Born in Decatur, MS on July 2nd 1925, Medgar Wiley Evers was a civil rights activist and
the first field secretary in the South for the NAACP. James and Jesse Evers were his parents and his father was a farmer and sawmill worker. In 1943 Medgar was drafted into the military, and fought in France and Germany in WWII receiving an honorable discharge.
Initially after leaving the military he and his elder brother Charles attended Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, in his senior year at Alcorn Medgar met his future wife Myrlie Beasley and the following year they were married. Evers worked at an insurance agency until 1954, and helped form local chapters of the NAACP, as well as participated in protests with the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RNCL).
In 1954 he applied to the University of Mississippi Law School and after being rejected he attempted to integrate the school with the help of the NAACP. Later that year the Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional and Evers’ attempt to integrate the school impressed the NAACP. The NAACP made him the first field officer in Mississippi and he also investigated the 1955 lynching of 14 year old Emmett Till. This raised his profile and in the racially charged state of Mississippi he became a target of harassment and on June 12th 1963 lost his life. Evers was shot in the back in his driveway and died an hour later at a local hospital.
Mississippi holding true to their reputation convicted Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Evers 30 years later after an all white jury deadlocked on two separate occasions. Myrlie, Medgar’s wife, went on to become Chairwoman for the NAACP after his death.
