JACKSON, Miss.—Reshonda Perryman has been creating art ever since she was strong enough to grip a crayon in her hand.
“I have pictures as young as 2 of me just drawing and coloring on the floor,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug. 1 at the unveiling of new murals honoring slain civil rights leader Medgar Wiley Evers at a library in Jackson, Mississippi.
“I just had a big imagination, and my parents just let me do my thing, and it turned into this,” she continued, radiating with pride.
The Fayette, Mississippi, native’s big imagination and her parents’ unwavering support manifested into a more than 20-year career in the creative arts. She has lent her artistic talents to organizations like Visit Jackson and the Mississippi NAACP, and her work can be seen at sites like the Smith Robertson Museum and her alma mater, Jackson State University.
Just last year, she crafted a mural directly across the street from the Two Mississippi Museums that features images of Eudora Welty, David Banner, Thalia Mara and Evers.
On Friday, Aug. 1, Perryman joined members of the Jackson Hinds Library System Board of Trustees, Mayor John Horhn and Hinds County District 4 Supervisor Wanda Evers at the Medgar Evers Library for a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the series of new murals she painted in the civil-rights icon’s honor.
As library patrons, JHLS staff members and elected officials admired her work, Perryman expressed gratitude for opportunities to create art depicting an icon like Evers.
“I consider it a privilege because I can’t say what it was like when he was alive, but I do know that the freedoms that I get to exercise every day are the very things that he was fighting for,” she said.
‘Medgar Evers Means So Much’
Many of the people who spoke during the ceremony reflected on the legacy of Medgar Evers, who, along with his wife Myrlie Evers, was a fierce champion for voting rights and economic justice before a white supremacist assassinated him in 1963.
Hinds County District 4 Board Supervisor Wanda Evers spoke briefly during the unveiling, thanking the public for their continued support of her family as they fight to maintain her uncle’s legacy—a legacy that she believes the federal government is now trying to minimize.
Earlier this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hinted at plans to remove Evers’ name from a naval ship christened in his honor more than a decade ago.
“You do this to a man who fought for our country? We are not going to tolerate it,” Wanda Evers said during a Jackson City Council meeting on June 17.
At the ceremony, Jackson Friends of the Library board member Emmaline Smith echoed a message about Evers’ significance to the capital city and beyond.
“Medgar Evers means so much to our country, our city and especially this community,” she said. The Friends of the Library is a nonprofit organization that facilitates fundraising and advocacy initiatives for the capital city’s libraries.
Friday’s unveiling of murals was the latest rollout of a project, which started last year with an art installation at the Margaret Walker Alexander Library in West Jackson, Smith explained.
‘Kind of a Renaissance’
Beyond the significance of the library’s namesake, Rep. Bo Brown said the mural showcase gave him hope that the library system, which has faced hardship in recent years due to financial challenges, is headed for a resurgence.
“You know, when you go into a city, one of the top quality of life issues that you can identify—besides schools—is your libraries,” Brown said on Friday. “You can tell what kind of city you live in by your libraries.”
Officials demolished the building that formerly housed the Eudora Welty Library—once Hinds County’s flagship library in downtown Jackson—earlier this year as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History made room for a public park. Flood damage and delayed maintenance plagued the building.
The JHLS Board of Trustees has not yet announced a new location for the Welty branch. But in February, the group released its five-year strategic plan and announced a new executive director, longtime library veteran Jeanne Williams, in May.
For now, the board’s focus is on maintaining the capital city’s libraries that remain operational: the Willie Morris Branch on Old Canton Road, the Margaret Walker Branch on Robinson Street, the Fannie Lou Hamer Branch on Albermarle Road and, of course, the Medgar Evers Branch just off of Medgar Evers Boulevard.
JHLS Board of Trustees Chair Peyton Smith said on Aug. 1 that locals checked out approximately 1,000 books written for young people this summer at the Evers branch alone. With the help of the Jackson Friends of the Library, a revitalization of the capital city’s libraries is on the horizon, Smith proclaimed.
“They’ve guided us through what we see as kind of a renaissance that we have coming in the library system,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to be done with the library system. I can promise you these board members and the staff are putting in countless hours to get this thing turned around.”
The Jackson Hinds Library System currently has 12 branches: Margaret Walker Alexander Library (Jackson), Ella Bess Austin Library (Terry), Bolden/Moore Library (Jackson), Beverly J. Brown Library (Byram), Medgar Evers Library (Jackson), Lois A. Flagg Library (Edwards), Fannie Lou Hamer Library (Jackson), Annie Thompson Jeffers Library (Bolton), Evelyn Taylor Majure Library (Utica), Willie Morris Library (Jackson), Quisenberry Library (Clinton), and Raymond Public Library (Raymond). For more information, visit jhlibrary.org.
