Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an American
civil rights activist from Mississippi who worked to overturn
segregation at the
University of Mississippi and enact
social justice and
voting rights. He was murdered by a
white supremacist and
Klansman.
A
World War II veteran and college graduate, he became active in the
Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. He became a field secretary for the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Following the 1954 ruling of the
United States Supreme Court in
Brown v. Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Evers worked to gain admission to the state-supported public University of Mississippi for
African Americans. He also worked for voting rights and registration, economic opportunity, access to public facilities, and other changes in the segregated society.
Evers was murdered by
Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the
White Citizens' Council, a group formed in 1954 to resist the
integration of schools and civil rights activism. As a veteran, Evers was buried with
full military honors at
Arlington National Cemetery. His murder and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music and film.
All-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the first two trials of Beckwith. He was convicted in a new state trial in 1994, based on new evidence.
Myrlie Evers, widow of the activist, became a noted activist in her own right, serving as national chair of the NAACP. His brother
Charles Evers was the first African-American mayor elected in Mississippi in the post-Reconstruction era when he won in 1969 in
Fayette.
