent approach espoused by Evers and the alternative of taking up arms against white Mississippi. Four months later, President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.