Evers' assassination stands starkly in opposition to Pete's elevator conversation with Hollis. I found the silences in that conversation most compelling, the moments when it seemed that Hollis had neither the time or the energy to explain to Pete how narrow his worldview really was, progressive though it may be compared to the rest of Sterling Cooper. "The idea is that everyone's going to have a house, a car, a television - the American Dream," Pete explains in his defense. The Eyes on the Prize clip shows what Pete fundamentally missed, what Hollis could not, or would not, express to him. The fight is about something deeper, more fundamental than that - Evers had the house and the car, those markers of success, and he was still gunned down in his driveway.
I'm torn about the show's use of Evers' death. The characters on Mad Men are so ensconced in their rarefied world, the general absence of any discussion of civil rights has come to seem authentic. However, when an event like this receives such sudden focus, it creates a sense of preceding actions being unimportant or even nonexistent. I love that Mad Men is introducing the civil rights movement into its conversation, and especially that tertiary black characters are becoming more vocal actors in Sterling Cooper and the Draper home. I just wish it felt more organic.
