The Unknown Appointment

Have you ever made an appointment…hair, nails, doctor, vehicle, etc. and forgot about it? Or you forgot the time and had to try to find the email or text with the info? Or you even got to the day of the appointment, and the office/salon/business called you, because you didn’t show up for the something you scheduled?  Well, unfortunately, I fall into all of these categories…lol!

But the other day, I re-read a familiar story that showed me another thing about appointments: You can have an appointment and not know about it…

And not because you made it, but time did. I’ll explain. 

Most people are familiar with Medgar Evers, civil rights activist, Mississippi’s first field secretary of the NAACP, World War II veteran, son, husband, and father.  Not only that, he was hope and a hero to many, but not all.  And to speak to that point, on June 12, 1963, he was killed in his own driveway and didn’t even make it through the front door to greet his children, who anxiously awaited his arrival.  The person who took Myrlie Evers' (his wife) soulmate and their children’s excitement away, was a man by the name of Byron De La Beckwith.

Byron was a Caucasian man who wasn’t quiet about his hatred for black people. What worked for him, was the state that he lived in wasn’t either.  This horrible, yet unified feeling is what caused him to go free after two trials, and a third one that was supposed to happen, but somehow never did.  Each trial had jurors who shared Beckwith’s color and sentiment because the ones who looked like Medgar Evers were never called.  Even the governor showed up in support of Beckwith's horrific, but common (at that time) behavior.

This was 1963 Mississippi. Let’s fast forward…2 trials, 1 that never happened, and 31 years later…now it’s 1994.

Byron De La Beckwith found himself back in a courtroom for the very thing he'd done 31 years earlier.  This time, the courtroom looks a little different. Actually, the country looks different and now there is produced evidence that proves the earlier trials had been arranged to ensure his freedom. But what I noticed when reading the story this time, was that the trial in ’94, was an appointment that had been made without his knowledge.

Time had penciled in an appointment for Beckwith that he had nothing to do with. And thus, he couldn’t stop it from happening.  This appointment held him accountable for what he wouldn’t admit to, years prior.  This appointment truly depicted him to the world, exactly who he was and what he’d done.

You see, Beckwith had lived 31 years free and living life. The Evers family had lived the same 31 years hoping for justice.  But what Myrlie Evers and her children didn’t know, was that time had already scheduled their "due date". And the same goes for you and me.

It may not be a murder, but it could be an assassination of your character, the burying of your self-esteem, the abuse of your heart, the shunning of the evolved and matured you, the defamation of your intent, or even more hurtful, the forgetfulness of how you showed up for someone and how good you were to them.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you may or may not ever see another person’s consequences when it comes to you, but you have to know that they exist and will show up in sooooooo many forms.

However, in the case of Myrlie Evers, she fought for what she knew was due to her husband’s name and legacy, as well as the father of her children's memory.  She had to physically labor to get the law to “settle” an account that was never paid.  When it comes to those in our lives, we have to rest and know that you really reap what you sow.

Here’s the thing…it looks like a person is living free. It looks like someone is “getting away with murder”.  It looks like, you’ve lost.  But as you can see, even in Beckwith’s situation, time made an appointment for him at 73 years old, without...his...permission.

On February 5, 1994, Byron De La Beckwith had to show up for his very own, “Unknown…Appointment”.

Consequences aren’t prejudiced…but when time makes your appointment?  You have to show up whether you want to or not. Why?  Because it’s specific to you. No one else can stand in your stead.

Whewwwww…that kind of just hit me…what a reality…

We all have to show up for our own appointment when time is the scheduler.  Let that sink in! And so did he...73 years old...standing in front of a judge and now a jury that finally includes people that look like Medgar Evers. He didn't walk out free this time, but he walked out handcuffed and lived the rest of his days with others who'd already had their appointment.

Time has a way of teaching you, molding you, shaping you, being good to you, creating you, healing you, evolving you, maturing you, passing you by, and also, scheduling you.

Make sure that you sow well, in order to reap well. You just don’t know how time determines its appointments. However, just a bit of advice: Don’t spend your life, trying to schedule other people that you feel “owe” you. 

The Unknown Appointment is inevitable. Time will take care of it.

You may or may not see it, but trust that “Father Time” is good at His job!

He’s the ultimate…scheduler.

Black History Stories. (2026, February19). “Her children were crawling on the floor when she opened the front door.  What she saw that night in 1963 is something now wife, no mother, should ever have to see.”. [Facebook Post]. www.facebook.com/blackhistorystories