Medgar Evers
On June 12, 1963, NAACP State Field Secretary, Medgar Wiley Evers, Was Shot In The Back By A Single-Round From A High-Powered Rifle, In The Driveway Of His Jackson, Mississippi Home. He Died An Hour Later.
Medgar Evers Was The First Major Black Civil Rights Leader To Be Murdered During The 1960's. The Deaths Of Malcolm X And Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Soon Follow.
For 10 Years He Was Involved Civil Rights Causes, Including A Boycott Campaign Against White Merchants And Was Instrumental In Eventually Desegregating The University of Mississippi, When That Institution Was Finally Forced To Enroll James Meredith In 1962.
In The Weeks Prior To His Death, Evers Had Received Numerous Death Threats --- Largely Due To His Investigation Into The Murder Of Black Teen, Emmett Till, And His Vocal Support Of Clyde Kennard, Who After Several Unsuccessful Attempts To Enroll At Mississippi Southern College, Was Framed By School Authorities And Arrested For The Possession Of Liquor.
Evers' Assassin, Ku Klux Klan Member, Byron De La Beckwith, Was Tried Twice Before Being Convicted Of The Murder In 1994 (30 Years Later). De La Beckwith Died In Prison In 2001.
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
