The First Day

About the Book

The book, The First Day, (The War on Segregation and the Integration of the Mississippi School System), is based on the author’s account of his and his sister’s role in the Mississippi school desegregation process. Though they were only children, they found themselves caught up in the winds of change that were sweeping the country at the time. And despite opposition from both Black and White people, they joined the movement of change during the early civil rights years. The author, Thomas James Evans, recalls the events and tells the story of how, seemingly, he and his sister were chosen by fate at an early age, to take an upfront role and guide those winds through the early desegregation and then integration of the Mississippi school system. In his memoir, set from the 1960s to 2009, he writes of the experiences and difficulties of always finding himself as being the trailblazer for those who followed.

About the Author

Born September 12, 1954, the second child of Elizabeth and Robert Evans, I grew up in a small college community called Tougaloo. It was a time of racism, separatism and bigotry in the heart of Mississippi. My elder sister, Carolyn, and I were close siblings. We grew accustomed to attending the same schools, activities, and even social events. Often we watched as freedom marches, protests, and even the civil rights murders happened around us. For many Colored people in Mississippi, the escape was to move north to Chicago, Detroit, Ohio, and other places. But for my family and me, we were rooted in the farms and fields of Mississippi and bound by fate to stay and fight for a change that had to come. Nineteen sixty-eight brought about a change in many people’s lives. As for my sister and I, that change would set forth a profound beginning. One that the country, and especially the state of Mississippi, would have to come to grips with and thus proceed on an uncharted course, one of forced unity, and coexistence, between Black and White people of the South.