Black America has always had a complicated “love story” with America, MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid told me in our recent "Salon Talks" conversation. “It is difficult," Reid said, "because you understand the country has never loved us, right?” Her new book "Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America" focuses on that relationship, by way of the love story between civil rights activist Medgar Evers and his wife Myrlie Evers-Williams, tragically cut short in June 1963 by a white supremacist's bullet. Medgar Evers was shot dead in his own driveway in Jackson, Mississippi, as he returned home from registering voters.

Reid tells us not just us the relatively familiar Medgar Evers story, but also explores how his activist career impacted Myrlie — who is still with us today, at age 90 — and their relationship. Reid interviewed Myrlie Evers-Williams and others who knew them for this book, and even discusses such painful subjects as family quarrels over the persistent and justified concern that Medgar was risking his life, and the couple teaching their children what to do if they heard gunshots outside, fired by the hardcore bigots who would stop at nothing to preserve white supremacy.

One big takeaway Reid hopes readers will bring from "Medgar and Myrlie" is that the struggle for equality for all Black Americans and others is far from over — as are the threats of violence from those who support white supremacy. Reid told me she has been subject to countless threats and angry emails filled with “the N-word” from “people who actually weirdly signed their name in the email.” She defiantly added, “You accept that as part of the platform that you are blessed with, and you're so thankful you can speak for not just your people but this country, and to make this country a better place.”

We also discussed the 2024 election and the startling fact that Donald Trump could attempt a coup, incite the Jan. 6 attack, and at this moment remains free and is a leading candidate for president. Reid contrasted this with how difficult it was to bring Medgar Evers' killer to justice, noting that it took “30-some-odd years it took to convict Byron De La Beckwith, when everyone knew that he assassinated Medgar Evers in front of his own house and in front of his kids, and bragged about it for 30 years.” In contrast, Black Americans accuse of crimes are swiftly prosecuted — even when they're innocent. As Reid put it, “There are two Americas.”

Despite that brutal double standard, Reid is eager to protect our fragile democracy from Donald Trump. “The threat of autocracy is real," she said. "This is a young country; there's really no guarantee.” Reid said she believes her role in the media is to call that out as loudly as possible, while reminding all of us of the painful and complicated “love story” between our nation and her own community.

You can watch my full "Salon Talks" discussion with Reid here or read a transcript from our conversation below, lightly edited for length and clarity.

First and foremost, you describe this book as a love story. What drew you to this and why did you want to make the love story the focus?

The thing that made me want to write the book is Myrlie Evers-Williams. I had interviewed her before on “AM Joy,” but remotely. Finally in 2018, I got a chance to interview her in person. We flew out to California, and that was my first time actually meeting her. We had this conversation after the segment that struck me and it stayed with me for more than a year, before I really decided what to write.

She started talking about Medgar, and she said, in her beautiful deep resonant voice, "Medgar Evers was the love of my life." But she was talking about him in such a present way that I was like, "Ms. Myrlie, he's been dead for more than 60 years. You're still talking about him like you're a giggly schoolgirl. This is incredible." She still is deeply in love with this man, and I've never really seen somebody with that intensity. Yeah, I love my husband. We love our spouses, we love our people, but she is so intense with it. I said to her, "You should write about this. I know you've written wonderful biographies, and you should write about this." She said, "I've written so many books."

A year or more went by and I was trying to decide what to write. I was at lunch with my book agent and I just thought to myself, "I don't want to write another Trump book right now. I did that." Wonderful, bestseller. Happy about it. But I wanted to write about something that I would actually enjoy as a human being. This love story just struck me as something people needed to know, that you couldn't be a great civil rights leader in that era without something to hold you down and ground you, and love is a great grounding.

There was something else, though. In the early part of the book, you said the book is a love story, not just about two Black people in Mississippi, but the story of a higher love: what it took for Black Americans to love America and fight for it. There's such a complicated relationship between Black America, loving this country, and being so dehumanized through time. How do you navigate that? How do people navigate that in your community?

It is difficult because you understand the country has never loved us. I mean, it was legal to kill Black people up until probably the 1970s. You did not see white people, particularly in the South, convicted for killing Black people. It was like "The Purge." White people knew that they had the ability to let off steam by lynching a man, woman or child who was Black simply for sassing a white woman, reckless eyeballing, basically looking at a white person in a way they didn't like. Even a child could treat an adult man as if they were a child and call them by their first name. You wouldn't be called “Mr.” or “Mrs.” You'd be called........

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