Medgar Evers, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Medgar Evers

African-American civil rights activist

Date of Birth: 02-Jul-1925

Place of Birth: Decatur, Mississippi, United States

Date of Death: 12-Jun-1963

Profession: politician, human rights activist

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Cancer


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About Medgar Evers

  • Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist in Mississippi, the state's field secretary for the NAACP, and a World War II veteran who had served in the United States Army.
  • He worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities for African Americans, which included the enforcement of voting rights. A college graduate, Evers became active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s.
  • Following the 1954 ruling of the United States Supreme Court in Brown v.
  • Board of Education that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, Evers challenged the segregation of the state-supported public University of Mississippi, applying to law school there.
  • He also worked for voting rights, economic opportunity, access to public facilities, and other changes in the segregated society.
  • Evers was awarded the 1963 NAACP Spingarn Medal. Evers was assassinated in 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council in Jackson, Mississippi.
  • This group was formed in 1954 in Mississippi 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; his life and these events inspired numerous works of art, music, and film.
  • All-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the first two trials of Beckwith in the 1960s.
  • He was convicted in 1994 in a new state trial based on new evidence. Medgar's widow, Myrlie Evers, became a noted activist in her own right, serving as national chair of the NAACP.
  • His brother Charles Evers was the first African American to be elected as mayor of a city in Mississippi in the post-Reconstruction era; he won the office in 1969 in Fayette.

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