Life
NAACP to honor Medgar Evers’ memory to mark 50 years after his assasination
Evers-Williams was chairperson of the national NAACP board from 1995 to 1998. She now teaches at Alcorn State University in south Mississippi.
She was presented with a new T-shirt emblazoned with “Jim Crow Must Go.” The same slogan was on a stack of T-shirts Medgar Evers was carrying when he was hit by a sniper’s bullet.
Byron de la Beckwith, a white man who sold fertilizer, was tried three times in Evers’ slaying. The first two trials in the 1960s ended in hung juries. In 1994, Beckwith was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. He died in prison in 2001.
Todd Jealous, who used to live in Mississippi, said Evers’ legacy won’t be forgotten, but people still need to actively protect human dignity and defend equal rights.
“Our children deserve to grow up in a country where their voting rights are protected,” Jealous said. “Our children deserve to grow up in a country where they are respected and supported, no matter what race or color.”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
