Weird Little Guys

Natural Causes is a podcast about the politics and practicalities of going outside in a world on fire, hosted by Dr. James Stout. It approaches the outdoors, conservation, agriculture, food sovereignty, and Indigenous land rights as interconnected issues. We want to combine unflinching journalism with unabashed advocacy for the land we all share, and welcome everyone into the outdoors and the fight for our public lands. Our shared wild spaces are under threat like never before, from climate change, the Trump administration, and extractive capitalism. Now, more than ever, we need serious journalism and serious solidarity that engages people with the struggle to protect these spaces for generations to come. New episodes weekly. Listen here and subscribe to Natural Causes on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1994, Byron de la Beckwith was finally convicted of murder for killing Medgar Evers in 1963. He died in prison, his story is over. But history repeats itself.Sources & Further Reading:Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar Evers. Univ. of Tennessee Press.DeLaughter, Bobby (2001). Never Too Late: A Prosecutor’s Story of Justice in the Medgar Evers Case. Scribner.Mitchell, Jerry (2020). Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era. Simon & Schuster.Vollers, Maryanne (1995). Ghosts of Mississippi. Little Brown & Company.Newton, Michael (2010). The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. McFarland & Company, Inc.Dittmer, John (1994). Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. University of Illinois Press.Ball, Howard (2004). Murder in Mississippi. University Press of Kansas.Snipe, Tracy (2021). The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, The Sarah Collins Rudolph Story. Africa World Press.Doyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi 1962. Doubleday.Nossiter, Adam (1994). Of Long Memory: Mississippi and the Murder of Medgar Evers. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/719/1345/1438234/https://shadowproof.com/2018/03/07/documents-reveal-police-targeting-anti-racists-charlottesville/https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/4404359-DHS-Bulletin-Aug-9/https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2007/may/30/dredging-up-the-past-why-mississippians-must-tell/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protestershttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/us/politics/dhs-inquiry-immigration-protests-minnesota.htmlhttps://abc7chicago.com/post/ice-minneapolis-news-agents-claim-alberto-castaeda-mondragn-hit-wall-shattered-skull-triggers-tension-hospital/18514566/https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72504545/ge-v-immigration-and-customs-enforcement/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1964, crosses burned all over Mississippi, signaling a return of the Ku Klux Klan. Their big debut was perfectly timed as a show of support for Byron de la Beckwith.Sources & Further Reading:Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar Evers. Univ. of Tennessee Press.DeLaughter, Bobby (2001). Never Too Late: A Prosecutor’s Story of Justice in the Medgar Evers Case. Scribner.Mitchell, Jerry (2020). Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era. Simon & Schuster.Vollers, Maryanne (1995). Ghosts of Mississippi. Little Brown & Company.Sims, Patsy (1978). Stein & Day.Nelson, Stanley (2016). Devils Walking: Klan Murders Along the Mississippi in the 1960s. Louisiana State University Press.Dirks, Annelieke. “Between Threat and Reality: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Emergence of Armed Self-Defense in Clarksdale and Natchez, Mississippi, 1960-1965.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 1, 2007, pp. 71–98. Ball, Howard (2004). Murder in Mississippi. University Press of Kansas.Hamm, Mark (2017). The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism. Columbia University PressBiondi, K., and J. Curtis. 2018. “From Structural to Stochastic Violence.” Association for Political and Legal Anthropology.Newton, Michael (2010). The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. McFarland & Company, Inc.Dittmer, John (1994). Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi. University of Illinois Press.Payne, Charles (1995). I’ve Got The Light of Freedom. University of California Press.https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/accused-in-1964-mississippi-race-slayings-wrote-hate-letter-1.668898See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the months leading up to the murder of Medgar Evers, the man who killed him was watching his world crumble. Byron de la Beckwith had dedicated his life to the cause of segregation, but it was a losing battle. The governor of Mississippi had backed down, allowing a second black student to enter Ole Miss. Governor George Wallace in Alabama backed down, too. Integration was creeping in all over. That, and his wife left him.  Sources & Further Reading: Doyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi 1962. Doubleday. Lambert, Frank (2010). The Battle of Ole Miss: Civil Rights vs States’ Rights. Oxford University Press. Massengill, Reed (2024). Portrait of a racist: Byron De La Beckwith and the Assassination of Medgar Evers. Univ. of Tennessee Press. Metzl, Jonathan (2009). The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became A Black Disease. Beacon Press. Rolph, Stephanie (2018). Resisting Equality: The Citizens' Council, 1954-1989. Louisiana State University Press Smith, Frank (1964). Congressman From Mississippi. Capricorn Books. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/100262race-ra.html  https://egrove.olemiss.edu/citizens_news/index.3.html  https://www.southernfoodways.org/the-greenwood-food-blockade/  https://snccdigital.org/events/leflore-county-cuts-off-surplus-commodities/  https://snccdigital.org/people/dick-gregory/  https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/22/us/samuel-block-60-civil-rights-battler-dies.html  https://www.crmvet.org/docs/src/6210_src_ns.pdf  https://themilitant.com/1962/2633/MIL2633.pdf  https://snccdigital.org/people/lawrence-guyot/  https://snccdigital.org/events/jimmy-travis-shot-greenwood/  https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/multimedia/medgar-evers-and-jackson-movement.html  https://www.wlbt.com/video/2026/07/15/medgar-evers-historic-1963-wlbt-speech-missing-over-six-decades/  https://da.mdah.ms.gov/vault/projects/OHtranscripts/AU_MP198001_119_098611.pdf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.