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The Murder Of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers And The 30 Year Wait To Convict His Killer

Updated: Jun 12


Shortly after midnight on June 12, 1963 — 61 years ago today — civil rights organizer Medgar Evers pulled into his driveway in Jackson, Miss.

He stepped out of his Oldsmobile carrying shirts that read "Jim Crow Must Go."

Then, from about 40 yards away, a sniper fired a single shot from a high-powered rifle at Evers' silhouette.


His wife and children, who had been waiting up for him, found him bleeding to death on the doorstep. “I opened the door, and there was Medgar at the steps, face down in blood,” Myrlie Evers remembered in People magazine. “The children ran out and were shouting, ‘Daddy, get up!”‘

Evers passed away at the hospital fifty minutes later at the age of 37. Initially denied entry due to his race, Evers' family provided identification, leading to his admission. This made him the first black man to be admitted to an all-white hospital in Mississippi.

Bob Dylan would write the song "Only a Pawn in Their Game" in response to the murder.


The bullet struck Evers from the rear with significant impact, causing a sizable cavity in his back before traversing his chest and penetrating the outer wall of the residence. Subsequently, the bullet traversed a kitchen partition, ricocheted off a refrigerator, and came to rest within a cabinet.

Evers, who used to be escorted home by FBI and police cars, arrived at his house on the morning of his death without any protection. The absence of his usual security detail was not explained by the FBI or local police. It has been suggested that many officers at the time were affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan.



Just hours before, President John F. Kennedy had spoken about the Civil Rights Movement on television. Now, one of its key figures had been killed - murdered by a Klan member who would not face justice for over three decades.


During his funeral in Jackson, even violent police actions could not suppress the anger felt by the numerous black mourners.

White policemen wear hardhats and carry double-barrelled shotguns as they block mourners demonstrating at the funeral of slain civil rights activist Medgar Evers, Jackson, June 15, 1963.

The activist

Evers incited the anger of individuals advocating white supremacy through his meticulous scrutiny of the racially-motivated lynchings of African American men in Mississippi. Additionally, Evers assumed a covert identity, donning overalls to delve into the circumstances surrounding the tragic demise of Emmett Till. Till, a 14-year-old, met a tragic end on August 28, 1955, in Money, Mississippi, following allegations that he had whistled at a white woman in a local store. Subsequently, Till fell victim to abduction and brutal murder at the hands of a white mob, who callously bound barbed wire and a heavy gin fan around his neck before disposing of his lifeless body in the Tallahatchie River.


Evers knew that his civil rights work could get him killed in Mississippi.

“His public investigations into the murder of Emmett Till and his vocal support of [civil rights pioneer] Clyde Kennard left him vulnerable to attack,” according to the NAACP.


One of Evers' notable acts of activism occurred when he submitted an application to attend the law school at the racially segregated University of Mississippi. Following the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional, Evers collaborated with the NAACP to monitor the implementation of the new legislation.


Regrettably, Evers faced rejection solely based on his race. However, he persistently led a protracted effort to desegregate the university, thus laying the groundwork for forthcoming generations of African American students.



Always in danger

Evers' growing stature as a Black leader attracted hostility from white supremacists.

"Medgar became No. 1 on the Mississippi to-kill list," his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, told NPR in 2013.

"And we never knew from one day to the next what would happen. I lived in fear of losing him. He lived being constantly aware that he could be killed at any time."

Despite receiving violent threats, Evers often spoke of his affection for home. In 1958, he wrote a magazine article titled "Why I Live in Mississippi."

"It may sound funny, but I love the South," Evers wrote. "I don't choose to live anywhere else. ... There is room here for my children to play and grow and become good citizens if the white man will let them."


After organising a sit-in at the F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in Jackson, Evers's house was firebombed on May 28, 1963. Protesters were attacked and covered in catsup and mustard, as reported by the Holland Evening Sentinel newspaper.

In this June 15, 1963, file photo, mourners march to the Jackson, Miss., funeral home following services for slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Just five days prior to Evers's death, a car attempted to strike him as he departed the NAACP office in Jackson. Evers reassured fellow activists who were worried about the safety of civil rights leaders.

“You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.”

In a speech televised on NBC News, Evers urged black people demanding equal rights in Jackson to boycott white merchants.

“Don’t shop for anything on Capitol Street. Let the merchants on Capitol Street feel the economic pinch. Let me say this to you. I had one merchant to call me,” Evers said. “He said, ‘I want you to know I talked to my national office today, and they told me to tell you, “We don’t need nigger business.” ’ The stores that support the White Citizens Council, the council that is dedicated to keeping you and I second-class citizens — let us not trade at these stores. Let’s urge our friends, our relatives, our neighbours not to trade at these stores. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we will be demonstrating until freedom comes to Jackson, Mississippi.”



The NAACP honoured Medgar Evers posthumously with the 1963 Spingarn medal, a fitting recognition for his significant contributions to the organization and the ultimate sacrifice he made for its cause.

At the funeral for Medgar Evers, his wife, Myrlie Evers (second right), comforts their son, Darryl Kenyatta Evers, while daughter Reena Denise Evers (center, in white dress) wipes her own tears in Jackson, Miss., on June 18, 1963.

The governor of Mississippi and various all-white newspapers provided incentives for details on Evers's killer, but only a small number of individuals provided information. Nonetheless, an FBI inquiry identified Byron de la Beckwith as a suspect. Beckwith was known for his strong opposition to integration and for being a founding member of Mississippi's White Citizens Council.


Byron de la Beckwith

A firearm with Beckwith's fingerprint was discovered 150 feet away from where the shooting occurred. Multiple witnesses testified to seeing Beckwith in Evers's neighborhood on that evening. Beckwith refuted the accusation of shooting Evers, stating that his gun had been stolen days prior to the incident. He also presented witnesses, including a police officer, who testified in court that Beckwith was approximately 60 miles away from Evers's residence on the night of the murder.


Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman, was arrested 10 days later. According to an FBI report, he “had been asking around to find out the location of Evers’s home for some time prior to the shooting.”

Twice in 1964, an all-white jury deadlocked on the charges.

“In two separate trials, local prosecutors presented a strong case,” according to an FBI report. “A number of police, FBI experts, and others testified on different parts of the evidence against Beckwith. But this was the 1960s, and in both trials, all-white juries did not reach a verdict. Beckwith went free.”

Mourners saying farewell to slain NAACP official Medgar Evers at his funeral.

In 1989, the case was reopened by prosecutors after evidence surfaced in the Clarion-Ledger newspaper revealing that the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, a clandestine pro-segregation agency, had assisted Beckwith's lawyers in selecting jurors during the trial.



Additionally, during the trial, Evers' body was exhumed for an autopsy. Despite being embalmed, his body was remarkably well-preserved, allowing his son to see his father's remains for the first time in three decades.

More than three decades after Evers' assassination, Beckwith was convicted of murder on February 5, 1994, and received a life sentence. He passed away in prison in 2002 at the age of 80.


The gun he used in the killing of a civil rights icon was exhibited at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. In 1997, De La Beckwith challenged his conviction for the Evers case, but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld it, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it. He died in prison at the age of 80 on January 21, 2001.

 


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